C40 appoints new Chair and Executive Director

Mark Watts, a director at the global consultancy Arup, has joined the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) as its new chief executive alongside the new Chair for C40, Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro.

Watts’ ties with C40 go back to the foundation of the organisation as he was the officer in London’s City Hall tasked by then Mayor Ken Livingstone to build a new network of major cities. The C20, as it was at the time of its launch in 2005, grew out of conversations London was having with cities such as Stockholm, San Francisco and Toronto about forming a strategy on climate change.

“The reason for creating something new was that we found that the cities we could have conversations with most easily were ones of a similar size, more than three million people, as they tend to have a similar infrastructure and similar scale budgets and responsibilities,” said Watts. “Whereas the conversations in ICLEI and the many other good city organisations were much more diffuse because they were so much bigger with small towns as well as larger cities.”

As well appointing Watts as Executive Director, Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro is taking over from Michael Bloomberg, the outgoing Mayor of New York as Chair of C40. At Mayor Paes’ request, Bloomberg has agreed to stay on as President of the C40 Board.

“What it is interesting is there is a new Chair at the same time, Mayor Paes, who is preaching a message of continuity but who will also bring something new which is the perspective of the global south,” said Watts, who took up his role at the London office of C40 today. “I hope I will be able to help the cities in the developing world be more active in the network but particularly I hope to help the richer cities learn from the innovation which is happening in our global south cities.”

As C40 Chair, Mayor Paes will set the broad strategy of the organisation as head of the steering committee of 11 cities in terms of discussions on expanding membership and making members more active within the network.

“I am very excited about carrying forward the organisation and building on Mayor Bloomberg’s legacy,” said Mayor Paes. “As the world becomes more urbanised, particularly in Brazil and Latin America, our work going forward will be critical to creating a healthier, safer planet for all of our citizens.”

The role of the C40 Board of Directors, which will include Jay Carson, the previous Executive Director, is to monitor Watts’ management team and oversee the proper use of funding through a data driven approach to managing C40 business.

As well as presiding over the Board, Michael Bloomberg will continue to fund the organisation through Bloomberg Philanthropies, which announced this week a further US$10 million in commitments. Other new donations to C40 include US$8.5 million from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and US$9 million from Realdania. Both will have seats on the Board of Directors.

Eduardo Paes will formally take over as Chair at the C40 Summit in Johannesburg in February 2014.

Additional reporting by Nick Michell.