Hong Kong Board of Directors

Changhua Wu

Chairwoman of the Board

Changhua Wu is the Greater China Director based in Beijing. Before joining The Climate Group, she was the Executive Director of China Operations of ENSR, working closely with multi-national corporations to support their business development in China and also their compliance with Chinese regulations.

A China specialist for about 15 years, Changhua has been leading a world-wide professional network Professional Association for Chinas Environment (PACE) and serves on the Board of the Asia-Pacific Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (APRSCP), the Standing Committee of Environmental Education Committee of Chinese Society of Environmental Sciences, and the Advisory Committee of Clean Air Initiative - China. Before returning to China, she directed the Program for China Studies at the World Resources Institute (WRI) in Washington, DC, and consulted for multinational organizations like the World Bank, UNEP, and UNDP. She was the 1993 Fellow of World Press Institute and 2004 Fellow of the Temple law schools High-level US-China Roundtable on Environmental Law and Policy. She holds two graduate degrees, one in Law from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the other in Environmental Policy from University of Maryland.

Jim Walker

Jim helped to set up The Climate Group in late 2003 and is responsible for managing the Groups operations, fund raising and research. He has worked for six years as a consultant on public and private sector responses to environmental and social challenges. With Steve Howard he has advised WWF International on the development of the Clean Development Mechanism Gold Standard and produced the business plan for The °Climate Group on behalf of Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Jim was lead author of the Mining Minerals & Sustainable Development report Finding the Way Forward on industry voluntary initiatives, and a contributor to the WWF-UK report To Whose Profit? on the business case for sustainability. He has produced stakeholder engagement reports for BP Scotland and Nirex and has developed approaches for assessing corporate exposure to climate change-related risk. Prior to his environmental career Jim was a professional athlete, competing in the British Rowing Team at the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games and at six World Championships. He holds a Bachelors degree in Biology and a Masters degree in Environmental Technology, both from Imperial College London.

Plato K T Yip

Plato Yip is the CEO of United Waters China (a member company of United Waters International AG), a public utility company providing safe drinking water in rural areas of China.  He was previously Director of Environmental Investments for Olympus Capital and a dedicated investment professional for the Asia Environmental Partners Fund.

Prior to that, he worked for the Cheung Kong Group on corporate environmental strategies.  Apart from searching for and managing renewable energy investment opportunities, one of his focuses is promoting organic and sustainable agricultural practices.  He has coordinated partnership programs to help improving quality of life in China's farming community, where he also advises government and industry leaders on leadership and business strategies.

Plato has lived and worked in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China.  He is the former Assistant Director of Friends of the Earth (Hong Kong) and the Founding Director of the Centre for Environmental Management Education and Development of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is currently a Vice Chairman of the Hong Kong People's Council for Sustainable Development and a statutory board member of The Climate Group (Hong Kong).  He is a State Alumni of the U.S. Department of State and a Catto Fellow of the Aspen Institute.

Mark Kenber

Mark is an economist who has worked on environmental issues for over a decade in non-governmental organisations, the public and private sectors. Mark has been instrumental in developing The Climate Group’s global network and operations in India and China, and directed ground-breaking projects with the international finance, energy, technology and aviation sectors.

Mark advised former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in the joint policy initiative Breaking the Climate Deadlock (2008-2009), which produced a series of high-level reports outlining the economic and technological rationale for a global climate deal and its key components. He is also a carbon markets expert and co-founded the successful Verified Carbon Standard (formerly Voluntary Carbon Standard) (VCS), now the most popular kitemark for the $400 million voluntary market.  He continues to be involved as Deputy Chair of the VCS Association.

Immediately prior to joining The Climate Group, Mark was Senior Policy Officer for WWFs International Climate Change Programme, focusing on carbon market and finance issues and coordinating the Programmes economics-related work. His other experience includes being Director of Planning at Fundacion Natura, Ecuadors largest environmental organisation, acting as climate change advisor to the Ecuadorian government and a wide range of consultancies. Mark is an occasional lecturer at Sussex Universitys Institute for Development Studies and also serves on the advisory boards of a number of environmental organisations.