Dr J. Morgan Williams QSO
Sustainability Advisory Panel
In his third phase of life Morgan chaired the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in NZ for eight years until May 2019 and currently chairs the Nominations Committee of the WWF International Council.
He also chairs the Cawthron Foundation, the philanthropic arm of NZ’s largest private research organisation, a Water Futures group that fosters the development of resilient water systems and is a member of the Dairy Tomorrow Steering Group.
Other engagements include judging the annual Aggregate and Quarry Association environmental excellence Awards since 2008 and Chairing an MPI committee allocating erosion control funding to Councils. International work has included leading a team from the Bertelsmann Stiftung Foundation, in Germany, to judge a Tasmanian entry in the global Reinhard Mohn Prize 2013, a prize for Strategies for a Sustainable Future. Dr Williams completed 10 years as NZ’s Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE) in March 2007.
Prior to this he held research and policy roles in agriculture, in the public and private sector, worked widely in the South Pacific, undertook research in Antarctica and represented NZ research interests internationally. Lincoln University awarded Morgan an honorary doctorate in Natural Resources in 2004 and in the 2020 New Year Honours Morgan was awarded the Queens Service Order (QSO) for services to the State and the environment. Morgan grew up on a dairy farm near Kaiapoi in Canterbury - NZ.
He has degrees in ecology from the Universities of Canterbury (BSc and MSc) and Bath, UK (PhD). He shares his environmental and sustainability interests with his wife Pam who completed a PhD in 2008 in the field of tertiary education for sustainability.