Mr. Bapna joined NRDC as President and Chief Executive Officer in August 2021. With more than 700 attorneys, scientists, advocates and policy experts on staff, as well as three million supporting members, NRDC is confronting the interlocking climate, health, nature and inequity crises facing the world today.

Prior to joining NRDC, Bapna’s leadership roles have focused on scaling solutions at the intersection of the environment and human development. He served as a senior economist at the World Bank for seven years, where he designed and implemented water, forestry and rural development projects in Asia and Latin America; then as executive director of the Bank Information Center (BIC), a nonprofit that works to protect the rights of local communities and the environment from the negative impacts of projects and policies financed by development banks; then as executive vice president and managing director of the World Resources Institute (WRI) for 14 years.

Bapna holds master’s degrees in business and political and economic development from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from MIT.