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Dr. M. San­jayan Named CEO of The New York Cli­mate Exchange to Steer Cities Toward Cli­mate Inno­va­tion, Finance, and Resilience

May 4, 2026 10:07 am

Con­ser­va­tion sci­en­tist, TIME 100 Cli­mate hon­oree, and Emmy-nom­i­nat­ed broad­cast­er to lead The Exchange’s land­mark cli­mate cam­pus on Gov­er­nors Island

The New York Cli­mate Exchange (The Exchange) announced the appoint­ment of Dr. M. San­jayan as its new Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, mark­ing a piv­otal moment in the organization’s mis­sion to accel­er­ate cli­mate solu­tions through research, edu­ca­tion, work­force devel­op­ment, inno­va­tion, and com­mu­ni­ty part­ner­ship. A lead­ing con­ser­va­tion sci­en­tist who has served as Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer at Con­ser­va­tion Inter­na­tion­al, San­jayan will guide The Exchange as it advances its vision for a trans­for­ma­tion­al cli­mate cam­pus on Gov­er­nors Island in New York Harbor.

Draw­ing on 48 part­ners and the glob­al reach of New York City, the Exchange is devel­op­ing a state-of-the-art cli­mate cam­pus on Gov­er­nors Island that will bring togeth­er cli­mate sci­en­tists, edu­ca­tors, entre­pre­neurs, and change­mak­ers under one roof — spark­ing the col­lab­o­ra­tions and break­through ideas need­ed to build a sus­tain­able future. San­jayan will lead the orga­ni­za­tion’s next chap­ter — trans­lat­ing work on Gov­er­nors Island into solu­tions that can be adopt­ed by cities and com­mu­ni­ties around the world.

“I am thrilled to wel­come Dr. M. San­jayan to The Exchange and look for­ward to part­ner­ing with him to real­ize the extra­or­di­nary promise of The Exchange,” said Andrea Gold­smith, chair of The Exchange board and pres­i­dent of Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty — The Exchange’s anchor insti­tu­tion. ​“San­jayan is an excep­tion­al leader, deeply knowl­edge­able sci­en­tist, and out­stand­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tor with a clear and com­pelling vision for the future of The Exchange. He brings to the role an impres­sive track record lead­ing trans­for­ma­tion­al growth and mean­ing­ful suc­cess as CEO of Con­ser­va­tion Inter­na­tion­al. With Sanjayan’s remark­able expe­ri­ence and exper­tise, with our impact­ful work to date, and with strong part­ner­ships across acad­e­mia, indus­try, gov­ern­ment, and the com­mu­ni­ty, The Exchange is incred­i­bly well-posi­tioned to deliv­er impact­ful cli­mate solu­tions for New York, our coun­try, and the world.”

San­jayan arrives with a track record few in con­ser­va­tion can match. As CEO of Con­ser­va­tion Inter­na­tion­al from 2017 to 2025, he led two land­mark cap­i­tal cam­paigns total­ing $2.4 bil­lion, dou­bled the organization’s glob­al staff to 1,800 peo­ple across 35 coun­tries, and forged trans­for­ma­tive part­ner­ships with For­tune 100 com­pa­nies from Apple and Microsoft to Mas­ter­card and Proc­ter & Gam­ble. A Ph.D. con­ser­va­tion biol­o­gist by train­ing, he has nev­er stopped being a sci­en­tist — and nev­er stopped find­ing new ways to make peo­ple care about what the sci­ence tells us. Named to TIME’s inau­gur­al 100 Cli­mate list in 2024, his award-win­ning doc­u­men­tary series and broad­casts with PBS and BBC have brought the sto­ry of nature and cli­mate change to mil­lions of peo­ple world­wide.

​“Cli­mate change is both a cri­sis and an oppor­tu­ni­ty for human­i­ty” said Dr. M. San­jayan.” It’s a priv­i­lege to lead The New York Cli­mate Exchange at this con­se­quen­tial and defin­ing moment for peo­ple and the plan­et. I can­not think of a more pow­er­ful plat­form from which to accel­er­ate solu­tions that the world urgent­ly needs.“

The Exchange will soon estab­lish a state-of-the-art cam­pus on Gov­er­nors Island. This inspir­ing show­case of inno­v­a­tive sus­tain­able design will serve as a glob­al hub for col­lab­o­ra­tive cli­mate solu­tions. Once open, Gov­er­nors Island will become a renowned des­ti­na­tion where hun­dreds of stu­dents, fac­ul­ty, researchers, and cli­mate-curi­ous vis­i­tors can be found immersed in ​“semes­ter abroad” style aca­d­e­m­ic cours­es, engaged in cut­ting-edge research oppor­tu­ni­ties, pur­su­ing job train­ing for the green econ­o­my, and attend­ing world-class con­ven­ings and pub­lic pro­gram­ming. This vision is made pos­si­ble in part by a major cap­i­tal com­mit­ment from the City of New York, a $100 mil­lion pledge from the Simons Foun­da­tion and Simons Foun­da­tion Inter­na­tion­al, and a $50 mil­lion com­mit­ment from Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies.

​“The New York Cli­mate Exchange rein­forces New York City’s posi­tion as a lead­ing hub for sci­ence and inno­va­tion,” says Simons Foun­da­tion Pres­i­dent David Spergel. ​“Under Dr. Sanjayan’s lead­er­ship, The Exchange will bring togeth­er the thinkers and orga­ni­za­tions who will trans­late cut­ting-edge sci­ence and data into scal­able, real-world solu­tions.”

​“The New York Cli­mate Exchange builds on a vision for Gov­er­nors Island that I first laid out dur­ing my cam­paign for may­or in 2001, when we pro­posed turn­ing it into a cen­ter for edu­ca­tion and research,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, UN Spe­cial Envoy on Cli­mate Ambi­tion and Solu­tions and founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies. ​“At the time, some dis­missed the vision as ​‘naïve,’ since the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment still con­trolled the island and had long neglect­ed it. But we began bring­ing the vision to life, and over the years, it has steadi­ly tak­en shape. The Cli­mate Exchange rep­re­sents the next step, cre­at­ing a home for the tal­ent and inno­va­tion need­ed to help cities con­front cli­mate change while cre­at­ing jobs. With San­jayan at the helm, it will have the lead­er­ship need­ed to do both.”

​“The Exchange is exact­ly the kind of col­lab­o­ra­tive effort need­ed right now to accel­er­ate inno­v­a­tive cli­mate solu­tions,” said Antha Williams, Inter­im CEO of the New York Cli­mate Exchange and Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies’ Envi­ron­ment Pro­gram Lead. ​“Sanjayan’s lead­er­ship and envi­ron­men­tal exper­tise will be essen­tial to turn­ing that col­lab­o­ra­tion into real impact for com­mu­ni­ties in New York and around the world.“

The Exchange is already gain­ing momen­tum. Dur­ing Cli­mate Week NYC 2025, it host­ed more than 30 events with 40 part­ners, draw­ing cross-sec­tor audi­ences of more than 2,300 atten­dees to Gov­er­nors Island and beyond. Ear­li­er this month, Earth Week brought pro­gram­ming across the city — from a data-focused Cli­mate Solu­tions Sum­mit to a cel­e­bra­tion of NYCHA res­i­dents dri­ving sus­tain­abil­i­ty in their own com­mu­ni­ties. The Exchange is prepar­ing to launch its sec­ond cohort of Cli­mate Tech Fel­lows, focused on entre­pre­neurs devel­op­ing solu­tions in ener­gy and resilience.

​“On Gov­er­nors Island, the New York Cli­mate Exchange will embed cut­ting edge research, edu­ca­tion, cli­mate inno­va­tion, and more, in a site built for exper­i­men­ta­tion and deep pub­lic engage­ment” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“Dr. M. San­jayan brings the lead­er­ship to deep­en that promise and ensure the New York Cli­mate Exchange becomes a mod­el for how cities solve their great­est chal­lenges togeth­er.”

​“By part­ner­ing with Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty, one of New York’s pre­mier pub­lic insti­tu­tions, and The New York Cli­mate Exchange, we are mak­ing sure that green jobs, com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven cli­mate solu­tions, and access to Gov­er­nors Island are avail­able to all New York­ers” said Julie Su, Deputy May­or of New York City for Eco­nom­ic Jus­tice. ​“Dr. M San­jayan is a tremen­dous addi­tion who will con­tin­ue to dri­ve cli­mate inno­va­tion and solutions.” 

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About Dr. M Sanjayan

Dr. M. San­jayan is a glob­al­ly rec­og­nized con­ser­va­tion sci­en­tist and pub­lic voice on cli­mate and nature. As CEO of Con­ser­va­tion Inter­na­tion­al (2017 – 2025), he over­saw eight and a half years of fast, sus­tained growth, lead­ing two cap­i­tal cam­paigns total­ing $2.4B, more than dou­bling the organization’s glob­al team, and forg­ing trans­for­ma­tive part­ner­ships with For­tune 50 com­pa­nies, gov­ern­ments, and phil­an­thropists. Pri­or to that, San­jayan spent over a decade as the lead sci­en­tist for The Nature Con­ser­van­cy and launched its ground-break­ing pro­gram in Africa. A sci­en­tist by train­ing with a Ph.D. in Biol­o­gy, he has com­bined aca­d­e­m­ic rig­or with vision­ary lead­er­ship to deliv­er impact around the globe. Beyond the field, he is an Emmy-nom­i­nat­ed broad­cast­er and host of award-win­ning doc­u­men­taries with PBS and BBC, known for bring­ing sci­ence and inspir­ing sto­ry­telling to mil­lions world­wide. His work has been cov­ered by vir­tu­al­ly every news out­let and mag­a­zine from the New York Times to Out­side Mag­a­zine. Named to the inau­gur­al TIME 100 Cli­mate list, Sanjayan’s career bridges sci­ence, sto­ry­telling, and strat­e­gy to advance solu­tions that link peo­ple, nature, and cli­mate. San­jayan serves as a trustee for The Earth­shot Prize; found­ed and led by Prince William, the prize seeks to find and scale solu­tions to the planet’s chal­lenges. He is also on the board of the Inter­na­tion­al Con­ser­va­tion Cau­cus Foun­da­tion (US), and the advi­so­ry board of the Min­deroo Foun­da­tion, one of the largest in the South­ern Hemisphere. 

About The New York Cli­mate Exchange

The Exchange is a non­prof­it designed to accel­er­ate cli­mate solu­tions. By lever­ag­ing the per­spec­tives of a cross-sec­tor net­work of diverse part­ners and New York City’s glob­al influ­ence, The Exchange engages in cut­ting-edge research, deliv­ers impact­ful edu­ca­tion and train­ing, hosts world-class con­ven­ings and scales cli­mate tech­nol­o­gy solu­tions. The Exchange is devel­op­ing a state-of-the-art cli­mate cam­pus on Gov­er­nors Island that will bring cli­mate sci­en­tists, edu­ca­tors, entre­pre­neurs and change­mak­ers under one roof — spark­ing the col­lab­o­ra­tions and break­through ideas we need to build a sus­tain­able future. Learn more at nycli​ma​te​ex​change​.org.