John Matthews

Executive Director

John has been working as a resilience scientist and practitioner since 2007 to mobilize water resources for better climate action and policy.

The insight that water and climate issues were intimately connected led John to co-found the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA) in 2010. AGWA was the first organization globally to bind these two domains in service of effective and coherent policy, science, and implementation. He remains the Executive Director, supporting AGWA technical and policy programs. His work has led to the development of a variety of climate risk reduction methodologies used in dozens of countries, prepared climate bond criteria that have certified more than 20 billion USD in water resilience investments across six continents, and advised well over 100 countries on their national climate commitments. Before AGWA, he started and directed the global freshwater climate adaptation program at WWF.

Current work includes leading a team to leverage water as the binding agent for national and subnational climate planning and implementation. This work has mobilized more than 16 million USD across four international organizations in more than a dozen countries so far. John has also been active in developing a new generation of resilience indicators, working with businesses to incorporate resilience within operations, and heading a program to engage macroeconomic planners and central bankers to blend resilience with traditional economic evaluation approaches.

Beyond AGWA, John is a Courtesy Professor at Oregon State University, an advisor to the Shockwave Foundation, and on the board of Living in Kindness. John received a doctorate in ecology, evolution, and behavioral ecology from the University of Texas, Austin, and a Bachelor of Arts in ethnomusicology from the University of Chicago. Before becoming a freshwater ecologist, John worked as a book editor in publishing for 12 years. He lives in Corvallis, Oregon, with his wife and son.