Center Directors General

Jeremy Bird brings diverse experience to IWMI as it faces the challenges of sustainable land and water management in an environment of increasing competition for resources. His background includes applied research in agricultural water management, development finance, policy development on global, regional and national scales, coordination of multi-stakeholder dialogue processes and management of a major river basin organization.

Jeremy is from the UK and has worked extensively across a number of regions and with a range of relevant organizations in research, policy and strategy development and assessment of major development projects. Following his research assignments with HR Wallingford, including in Sri Lanka, he worked for the Asian Development Bank, World Commission on Dams, the United Nations Environment Program and, until 2011 was the CEO of the Mekong River Commission Secretariat.

Jeremy has Bachelors and Masters degrees in Civil and Irrigation Engineering respectively as well as a Masters degree in Water Law with specialization in shared river basins. He has a strong emphasis on increasing our understanding of complex and multi-dimensional processes and placing information in the public domain as the basis for identifying integrated and effective solutions. Jeremy has contributed to international processes on water resources management, was recently appointed as an ‘outcome ambassador’ of the Bonn2011 initiative on the Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for UNEPs water program.