Mark Smith
Director General
Research team
Water data scienceWater, climate change and resilience
Water, food and ecosystems
Water, growth and inclusion
Areas of expertise
water resources agriculture climate & sustainability water, land, ecosystems sustainable development leadership bridging science, practice & policyPlease specify a fullname to search for.Please specify a fullname to search for.
was appointed as Director General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in August 2020. Previously he was IWMI’s Deputy Director General – Research for Development, bringing more than 25 years of research and program management experience in water resources, agriculture, climate and sustainability.
He was formerly Director of the Global Water Program at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), where he led innovative, multi-regional programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America addressing river basin management, transboundary cooperation and water governance, climate change adaptation and nature-based solutions. He led IUCN advocacy of water-related policies and strategies in UNFCCC, Ramsar Convention, Rio+20 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as delivery of support for national and regional-level policy innovation and scaling of water systems change.
Before IUCN, he was a Research Group Leader at CSIRO delivering analysis of environmental policy and management, strategies for sustainable development and support for planning and implementation of integrated water, land and ecosystem management. As a scientist at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), Smith worked in partnership with ICRAF on projects investigating the impacts of agroforestry on water resource management and productivity in smallholder farming systems.
He has a PhD in ecology and resource management from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and a Master’s in Climatology from the University of Guelph, Canada.
Current projects
Languages
EnglishOffice
Sri Lanka (Global headquarters)
127, Sunil Mawatha Pelawatte, Battaramulla Colombo, Sri Lanka