Leape is the William and Eva Price Senior Fellow at Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and co-director of the Center for Ocean Solutions. Jim works on how to drive large-scale systemic shifts to sustainability, with particular interest in expanding private sector leadership on sustainability globally and, specifically, in China.
From 2005 to 2014, Jim served as Director General of WWF International. Before joining WWF International, Jim directed the conservation and science initiatives of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, a leading philanthropic organisation in the US. Previously, he served as executive vice president of WWF-US in Washington, DC; as a lawyer for the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya; as a law professor; and as a litigator for the National Audubon Society and for the US Department of Justice.
Jim serves on the boards of the Marine Stewardship Council and Mission 2020; and on the Global Future Council for the Environment of the World Economic Forum. From 2007 to 2017 he served on the China Council for International Cooperation in Environment and Development, which advises the Premier of China. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the ClimateWorks Foundation. Jim received an A.B. with honours from Harvard College and a J.D. with honours from Harvard Law School.