Prior to joining WRI, Douglas served as Head of Biodiversity Challenge Funds at the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), where he directed the strategic growth of a global portfolio of grants. to support biodiversity and the communities that live alongside it. Under his leadership, annual disbursements tripled, with redesigned governance structures ensuring equity, transparency, and measurable impact. He developed new evidence-based funding mechanisms, and championed inclusive and localized approaches to challenges facing biodiversity today.

Previously, Douglas was a Senior Climate Investment Lead at the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), where he managed some UK's mitigation focussed climate finance investments, including designing a major new programme to accelerate greener construction in emerging markets in partnership with the International Finance Corporation. He also played a role in managing the UK's interests in the multilateral Clean Technology Fund (Climate Investment Fund), the Mitigation Facility, and in the establishment of the NDC Partnership to advance the Paris Agreement.

With a background in international biodiversity initiatives with non-governmental organisations, primarily BGCI, and Douglas has worked closely with partners in Africa, Latin America, and Asia to publish evidence, develop policies, secure support, and implement nature-based solutions.

Douglas holds a Master's degree in Forestry and its Relation to Land Use from Oxford University and an undergraduate degree in Tropical Environmental Science from Aberdeen University.