Craig Hanson
Craig Hanson
Director, People & Ecosystems Program
Craig is the Director of WRI’s People & Ecosystems Program. Craig is responsible for guiding the Program’s overall strategy, focus on results, financial development, and staff capacity. Craig has co-developed a number of the Program’s project work including Global Forest Watch 2.0, Regreen, Forest Legality Alliance, Project POTICO, the Brazilian Business & Ecosystems Partnership, and more. He has been the lead author of a number of WRI publications including The Corporate Ecosystem Services Review, Southern Forests for the Future, the Corporate Guide to Green Power Markets series, and the Energy and Environment Tax Reform series.
Prior to becoming a program director, Craig managed WRI’s Green Power Market Development Group, a coalition of a dozen Fortune 500 companies that helped pioneer corporate energy markets in the United States and that won a U.S. EPA Innovation Award. In collaboration with The Brookings Institute, he also led research in tax reform policies that would benefit both the economy and the environment.
Prior to joining WRI in 2002, Craig was a management consultant in Europe and the United States with McKinsey & Company. Clients included automotive, insurance, and equipment manufacturing companies. He led projects on mergers & acquisitions, organizational design, and market expansion strategy.
Craig earned an MSc in Environmental Change & Management from Oxford University in the U.K. While at Oxford, Craig also earned an MA (Oxon) in Philosophy, Politics, & Economics with an emphasis on environmental economics while on a Rhodes Scholarship. He received business school training via McKinsey-sponsored programs. Craig has a BA in Philosophy from Georgetown University.
In his spare time, Craig enjoys the outdoors, herpetology, planting trees, and Nebraska football (particularly when the Cornhuskers win).
