Candace Chandra is a leading voice in regenerative agriculture, water security, and natural capital finance, bridging the gap between on-the-ground restoration and institutional capital allocation. Her career began with a decade of high impact roles at the World Bank and United Nations focusing on post-conflict reconstruction and circular infrastructure. She subsequently spent eight years as an impact investment fund manager, structuring deals for sustainable development in water, waste, food, and logistics. Recognizing a critical lack of on-the-ground proof of concept, Candace dedicated the last seven years to validating these models personally, restoring nature at properties across the United States using natural infrastructure and launching a specialty botanicals enterprise to demonstrate the tangible economic potential of native grasslands and agroforestry. Building on this comprehensive track record of policy, finance, and operations, Candace is launching Cardinal Legacy Asset Management to mobilize family office and institutional capital for scalable bioeconomy solutions.
In addition to her investment work, Candace served as a university lecturer, teaching classes at Princeton University, the University of Texas at Dallas, and the University of California at Irvine. She remains deeply engaged in global governance as a regional champion for the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit and as a certified stakeholder for the upcoming UN Water Conference. Candace holds a BA from the University of Texas at Austin and an MS from Tulane University.