Henk Ovink
CGIAR Board, Ex officio Voting Member
Prof. Henk Ovink is Professor in Water-cycle Diplomacy & Design at Delft University of Technology. He is the founding Commissioner and Executive Director for the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. Henk is Honorary Lecturer at Mariana Mazzucato’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at UCL in London, and Senior Fellow at Wageningen University on green water research and diplomacy.
Henk is the Chair of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) Board of Governors. Henk Ovink was the first ever global water ambassador for over 8 years, and Ambassador to the United Nations, tp co-lead the second UN Water Conference in 2023. Henk served on President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force where he led the long-term innovation, resilience, and rebuilding efforts. He developed and led the ‘Rebuild by Design’ competition and initiated the National Disaster Resilience Competition. Before joining the Task Force, Henk was both Acting Director General of Spatial Planning and Water Affairs and Director National Spatial Planning for the Netherlands after multiple roles in education, research, and the private sector, from his own start-up for planning, design, and innovation.
