Naoko ISHII

Bio

Naoko Ishii Special Presidential Envoy for Global Commons, University of Tokyo Professor and Director of the Center for Global Commons Biography Naoko Ishii has dedicated her career to safeguarding the global commons - our stable and resilient earth system, that serves as the bedrock of human prosperity and yet is under threat by the current economic system. In her efforts to bring about a transformation in this system, she founded the Global Commons Dialogue, a multi-stakeholder platform in 2016 that eventually led to the formation of the Global Commons Alliance. She served the Global Environment Facility (GEF) as CEO and Chairperson from 2012 to 2020. In 2020, she joined the University of Tokyo and become an inaugurating director of the Center for Global Commons (CGC). CGC aims to build a multi-stakeholder coalition in Japan and forge partnerships with international allies such as PIK, SDSN, WRI and SYSTEMIQ, for catalyzing systems change. Currently she serves on the Board of the UN Foundation, ClimateWorks Foundation, Planetary Guardians, Emergent, and Global Pandemic Monitoring Board. She also serves the Advisory Board of Capitals Coalition and EAT Foundation. She is a member of the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance, China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), and Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW), Her career began in 1981 at the Ministry of Finance, Japan, where she focused on international finance and development. Subsequently she worked for the IMF (Uganda, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic) as well as the World Bank (Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Maldives). She also worked at the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID). Prior to her election as CEO of GEF in 2012, she held the position of Deputy Vice Minister at the Ministry of Finance. Dr. Ishii is a distinguished alumna of the University of Tokyo, holding both a BA in Economics and a PhD in International Studies. She has authored several books, two of which have received academic awards.