Steve Howard

Activist, Investor, Social entrepreneur

⸻ Steve currently serves as Vice Chair Sustainability at Temasek, having joined the firm in 2021 as Chief Sustainability Officer. In this role, he helps guide climate strategy and sustainable investment initiatives for the global investment company. He helped establish Temasek’s dedicated climate investment platform GenZero where he is a member of the board and chairs the investment committee. He is a member of impact investing firm Leapfrog’s Global Leadership Council and chairs the firms climate advisory board. He also helped establish the Temasek BlackRock joint venture Decarbonization Partners where he is on the board and investment committee. Previously, Steve was Chief Sustainability Officer at IKEA Group and a member of its executive leadership team. From 2011 to 2017, he led the development of IKEA’s “People and Planet Positive” strategy, overseeing over €3 billion in sustainability investments across wind power, recycling, and sustainable forestry. He also helped grow IKEA’s sustainable product range into a €2 billion business and launched its solar PV retail offering. A serial social entrepreneur, Steve co-founded We Mean Business, a coalition supporting ambitious climate action. Earlier, he founded and led The Climate Group, building influential partnerships with governments and businesses to accelerate the global transition to net zero. Whilst at the Climate Group he launched several initiatives including Climate Week NYC. More recently he co-founded Tilt Collective a global initiative promoting plant-rich food systems. He holds a PhD in Ecophysiology and Environmental Physics and began his career as an ecologist working with WWF before working in consultancy, including as a partner at ERM. He has served on the board of Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) and co-chaired the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Environmental and Natural Resource Security and was Chair of FSC UK. Steve is widely recognized as a pioneering voice in sustainable business. Outside of work Steve lives with his family and is a keen runner. He is described by his son as a “possibilist.”

Ending global warming, reversing the decline in nature and tackling inequality in all forms.

Time to rewire the system