Experts & Staff

Craig Hanson is Director of WRI’s People & Ecosystems Program, which seeks to reverse the rapid degradation of ecosystems and assure their capacity to provide humans with needed goods and services. He has helped launch a number of WRI projects including the Forest Legality Alliance, Project POTICO, and Southern Forests for the Future. In addition, he developed and launched WRI’s Ecosystem Services Initiative. He is the lead author of Southern Forests for the Future, the Corporate Ecosystem Service Review, the Corporate Guide to Green Power Markets series, and the Tax Reform, Energy and the Environment series (with The Brookings Institution).

Prior to becoming Director, Craig managed the Green Power Market Development Group-US and launched the Green Power Market Development Group-Europe. Prior to joining WRI, he was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company for five years in the United States and Europe.

Craig earned an MSc in Environmental Change & Management from Oxford University, with a concentration in conservation biology and forestry. While at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, he earned an MA in Philosophy, Politics, & Economics with an emphasis on environmental economics. He has a BA from Georgetown University.