John Tobin-de la Puente

Biography

John Tobin is a corporate lawyer and a tropical ecologist with over two decades of finance industry experience. Following a career in finance, he shifted his attention to the growing area of corporate sustainability and became managing director and global head of sustainability at Credit Suisse. In this position, he pioneered a variety of initiatives and policies aimed at improving environmental and social risk management in the banking industry and addressing the growing demand for sustainable investment products and services. In 2016, he transitioned into a faculty position at Cornell University, where he now teaches corporate sustainability, environmental finance, and related topics to undergraduate and graduate students in business and public affairs. His research focuses on the use of financial tools to generate non-financial returns for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.

Tobin consults widely on matters of sustainability strategy, reporting, and disclosure, environmental and social risk management, stakeholder relations and reputational risk, and related areas for financial institutions, corporates, and civil society organizations. In addition, he actively engages with industry and civil society to develop financial solutions to sustainability problems, including as chair of the board of directors of International Union for Conservation of Nature-United States (IUCN-US) and as co-founder of the Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation (CPIC). Tobin has extensive leadership and governance experience at the board level, particularly with entities in the areas of environment, science, and education, and he currently chairs the board of directors of the IUCN-US. He holds a Ph.D. from the department of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University, a JD from Harvard Law School and a BS in biology from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Education

PhD Harvard University, 1995
JD Harvard University, 1995
BS University Of California, Los Angeles, 1986

Research

• Karolyi, G. Andrew; Tobin-de la Puente, John. "Biodiversity finance: A call for research into financing nature"Financial Management. 52.2 (2023): 231-251
• The Little Book of Investing in Nature: A simple guide to financing life on Earth, Ed. John Tobin-de la Puente, Ed. A. Mitchell. Global Canopy. (2021): 224
• Deutz, Andrew; Heal, Geoffrey; Niu, Rose; Swanson, Eric; Townshend, Terry; et al. "Financing Nature: Closing the Global Biodiversity Financing Gap". The Paulson Institute, The Nature Conservancy, and the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. (2020): 258 pp
• Rodewald, A.D.; Arcese, P.; Tobin-de la Puente, John; Sayer, J.; Hawkins, F.; et al. "Innovative finance for conservation: roles for ecologists and practitioners"Issues in Ecology. 22 (2020): 1-35

Awards

• Kendall S. Carpenter Award for Advising (2022) Cornell University
• Teaching Recognition Award for Excellence in Sustainable Finance Education (2021) Financial Times and the Impact and Sustainable Finance Faculty Consortium