Tom Burke

Tom Burke CBE is a co-founder of E3G, Third Generation Environmentalism (Environmental Think Tank founded in 2004) and currently chairs its Board. He is also a visiting Honorary Professor of Imperial and University Colleges, London and a Senior Associate of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). He has a long track record of experience with international environmental organisations working with and for both non-governmental and official bodies.Burke has been a professional environmentalist for 50 years and was formerly Executive Director of Friends of the Earth. and of The Green Alliance. He was a Special Advisor to three Secretaries of State for the Environment from 1991-97. He has been a senior advisor for a number of major companies including Rio Tinto, BP & Standard Charted Bank. He has also served as an advisor in the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office and the Foreign Office. He was a member of the Council of English Nature, Britain’s biodiversity regulator, from 1999 – 2005. He has written and broadcast extensively and coined the term ‘green growth’ in 1987. In1993, Burke was appointed to United Nations Environment Programme's Global 500 Roll of Honour. He played a leading part in establishing the European Environment Bureau for nearly two decades and was the Secretary-General of the European and North American NGO preparations for the Rio Earth Summit.