Environmental Leader James Gustave Speth to join Demos as a Distinguished Senior Fellow

New York — Demos is please to announce that James Gustave ("Gus") Speth is joining Demos as its eighth Distinguished Senior Fellow. Speth comes to Demos after serving as Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies from 1999-2009. Previously, he was Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and chair of the UN Development Group. Earlier, he was founder and president of the World Resources Institute; professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center; chairman of the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality; and senior attorney and co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Speth has given important public service on environmental issues throughout his career, including leadership on the President's Task Force on Global Resources and Environment; the Western Hemisphere Dialogue on Environment and Development; and the National Commission on the Environment. Among his awards are the National Wildlife Federation's Resources Defense Award; the Natural Resources Council of America's Barbara Swain Award of Honor; a Special Recognition Award from the Society for International Development; the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Environmental Law Institute; and the Blue Planet Prize. His publications include The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability; Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment; Worlds Apart: Globalization and the Environment; Global Environmental Governance, and articles in Foreign Affairs; Environmental Science and Technology; Columbia Journal World of Business, and other journals and books.

While at Demos, Speth will continue to write and speak extensively on environmental issues as well as lead several new Demos initiatives on sustainable economics. Demos President Miles Rapoport said he was "extremely pleased and honored to announce Gus Speth's appointment in our fellows program. Gus's esteemed and effective career as a lawyer, advocate, educator, and author has been pivotal in many key struggles and important successes on environmental issues. We are proud to have the opportunity to work with him now to develop a more sustainable vision of progress linking environmental protection to systemic economic change."

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