We are proud to welcome Sir Andrew Steer, the 2025 TD Walter Bean professor.
Sir Steer brings decades of global climate leadership to Waterloo for two timely and thought-provoking lectures on how we - leaders, innovators, and citizens - can rise to meet the world’s most pressing environmental challenges, for nature, our cities and our future.
As former President & CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund and a longtime global advisor on climate and development, Dr. Steer brings deep insight into how transformative solutions take root—across governments, industries, and communities. At a moment when the need for bold, coordinated action has never been clearer, he will explore what it takes to drive real progress for cities, ecosystems, and future generations.
From resilient cities to restored ecosystems, Sir. Steer will explore what strategies have worked and what hasn’t, how transformative solutions can be scaled—and how leadership across sectors is key. These lectures invite us all to consider Canada’s responsibility and opportunity to lead on the global stage, not only by acting decisively at home, but by bringing together governments, industries, and communities to shape a more sustainable future. As climate change accelerates and global cooperation is strained, the future of our natural systems and societies depends on bold, collective action.
Presented as part of the University of Waterloo’s Waterloo at 100 vision and in partnership with the Future Cities Institute.
About the 2025 TD Walter Bean Professor
Sir Andrew is a globally recognized economist and leader in sustainable development, and climate and nature action. He is currently serving as Professor of Economics and Sustainability at the London School of Economics and Georgetown University.
As the President and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund, he directed the world’s largest philanthropy for climate and nature. Previously, he served as the President and CEO of the World Resources Institute, the world’s foremost Think Tank/Do Tank on Environment and Development.
With a distinguished career spanning leadership roles in the World Bank and the UK Government, he has been instrumental in designing policies that advance economic growth with environmental stewardship. He has advised world leaders, corporations and financial institutions on green finance, carbon reduction strategies and sustainable development.
In 2024, Sir Andrew was knighted in recognition of ‘his sustained contribution as one of the world’s best-known leaders in global sustainable development economics with a focus on climate change and poverty reduction’. He was also named in 2024 by Forbes as one of the world’s 50 most impactful climate leaders, an honour that was recognized in the publication’s inaugural Sustainability Leaders list.
Sir Andrew is a Global Agenda Trustee for the World Economic Forum, where he co-chairs its Global Futures Council on Innovative Finance for Climate and Nature. He serves on the UK Foreign Secretary’s External Foreign Policy Board, is a Board member of the Global Energy Alliance for People and the Planet and a member of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development. He has served on the advisory boards of Bank of America and IKEA, and was co-chair of