Speaker Laurence BRAHM

Laurence J. Brahm is an international crisis mediation lawyer and developmental economist. He is founder of the Himalayan Consensus, a regional multi-stakeholder multi-lateral process dedicated to the prevention of conflict over water resources due to climate disruption. In 2015 Iceland’s President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson invited him to serve on the Himalaya – Third Pole Circle, a panel forming policy responses to glacial melt caused by climate change.

Brahm is also founder of Shambhala Serai, one of Asia's first social enterprises featured in Forbes Magazine and recognized by the Pope’s Encyclical for exemplifying successful social entrepreneurship at the 2016 Vatican Impact Investing Conference. Between 2013-2015, as Senior Advisor to China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection he was architect of “Ecological Civilization,” China’s “green print” for renewable energy and water conservation. During this period he also served as advisor to Bhutan’s National Environmental Commission. In 2012 as NGO spokesperson to the United Nations Earth Summit 2012 (Rio+20), he was selected by ScenaRio as one of the “100 Opinion Leaders Advising Rio+20”. In 2010 he received the UNDP Award for Bio-Diversity and Cultural Protection in China presented by Jane Goodall. In 2009 China Central Television selected him as the only foreigner among ten individuals recognized for contributing to China’s two decades of economic reforms and opening. 

His passion for exploration in the Himalayan region led to three National Geographic expeditions between 2002-2006 in search of the mythical kingdom called Shangri-la, for which he was elected a Fellow International of the Explorer’s Club in 2015. The Himalayan Trilogy published by IBIS is based on notes recorded from each expedition.