Manish Bapna is President and Chief Executive Officer of NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), one of the world’s largest and most influential environmental organizations. With more than 700 attorneys, scientists, advocates and policy experts, as well as three million supporting members, NRDC is confronting the interlocking climate, health, nature and inequity crises facing the world today.

During his 25-year career prior to NRDC, Bapna’s leadership roles have focused on scaling solutions at the intersection of the environment and human development. Most recently, he served as Executive Vice President and Managing Director of the World Resources Institute (WRI). Over his 14-year tenure, WRI increased its impact and reach, with staff and budget expanding sixfold. Bapna played the lead role in establishing WRI offices in China, India, and Brazil. He was a key architect of several influential, multi-stakeholder initiatives, and helped launch programs on cities, energy, finance, and adaptation.

An economist by training, Bapna became the Executive Director of the Bank Information Center (BIC) in 2003, a nonprofit that works to protect the rights of local communities and the environment from the negative impacts of projects and policies financed by development banks. He was inspired to join BIC after serving as a senior economist at the World Bank, where he designed and implemented water, forestry and rural development projects in Asia and Latin America, several of which received international recognition and were highly rated in independent evaluations. Prior to that, he was a strategy consultant for McKinsey & Company in the financial services and technology industries.

Bapna has testified before Congress on international sustainability issues and holds affiliations with international environmental bodies. He holds master’s degrees in business and political and economic development from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from MIT.