KARACHI: Renowned academic and policy expert Dr Adil Najam has been named the new president of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) International.

In a statement, WWF International said Dr Najam will replace the outgoing interim president, Neville Isdell.

Dr Najam begins his new role as the president on July 1.

While accepting his new role and responsibilities, Dr Najam commented: “I am greatly humbled to be invited to become the next President of WWF at a time when its long-standing mission of working to heal and sustain the natural world and its life-supporting systems has become more urgent than ever. I am deeply honoured to be able to work again with dedicated ‘pandas’ all across the world — members, partners, experts, and colleagues — whose dedication and commitment to creating a just, fair and sustainable planet for all its people and for nature has always been a source of great inspiration for me.”

Dr Najam is a leading public scholar with a keen focus on issues of global public policy, especially those related to conservation and environment, sustainable and human development, and climate change in the Global South, the statement added.

Previously, he served as a trustee of the International Board of WWF International from 2011-2019. He was the lead author for the Third and Fourth Assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and had written over 100 scholarly papers and book chapters.

Dr Najam had a meritorious career as an academic and served as dean emeritus of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. He was the vice-chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums). Dr Najam has also taught at MIT and at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

Published in Dawn, April 5rd, 2023