NICK DILKS co-founded EIP in 2006, and has over 24 years of experience in environmental offsets markets, land conservation, real estate investing, and private equity fund management. Prior to EIP, he served as the Vice President for Real Estate with The Conservation Fund. Over the decade he spent there, he completed some of TCF’s most complex and innovative transactions—helping TCF conserve over two million acres nationwide, worth $1 billion.

Nick’s early life on a family farm on the Chesapeake Bay inspired a passion for land and water conservation work. That passion is woven through his professional career at TCF, led him to co-found EIP, and guides his philanthropic efforts. He was a founding member of the Board of the Chesapeake Conservancy for ten years; in 2019, he helped found a new organization, the Forever Maryland Foundation, which supports land trust across the state. Nick holds an MBA from the University of Maryland and a BA in Environmental Science and Policy from Duke University.

Q&A with Nick Dilks

What does your role entail at EIP?

My goal is to empower our team to do their best work by helping them identify and execute on new investment opportunities, leading the capital formation process, facilitating key stakeholder relationships, and managing our senior leadership.

What interested you about this line of work?

I’ve been involved in land conservation, both professionally and as a volunteer, since I was 16. I’ve always been passionate about the intersection between economic development and environmental conservation. We founded EIP with that vision: creating an investment firm that could restore and protect the environment as a business while empowering other businesses, individuals and agencies to realize their conservation and economic development goals.