Francis Vorhies is the Director of Earthmind. He has over 20 years of international experience as a sustainability economist.

In early 2005, Francis followed his wife’s career back to Geneva and founded Earthmind, a not-for-profit sustainability network. He has undertaken assignments for Credit Suisse, the EIB, the Global Mechanism, the Government of Kuwait, ITC, PERSGA, Shell, the Stockholm Convention, UNEP, UNCTAD, UN/ISDR, the World Bank and others.

Previous experience includes:

• In Oxford, served as the chief executive officer of the European affiliate of the Earthwatch Institute, managing a unique partnership programme with a group of 40 large multinational corporations

• In Geneva, established new global programmes on economics and business for IUCN, including undertaking joint feasibility studies with the IFC on investing in biodiversity business in Africa and Central Europe

• In Nairobi, worked for the African Wildlife Foundation under a UNDP/GEF grant to build biodiversity economics capacity in the forestry sector in East Africa

• In Johannesburg, set up Eco Plus, an innovative consultancy focused on business, economics and the environment, and also ran the first MBA course in the country on environmental management

Francis has a PhD and MA in Economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a diploma in integrated environmental management from the University of Cape Town.