President & Board of Trustees

Prince William has long been an advocate for protecting our environment. He has led international efforts to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade through United for Wildlife, helped deliver an ivory ban in the UK and continues to support many global initiatives that focus on conservation.

He believes that the next ten years are critical in our fight to protect the planet. That’s why, in 2020, he launched The Earthshot Prize after two years of work with The Royal Foundation, to develop a landmark project supporting the global effort to protect and restore the environment.

Christiana Figueres was the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 2010 – 2016. During her tenure, Ms. Figueres brought together national and sub-national governments, corporations and activists, women’s groups, scientists and spiritual communities, financial institutions and NGOs to jointly deliver the historic 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change to limit future global warming to well below 2°C and strive for 1.5°C.

Since then, Ms. Figueres has continued to foster rapid action on climate change. She is the co-author of ‘The Future We Choose, The Stubborn Optimist’s Guide to the Climate Crisis’ and co-host of the popular podcast ‘Outrage and Optimism’. She also sits on the Boards of ACCIONA and ACCIONA Energía.

A graduate of Swarthmore College and the London School of Economics, she has been awarded multiple awards from the international press and civil society, and been granted numerous honorary doctorate degrees from academic institutions including Yale, University of Massachusetts, Georgetown and University of Edinburgh.

David Fein LVO has senior-level government, in-house, private practice, and not-for-profit experience, and a track record of forming and supporting public-private partnerships to support conservation and to fight financial crime.

He is Vice Chair of The Earthshot Prize, the most prestigious global environment prize in history, designed to incentivise change and help repair our planet over the next ten years and Co-Chair of United for Wildlife, a global network of public, private and not-for-profit sector partners working together to reveal, disrupt and prevent illegal wildlife trafficking. David is also a Board Trustee of The American Friends of The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales.

David served as Group General Counsel at Standard Chartered Bank; United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut under President Obama; Associate White House Counsel under President Clinton; and an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. David was a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School for ten years.

Rt. Hon. Dame Jacinda Ardern served as the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand (2017-2023), and is a passionate advocate for climate action.

Under her leadership, New Zealand introduced a Zero Carbon Act, established an independent Climate Commission, and the Centre for Climate Action on Agricultural Emissions. Dame Jacinda chaired her government’s cross-agency board on climate change, producing the nation’s first Emissions Reduction Plan. She played a key role in developing an agreement between government and food producers in New Zealand to price agricultural emissions – a world-leading initiative.

Dame Jacinda passionately believes in multi-stakeholder collaboration to tackle our toughest issues, whether it’s online radicalization, climate change or improving leadership. Alongside her work with Earthshot, Jacinda is currently the COP30 Special Envoy for Oceania; Patron of the Christchurch Call Foundation, and Founder of the Field Fellowship for Empathetic Leadership.

Tokunboh is an impact investor with over 20 years of experience spanning investment banking, private equity investing, technology, and business development in Africa, Europe, and North America.

She is co-founding and managing director of Alitheia Capital, a Nigerian-based investment management and advisory firm focused on channelling private equity into businesses to enhance access to finance, energy and housing for small and growing businesses, and low-income households.

Ms. Ishmael is a CFA Charter holder, an Alumnus of the London Business School and a Yale World Fellow. She currently sits on a number of boards including First City Monument, Pagatech and the African Venture Capital Association.

Her previous roles include Country Partner for Nigeria at Aureos Capital (now Abraaj) where she successfully raised capital to complete the first Aureos West Africa Fund and Fund Manager of a technology-focused venture capital fund (Sussex Place Ventures) where she incubated new ventures and commercialized technological innovations.

Ric Lewis is Executive Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Tristan Capital Partners, an independent real estate investment management firm operating across the UK and continental Europe. In 2000, Ric founded The Black Heart Foundation dedicated to improving educational access, quality, and outcomes for underprivileged young people. The foundation has provided educational scholarships to over 930 Black Heart Scholars at 160 intuitions completing 155 degrees, courses, training, and education programmes throughout the UK (and US).

Ric also serves on a number of Boards, including Trustee of the Royal National Children’s Springboard Foundation and The Legal & General Group Plc. In 2024, Ric joined the Board of Trustees of The Earthshot Prize, and in July 2025, Ric was appointed Chair of The Crown Estate.

Ric graduated from Dartmouth College and Harvard Business School and holds an Honorary Master’s Degree from Dartmouth College. He has dual British and American citizenship and has resided in London since 1998.

Eduardo Mufarej is a Brazilian investor and social entrepreneur recognized for bridging capital, climate action, and leadership development.

He is Co-Chief Investment Officer at Just Climate, where he focuses on scaling high-impact climate investments globally, and is affiliated with Generation Investment Management. Previously, he founded and led Tarpon Investimentos, one of Brazil’s leading independent investment firms, and later created Good Karma Partners, an impact investment platform.

Beyond finance, he founded RenovaBR, a nonpartisan program that has trained hundreds of new political leaders in Brazil, and serves on global boards including The Earthshot Prize.

Ian Patrick is the Private Secretary to HRH The Prince of Wales. Prior to this he was a Partner at the geo-political risk advisory company Macro Advisory Partners, and a British diplomat.

Patrick began his career as an advisor to Paddy Ashdown in the House of Commons, following Lord Ashdown to Bosnia where he worked in the international peace keeping mission. Patrick then joined the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, before joining Macro Advisory Partners.

M. Sanjayan is currently a Distinguished Professor of Practice at Arizona State University. Previously, he served as CEO of Conservation International, joining the organisation in 2014 as Executive Vice President and operating as CEO from 2017 to 2025.

During his tenure, he led two landmark capital campaigns totalling $2.7 billion, advanced critical scientific tools like the irrecoverable carbon atlas, and fostered global partnerships for forest restoration. He also spearheaded a blue carbon project in Colombia and helped launch the Blue Nature Alliance, aiming to protect 18 million sq. km of ocean. Previously, Sanjayan was lead scientist at The Nature Conservancy.

Born in Sri Lanka and raised in West Africa, he brings a global perspective to his work and has hosted award-winning documentaries for PBS, BBC, National Geographic, Discovery, Showtime, and Vox Media. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Oregon and a PhD in conservation biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He was also recognised on the inaugural TIME100 Climate list in 2023.

Zoë Ware is the British Ambassador-Designate to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo. Prior to this she was the Political Counsellor at the British High Commission in Pakistan.

As Assistant Private Secretary to Prince William from 2018-2022, Zoë was HRH’s principal adviser on environmental and conservation work and oversaw the creation of The Earthshot Prize from Kensington Palace.

Previously, Zoë worked for the Department for International Development at the British Embassy in Afghanistan, and on UK policy towards Africa in both the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Cabinet Office’s National Security Secretariat. At the start of her career Zoë worked in the charity sector focused on African parliamentary capacity building and the Commonwealth.