Founder & CEO
Swapan Mehra
Swapan is the Founder & CEO of IORA and a World Economic Forum (WEF) Young Global Leader 2020. He established IORA in 2009. As an environmental finance and policy expert, he excels in designing and implementing projects and policy interventions in the forestry, biodiversity conservation, and climate change mitigation and adaptation sectors. After completing an Advanced Diploma in Forest Management from the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal, he worked with some of the largest carbon finance firms in the world. Recipient of the prestigious FICCI Young Business Leader Award, Swapan contributes extensively towards conservation and policy intervention issues, especially in the forestry sector (grassroots, national and international levels). This multi-level exposure allows him to envisage and develop solutions that are holistic and multi-faceted.
A LEAD International Fellow (2011) and a holder of Donella Meadows Fellowship (Balaton Group), Swapan is an active member of the FICCI – Young Business Leaders of India, the Technology Selection Commission for Jal Jeevan Mission, the Governing Board: Assam Chief Minister Climate Change Society, Country’s Premier Tiger Task Force, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) and the VCS Advisory Committee. He is also an Expert Committee Member on Invasive Alien Species and the lab principal in the India Innovation Lab for Green Finance.
He was a technical reviewer of UNEP’s Green Economy Initiatives, a major UN project demonstrating how REDD+ can support a green economy, and is a key jury member for the UNDP Equator Prize.