Patrick V. Verkooijen

Patrick V. Verkooijen (born May 21, 1969) is the CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) and the Chancellor of the University of Nairobi.
As CEO of GCA, he works closely with Ban Ki-moon, architect of the Paris Agreement as 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. Prior to this role, he was the World Bank Special Representative for Climate Change.
Verkooijen serves as the Distinguished Chair of The Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies at the University of Nairobi, and as the Ban Ki-moon Chair on Climate Adaptation Governance at the University of Groningen.
In 2023 Verkooijen was asked to comment on events surrounding the Paris Climate Accords by The Guardian, submitted opinion pieces to The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, Newsweek and CNN International, and has appeared on BBC, CNBC International and Sky News.
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.
As founding CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), Verkooijen has built a global organization supporting active adaptation projects in over 30 countries. Together with African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina, he is the architect of the world's largest adaptation program, the $25 billion Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP), which has already shaped over $6 of resilient investments in the world's most climate-vulnerable continent since its inception in 2021. Working with heads of state and government from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, Prof. Verkooijen organized more than half a dozen Summits of world leaders aimed at elevating the cause of climate adaptation, including as co-convenor of the Global Commission on Adaptation.
Prior to the GCA, Verkooijen served as the World Bank Special Representative on 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 Ministerials for ministers of finance and planning, and set up the $1.6 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 Professor of Practice of Sustainable Development Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He has also worked as 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.
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 honored with the Green Deal Prize in the 2022 Financial Afrik awards.
In 2024, Verkooijen was appointed by William Ruto, President of Kenya, as Chancellor of the University of Nairobi.
On the evening of March 18, Kenyan President William Ruto and First Lady Rachel Ruto hosted a state banquet at State House in Nairobi in honor of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands where Verkooijen was one of the speakers. In his speech, he acknowledged the accomplishments of president Ruto in building bridges across nations despite the many challenges the country had been faced with in the past years.