Steve HowardSpeaker and Booking Agent Information

Prior to joining IKEA, Steve Howard was the founder and former CEO of The Climate Group, an independent non-profit organization that works with government and business leaders around the world to reduce global emissions and build a low-carbon economy. He now serves on the organization's Board of Trustees.

He is on the Advisory Board of Vantage Point Venture Partners, is an Advisor to the Planetary Skin Institute, and was formerly Chair of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Climate Change and a judge for the Virgin Earth Challenge.

Prior to joining The Climate Group, Steve spent 15 years consulting big firms, NGOs, and UN agencies on environmental issues. He was an ERM Partner who lead on Corporate Social Responsibility.

Previously, Steve was the founding Director of WWF International's Global Forest and Trade Network, where he headed an international team that advised 700 firms on forest and supply chain concerns.

He was also the founding chair of the Tropical Forest Trust and the previous head of the UK Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), where he helped gain broad agreement on a national forest certification standard.

Steve describes himself as a "professional optimist," and he believes that governments and business leaders must work together to address serious environmental and economic concerns in order to create new employment and establish a vibrant, clean, green economy. Steve holds a first-class honors degree in ecology as well as a doctorate in environmental physics.

Time Magazine and Scientific American have both praised Steve's accomplishments. He was featured in the Independent on Sunday's top 100 UK environmentalists in 2008 and won Social Entrepreneur UK at the Ernst Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards in 2009. He is married with a son and participates in triathlons on occasion.