Chris Walker

Director, North America

Prior to joining The °Climate Group, Chris was Head of Swiss Re’s Sustainability Business Development. Here he ran the unit responsible for developing commercial applications to Swiss Re Sustainability commitments and, in particular, business opportunities in sustainability, ecosystem markets, emissions reductions and renewables.

Chris also served as a North American Sustainability Officer and government affairs liaison on climate change/GHG emissions issues. While based at Swiss Re’s Zurich headquarters, he created and advanced from concept to initiation the company’s Greenhouse Gas Risk Solutions unit, specialising in Greenhouse Gas risk mitigation and opportunity innovation. In 2000, he created and led Swiss Re Group’s worldwide GHG emissions market feasibility study determining the market facilitation role for Swiss Re.

An attorney, Chris was appointed to the California Climate Change Advisory Commission, and is a member of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), on the board of advisors for New Energy Finance publication, the Panama Canal Watershed Business Plan project at Yale University and the Climate Change Futures Study with Harvard University/ UNDP.

Chris received his BA in Government from St. John’s University, attended the Institute on Comparative Political and Economic Systems at Georgetown and is also a graduate of the St. John’s School of Law. Prior to joining Swiss Re in 1996, he practiced law in New York and New Jersey.