Our Team

Margarita Astralaga is the former Director of the Environment, Climate, Gender and Social Inclusion Division (ECG) at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and until recently she was the vice-chair of the Board of Directors for the Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network.

Previously she worked for UNEP, the World Bank, IDB, the CITES Secretariat, the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, IUCN and the Colombian Environmental Government Agency.

Diane is Executive is Executive Vice President and a member of the Senior Management Team at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

Dan Cao is a Programme Officer at Oak Foundation, which she joined in 2017.  Prior to that, Dan worked as a Conservation Performance Manager at World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) from January 2007 to June 2017.

Akanksha Khatri is Head of Nature Action Agenda at the World Economic Forum. In this role she has led the New Nature Economy Reports Series, advocating how to integrate the issue of nature and biodiversity in economic decision making. Prior to this, she worked as Lead on Government Engagement for India and South Asia followed by an extended remit as Chief of Staff and Head of Strategy and Performance for the Forum’s Regional and Government Engagement globally.

Caroline is the Global Manager for the Purposeful Business Challenge at Porticus. Previously, she worked for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development focused on SME development and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for their Donor Government Relations team in London. Her current work is focused on enabling businesses to be a greater force for good, while ensuring there is accountability for their actions and performance, particularly around biodiversity and nature topics.

Johan Rockström is Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Professor in Earth System Science at the University of Potsdam. He is also co-Chair of the Earth Commission and an internationally recognized scientist on global sustainability issues. Rockström is a leading scientist on global water resources, with more than 25 years experience in applied water research in tropical regions, and more than 150 research publications in fields ranging from applied land and water management to global sustainability.

Dr. Naoko Ishii is a professor and executive vice president at the University of Tokyo, where she is also the inaugural director for the Center for Global Commons, whose mission is to catalyze systems change so that humans can achieve sustainable development within planetary boundaries. She believes academia can and should play an active role in mobilizing movements towards shared goals of nurturing stewardship of the global commons. Before joining the university, Dr. Ishii was CEO and chairperson of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) from 2012-2020.

Dr. Chakraborty is a globally recognized risk and behavioral scientist and expert on global risks ranging from climate change to COVID-19. She is a trusted authority on proactive preparedness to mitigate against the impacts of climate change, motivated by the need for clear, credible, evidence-based communication.

She is the president of U.S. operations for We Don’t Have Time and a partner at Pioneer Public Affairs.

Mark is CEO of the Capitals Coalition. Previously he led the Natural Capital Coalition and was on the board of the Social and Human Capital Coalition. He championed and delivered the bringing together of these two communities, creating a unified, systemic, collaborative approach.

Mark has worked extensively in the private sector, leading programs and strategy for The Crown Estate and Reed Elsevier (now RELX), as well as advising many more. Among other board and advisory positions, Mark is on the Board for The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity.

Dr. Mahmood is a Professor of Planetary Health at Sunway University. A medical professional with more than two decades of experience managing health crises in disasters and conflict settings, her previous appointments include: Under Secretary General for Partnerships at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; Chief of the World Humanitarian Summit secretariat at the
United Nations; and Chief of the Humanitarian Response Branch at the United Nations Population Fund.

In 2020, she was appointed a Senior Fellow of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Centre to help reach the goal of making one billion people more resilient to climate change, migration, and human security challenges by 2030. She was also the Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia on Public Health, a member of the Government of Malaysia’s Economic Action Council and
Climate Action Council, and most notably the founder of MERCY Malaysia, a Southern-based international humanitarian organisation.

Dr. Mahmood has received numerous international and national awards including the ASEAN Award in 2019 and the Merdeka Award in 2015 for excellent contribution to community development in Malaysia and the region. Her international awards include the prestigious Isa Award for Services to Humanity in 2013 from the Kingdom of Bahrain, often referred to as the “Nobel peace prize equivalent in the Gulf”. For her contributions in disaster risk reduction, poverty alleviation and peace advocacy, Dr Mahmood was also awarded the Gandhi, King, Ikeda Award by Morehouse College USA (Martin Luther King Chapel) in 2006.

David Akana is currently the Director of Programs at Mongabay, overseeing the organization’s expansion in Africa. Before joining Mongabay, David worked at the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the African Union Commission, and CORAF. He holds advanced degrees in business, international relations, and mass communications. Over the past decade, David has been actively involved in driving innovative environmental journalism initiatives in the Congo Basin and around the world. Currently, David is a co-chair of the Strategic Communications Group of the UN Oceans Decade and a member of the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Advisory Group on Ocean Communications. Previously, he was an Advisory Committee Member for the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Journalism Fund and an Editorial Committee Member for Our Planet on Earth Report 2020.

Jane Madgwick, BSc MSc, is an ecologist and author with 30 years of experience of working internationally on the science, policy and practice of wetlands and water management. She became the first Executive Director of the Global Commons Alliance in May 2023. Previously Jane worked for Wetlands International, as well as WWF International and WWF Australia. As CEO of Wetlands International for 19 years, she led network of 20 offices operating mostly in the global south. This work helped to bring the values of wetlands into the global agenda and to mobilise communities, companies, governments and cities to conserve and restore wetland landscapes for biodiversity, human well-being and reduced climate risks. Jane is committed to build partnerships and dialogues to enable urgent action for an environmentally safe and socially just future.

Wendy Broadgate is Executive Director of the Earth Commission and Global Hub Director, Sweden of Future Earth, which hosts the Earth Commission Secreatariat.  Wendy leads the Future Earth team which produces policy briefs for the UN processes for biodiversity (CBD), Climate (UNFCCC) as well as Future Earth’s contribution to the landmark United in Science report for the UN Climate Action Summit in 2019. Wendy has two decades of experience in strategy development, international sustainability research coordination and synthesis, communications and the science-policy interface. She holds a PhD in marine chemistry and has spent much of her career in global change research, publishing on the Anthropocene, Earth system science and ocean-atmosphere interactions. She was Deputy Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) for 15 years and director of the The Fisheries Secretariat, a non-profit working towards sustainable fisheries in Europe. At IGBP she was strategic lead on projects such as ocean acidification, the IGBP great acceleration and the Planet Under Pressure Conference, making an impact in scientific synthesis, the Anthropocene concept and policy engagement.

Erin is Executive Director at Science Based Targets Network (SBTN), leading both global communications and strategic initiatives. With over a dozen years of experience in conservation and consulting, Erin previously worked at Tompkins Conservation at Bain & Company. As Principal at Blu Skye, she developed environmental strategy for NGOs, corporations, and industry alliances.

Erin holds an MBA in Sustainable Business and the Environment from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Rachel is Co-Director of Systems Change Lab, hosted by the World Resources Institute and the Bezos Earth Fund. Prior to joining WRI, Rachel facilitated strategy and partnerships at the We Mean Business Coalition (WMBC), enabling the coalition’s unique collaborative approach to impact via ambition loops of bold climate action among business and policy leaders.  Before WMBC, Rachel was as a systems and sustainability consultant in the U.S., Asia and Europe, and had the chance to work with some of the biggest brands in the world to shape their sustainability agendas for over a decade.

Rachel is a graduate of Forum for the Future’s School of Systems Change and holds a B.A. in Communication and Music from Loyola Marymount University.

Tim is Executive Director of Earth HQ. Prior to this he was the President of the National Geographic Society and an Emmy Award-winning producer. As President of the National Geographic Society, Tim transitioned the magazine into a global multimedia force, engineering the launch of the National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Films and a wide array of digital media platforms.

Tim serves on the boards of the Great Plains Conservation Trust, the American Prairie Reserve and Mongabay.

Natasha Matic is Executive Director of the Accountability Accelerator. Prior to this she was Chief Strategy Officer of the King Khalid Foundation (KKF), a leading philanthropic institution in Saudi Arabia working to create equal economic opportunities. Through her leadership, Natasha spearheaded the Foundation into an era of strategic philanthropy, an era that emphasizes innovation and a systems-change approach to solving inequalities in partnership with businesses, government, and the global philanthropic community.

Previously, through her consulting practice, Natasha worked with both for-profit and non-profit organizations to embed ethical, social, and governance (ESG) accountability into their organizational DNA through strategy development and impact-focused solutions. Natasha holds a Ph.D. in Economic and Political Studies from Boston University and a Degree in Business Excellence from the Columbia Business School. She holds an International Law Degree from Belgrade University. Natasha is a Member of AccountAbility’s Sustainability Standards Board, MIT’s Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship Advisory Board, and is the Foundation20 Steering Committee Member.

Gerard is GCA’s Events and Partnerships Lead. He is a passionate sustainability changemaker and connector. Having worked in the banking, building materials and not-for–profit sectors in multiple countries, he leverages on all these experiences to convince key decision makers in applying a holistic systems-thinking approach in elaborating and executing strategies for a more sustainable future.

For 10 years, Gerard led the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) business engagement strategy and activities. Gerard and his team worked across many sectors and topics and contributed to key developments in this space such as the Natural Capital Protocol, offset policies, Protocol for Biodiversity Net Gain, sectoral business guidelines and more recently articulating the role of finance in contributing to nature positive activities and delivering nature-based solutions at scale.

Prior to that he was with Holcim in Europe, the USA and Africa, mainly in Procurement and Logistics. He representied Holcim in WBCSD’s Vision 2050 (World Business Council for Sustainable Development) and CSI (Cement Sustainability Initiative). Gerard also has a supoer power: he speaks five languages fluently and thrives in multicultural environments.

In addition to his role at GCA he is part of InTent.

Zoe advises the Global Commons Alliance on strategic communications and campaigns. She has over 20 years of experience working in the non-profit community including as Founder and Director of CDP, North America; Commications Director for Mission 2020, and as a special advisor to Global Optimism. She’s a ghost writer for climate influencers and collaborative projects, like the Guidebook for Radical Collaboration to Accelerate Climate Action and bestselling book – The Future We Choose, and supports several strategic climate campaigns from behind the scenes.

Clare leads on digital content strategy and social media for Global Commons Alliance. She has worked in climate communications for over 15 years, including as Head of Content for The Climate Group, Digital Content Editor for the Commonwealth Secretariat and running social campaigns for the agency Greenhouse. She also regularly volunteers for NGOs, including climate activism through Parents For Future, urban food growing with Incredible Edible and strategic social media for community renewable energy projects. 

Mark Kiprotich is the Finance Lead at Global Commons Alliance. He brings over eight years experience in non profit finance and grants management in the conservation sector. In his role at GCA, he leads organizational budgeting, financial management and supports fundraising initiatives. Prior to joining GCA, he served in various finance roles at Conservation International Foundation, The Nature Conservancy and African Wildlife Foundation. Mark holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and an  Accounting Diploma. He is currently based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Heather is a vice president in Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisor’s San Francisco team and leads the practice area of Environment and Climate Change. This portfolio includes a range of sponsored projects and donor collaboratives as well as advisory engagements, research and publications. She also leads the Shifting Systems initiative that encourages funders to place longer-term, more adaptive resources with grantees who are tackling systemic challenges from the local to the global level. Heather has served as an adjunct professor at the China Global Philanthropy Institute and frequently publishes on philanthropy.

Trevor Pollack is Advisor for Sponsored Projects & Funds at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and manages projects focused on the environment and climate change. He brings rich experience in grantmaking, fundraising, and organizational development across a range of disciplines, including work on funder collaboratives and equitable philanthropic practice.

Camille is Program Coordinator at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors where she works closely with the Sponsored Projects & Funds team of advisors, grants managers, and fellow project coordinators where she supports a portfolio of projects spanning a variety of issue areas including women and girls, human rights, and the environment. In addition to providing client service for projects’ operational needs, she handles grantmaking activities and payment requests, and manages the review and execution of contracts.