Paula DiPerna

Paula DiPerna is an author and strategic global environmental and philanthropic policy advisor. In addition to writing, she currently serves as Special Advisor to CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project). In addition, Ms. DiPerna is a member of the Board of Advisors of the NTR Foundation, a global foundation with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland; and Global Kids, based in New York City, whose mission is to develop global citizenship. She also serves on the Circle of Advisors of Rachel’s Network, which links women philanthropists who have environmental interests. Ms. DiPerna served formerly as President of the International division of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), a private company that pioneered emissions trading worldwide to help address climate change, with special responsibility for China, India, and Korea and other emerging markets. DiPerna also held positions as President of the Joyce Foundation, a major public policy philanthropy known for innovation; Executive Vice President for Recruitment and Public Policy of CCX; and Vice President for International Affairs for the Cousteau Society, whose principal was oceans pioneer Jacques-Yves Cousteau. While at CCX, DiPerna supervised and led business expansion, as well as domestic and international policy efforts. She has extensive experience in China, where she helped establish the Tianjin Climate Exchange (TCX) with CCX founder and Chairman, financial innovator Dr. Richard L. Sandor, a joint venture with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and the first environmental exchange established in China. TCX then paved the way for seven additional pilot programs, culminating in the recent important announcement by China that it would establish a national cap-and-trade, a political and environmental breakthrough. CCX, the world’s first integrated greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system, was sold in 2010 to the Intercontinenal Exchange, the world’s largest commodity exchange. As President of the Joyce Foundation, Ms. DiPerna oversaw all grant making and operations, representing roughly $40 million in annual philanthropy. As Vice-President for International Affairs at the Cousteau Society, Ms. DiPerna was responsible for all aspects of national and international environmental policy, and interacted extensively with the U.S. Congress, Heads of State, and the United Nations. While at the Cousteau Society, from 1979 to1997, Ms. DiPerna also wrote and co-produced a dozen Cousteau documentary films. She has traveled extensively globally with Cousteau teams, and lived for one year in the Amazon regions of Brazil, Colombia and Peru, where she oversaw and planned expedition activities. With Cousteau, she was instrumental in securing a 50 year moratorium on oil and minerals exploitation in Antarctica, and in the negotiation of the release of political prisoners in Cuba. DiPerna also served as Strategic Advisor to the landmark Intellectual Property Exchange International (IPXI), the world’s first exchange for the trading of unitized intellectual property rights. She has also been a consultant to the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility and LEAD-International, among other organizations. DiPerna was a candidate for the US Congress and an Eisenhower Fellow. Paula DiPerna is a frequent public speaker, guest lecturer and teacher, and panelist. She is widely published in magazines and newspapers, and the author of a novel and several non-fiction books. “Cluster Mystery: Epidemic and the Children of Woburn, Mass” (Mosby, 1985) became a touchstone of environmental epidemiology. She is a contributor and columnist for www.huffingtonpost.com; www.forbes.com/worldview, www.womensenews.org and www.wealthasia.net. Ms. DiPerna is a member of the Women’s Forum of New York, the Author’s Guild and Writers Guild East, and the Council on Foreign Relations among others. In 2016, DiPerna was awarded a Bellagio Center residency by the Rockefeller Foundation to develop a book project. She is based in New York City.