Varghese Paul

Chief Operations Officer

Varghese Paul is the Chief Operating Officer at Iora Ecological Solutions, leading organisational operations and programme delivery across nature-based solutions and carbon finance initiatives. He brings over 30 years of experience in forest and biodiversity conservation, climate change, environmental management, and sustainable livelihoods, with extensive expertise in translating strategy into large-scale, high-quality implementation.
Before joining IORA, Varghese served as Deputy Director for Environment and WASH at USAID/India, where he led a multimillion dollar grant portfolio spanning climate solutions, forests and biodiversity, pollution abatement, environmental health, and livelihoods. Prior to that he led the forestry and biodiversity group at TERI. He has worked closely with governments, donors, research institutions, the private sector, and civil society to design, fund, and oversee complex environmental and climate programmes. Varghese holds an MSc in Forestry and a BSc in Forestry, and has undertaken executive leadership training at Yale University and the U.S. Federal Executive Institute.