Hari Balasubramanian

Managing Partner, EcoAdvisors

Bio Current as of July 13, 2020

Hari is a senior environment professional who has had the good fortune of assisting over 300 projects in 60+ countries and influencing over U$3B in sustainability-oriented financing – helping protect threatened species, forests, oceans and the people who depend upon them throughout the world. Hari advises governments, foundations, corporations and individuals on values alignment and sustainable economic development at scale. He is driven by impact and the goals are clear: a healthy planet on land and in the ocean, stable climate, abundant and diverse wildlife, prosperous communities and flowing, clean fresh water; not as a cost to society, but as an opportunity and previously under-recognized business value.

Hari has deep and expansive field experience at the front-line of sustainability. Starting with coastal and marine projects in Portugal, Barbados, Malaysia, the Maldives and Cuba he later led the monitoring and evaluation function at Conservation International where he oversaw hundreds of projects in 45 countries around the world. Working with communities on the ground was deeply fulfilling but Hari always felt that something was lacking. The constant scrambling for limited philanthropic dollars meant that passionate people couldn’t do enough good work, and he saw firsthand that the magnitude of the sustainability challenge could not be addressed through donations alone – real dollars needed to flow.

In September 2012, he decided to trade in his SCUBA gear for a business suit and founded EcoAdvisors, a consulting firm with a specific focus on demonstrating the business value of sustainability and thereby growing the amount of capital flowing toward environmental impact. EcoAdvisors sources and oversees enduring sustainability solutions leveraging funding from philanthropy, corporate operations, government, and the financial sector. He went on to co-found EcoInvestors Capital – a global investment firm focused exclusively on advancing the environmental related SDGs through investments that generate competitive returns using flexible, private capital.

Hari holds a BSc in Biology from McGill University and an MSc in Geography (Distinction) from Oxford University. He currently sits on the Boards of the Nova Scotia Nature Trust, The Oceanic Society, Engage Nova Scotia, International Conservation Fund of Canada, La Minga, Ecuador Azul and is on the High Level Advisory Committee to the President for Colombia Sostenible. Hari presents at popular and academic settings worldwide, largely about his luck stumbling into the sustainability field and the interface of business and positive societal impact.