Simon Zadek is a Senior Fellow at the Paulson Institute. Simon brings a wealth of expertise in sustainable finance and nature-positive solutions that will support the Institute’s mission to address the global biodiversity crisis. His deep experience in advancing innovative financial strategies will further strengthen the Institute’s capabilities in tackling the critical challenge of closing the biodiversity financing gap.
Simon is a globally recognized leader in sustainable finance, known for his groundbreaking work aligning financial systems with environmental, climate, and broader societal objectives. Simon’s leadership has helped shape the global conversation on nature and finance, fostering innovative financing solutions to systemic challenges. He founded and was until recently the co-CEO of NatureFinance, a Swiss-based non-profit organization dedicated to aligning financial flows with equitable nature-positive outcomes, where he remains a Senior Advisor.
Simon is a Senior Advisor to the Task Force on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures and is a member of the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits. He was co-director of the ground-breaking UNEP Finance Inquiry. He served as the UN Secretary-General in steering the Taskforce on Digital Financing for the SDGs. He also ran the G20 workstream on green finance under the Chinese, German, and Argentinian presidencies. Simon has published extensively, including the award-winning book The Civil Corporation and, more recently, the Time to Plan for a World Beyond 1.5C pamphlet. He has held positions at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management, the University of South Africa, the Singapore Management University, and the Copenhagen Business School.