Meet Our Speakers

For over 30 years, Dr. McNeill served as a leader in the United Nations to build innovative multi-sector partnerships to solve global environmental challenges. Most recently, he founded and led the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative (IRI), an international alliance — convened by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) — to bring faith-based leadership to local, national and global efforts to end tropical deforestation. Previously, Dr. McNeill managed UNDP’s work on forests, biodiversity, climate change, sustainable energy, stakeholder engagement and public-private partnerships. In that capacity he founded and led catalytic global initiatives, including the UN-REDD Programme, the Equator Initiative, the global coalition that delivered the New York Declaration on Forests at the 2014 UN Climate Summit. He also served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Forests. Dr. McNeill received his Ph.D. in Genetics with a focus on conservation biology, from the University of California at Davis.