Elizabeth Cook
Executive Vice President for Governance & Development
Elizabeth Cook is Executive Vice President for Governance & Development at World Resources Institute. She works with WRI’s Global Board and staff to scale up the organization’s priority initiatives. This includes expanding philanthropic partnerships critical to WRI’s financial and programmatic success. She is also responsible for ensuring excellence in Board governance across WRI’s global network, which includes offices in 12 countries.
Prior to her current role, Liz directed WRI’s Sustainable Enterprise Program, which harnessed the power of business to create profitable solutions to environment and development challenges. She also led WRI’s interdisciplinary Climate Protection Initiative, which partnered with companies to identify policies and business strategies for achieving strong climate goals. Liz has advised numerous Fortune 500 companies on how to strengthen corporate sustainability commitments.
Liz is a member of the WRI Europe Board and served on the boards of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and Future Harvest – The Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture. She is also a women's apparel entrepreneur and Co-founder of Free Reign, which blends the latest advances in activewear, intimates and everyday wear, while striving for excellence in sustainability performance.
Prior to joining WRI, Liz led an international stratospheric ozone layer campaign for Friends of the Earth and worked on protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge at the Sierra Club. In September 2007, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded Liz its “Best of the Best Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award” in recognition of the most exceptional global contributions in the first two decades of the Montreal Protocol.