Ruto Appoints Dutch CEO As University Of Nairobi-UoN Chancellor

Prof Verkooijen has served as the chair of the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies at the University of Nairobi since September 23, 2022.

He was appointed to the position by UoN Vice Chancellor, Prof Stephen Kiama.

Verkooijen is the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) - an international organisation which describes itself as an "organisation working as a solutions broker to accelerate action and support for adaptation solutions, from the international to the local, in partnership with the public and private sector, to ensure we learn from each other and work together for a climate-resilient future".

"Together with African Development Bank President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, he is the architect of the world’s largest adaptation program, the Ksh3.9 trillion Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program, which has already shaped over Ksh957 billion of resilient investments on the world’s most climate-vulnerable continent since its inception in 2021," read part of Verkooijen's profile on the GCA's website. 

The 54-year-old works closely with Ban Ki-Moon, architect of the Paris Agreement as the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chairman of the Board of GCA.

He also managed the Global Commission on Adaptation chaired by Ban and co-led by Kristalina Georgieva and Bill Gates. Before running the Global Center on Adaptation, he was the World Bank's Special Representative for Climate Change and earlier as its head of climate-smart agriculture.

In these roles, he established the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, which is the world’s largest coalition for putting a price on carbon, organized more than ten IMF-World Bank Climate Ministerial for ministers of finance and planning and set up the $1.6 billion (Ksh254.5 billion) Forest Investment Program, which included the largest indigenous people and local communities grant mechanism in the world at the time, and has since supported the sustainable management of close to 400 million hectares of land across Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Between 2012 and 2018, Prof. Verkooijen was also a Professor of Practice of Sustainable Development Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

He has also worked as a Special Advisor to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan, Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, and as a Senior Advisor at the Economic Affairs, nature and Agriculture Ministry of the Netherlands.

Verkooijen holds a PhD from Wageningen University, an MPA from Harvard University, a Master of Science degree in Social and Political Philosophy from the University of Amsterdam, and an environmental engineering degree from HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht. He has written academic papers focusing on sustainability and governance.

In 2022, Verkooijen was awarded a Doctor of Science, Honoris Causa by the University of Nairobi in recognition of his championing of climate resilience for Africa.

He was also honoured with the Green Deal Prize in the 2022 Financial Afrik Awards.