Contact
1 202-729-7675 jlash@wri.org
Alternate Contact Georgia Moyka Special Assistant to the President 1 202-729-7675 georgia@wri.org

Jonathan Lash has led the World Resources Institute as its President since 1993.

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Under his leadership, WRI has pioneered the use of digital technologies to solve environmental problems, engaged the business community in helping to foster development that is sustainable, and created new mechanisms to empower civil society groups.

Mr. Lash served as co‑chair of President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development, a group of U.S. government, business, labor, civil rights, and environmental leaders that developed visionary recommendations for strategies to promote sustainable development. At various times, he served as a member of advisory groups to the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Trade Representative.

A frequent writer about issues of sustainability, Mr. Lash recently published Business Advantage in a Warming World in the Harvard Business Review. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Generation Investment Management, the Advisory Council of the VIVA Trust, and the Board of Directors of the Avina Foundation. Additionally, Mr. Lash has served on a broad range of national and international groups, including: the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Round Table on Sustainable Development; the DuPont Biotechnology Advisory Panel; the Tata Energy and Resources Institute (India); the Keidanren Committee on Nature Conservation (Japan); the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development; the Pew Environmental Health Commission; and the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (Japan).

Before joining WRI, Mr. Lash directed the environmental law and policy program of the Vermont Law School, and headed the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. During his tenure in Vermont government, Mr. Lash helped write a score of innovative statutes on issues ranging from pollution prevention and solid waste management to protection of pristine streams.

A former Peace Corps volunteer and a former federal prosecutor, Mr. Lash also worked as a senior staff attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) from 1978 to 1985, litigating on issues related to public lands, federal coal leasing, strip mining, energy conservation, and synthetic fuels.