Paula DiPerna

Paula DiPerna is a strategic environmental and philanthropic policy advisor, and writer. She served formerly as President of the International division of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), with special responsibility for China, India, Korea and other emerging markets. DiPerna also served formerly as President of the Joyce Foundation, a major U.S. philanthropy with public policy emphasis known for its innovative approaches; as Executive Vice President for Recruitment and Public Policy of CCX, and as Vice President for International Affairs for the Cousteau Society, whose principal was oceans pioneer Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

Currently, DiPerna is a Strategic Advisor for North America for the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), and also serves on the Advisory Board of the NTR Foundation, an environmental and leadership development foundation with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, as well as Global Kids, based in New York City. She is a monthly columnist for www.forbes.com and Womens Advisor Forum, an online newsletter for executive women.

While at CCX, DiPerna led the development and expansion of CCX membership among emitters of greenhouse gases (ghgs), which eventually became the largest baseline of capped emissions of any nation in the world. She also led domestic and international policy efforts. DiPerna has extensive experience in China, where she helped establish the Tianjin Climate Exchange (TCX) with CCX Chairman, financial innovator Dr. Richard L. Sandor, and also served on the founding Board of Directors. (CCX, itself founded by Dr. Sandor, operated a legally binding cap-and-trade emissions trading program from 2003-2010, and was the world’s first and North America’s only integrated greenhouse gas emissions reduction and trading system for all six greenhouse gases, with affiliates worldwide. In 2010, CCX and its affiliates including the European Climate Exchange (ECX) were acquired by ICE, the largest commodities exchange in the world.)

As President of the Joyce Foundation, Ms. DiPerna oversaw all grant making and policy, representing roughly $40 million in annual philanthropy.

As Vice-President for International Affairs at the Cousteau Society, Ms. DiPerna was responsible for national and international environmental policy, interacting with the U.S. Congress, Heads of State, the U.N., etc. At the Cousteau Society, from 1979 to1997, Ms. DiPerna also wrote and co- produced a dozen Cousteau documentary films and travelled extensively around the world, including having lived for a year in the Amazon regions of Brazil, Colombia and Peru.

Ms. DiPerna has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility and LEAD-International, among other organizations. In 2001, Ms. DiPerna founded the Jobs and Environment Initiative, which quantifies jobs creation benefits of environmental activities in the U.S.

DiPerna was an Eisenhower Fellow in 1998, an international program for emerging leaders.

DiPerna is a widely published author. She has written numerous newspaper and magazine articles on a variety of subjects, a novel and several non-fiction books. “Cluster Mystery: Epidemic and the Children of Woburn, Mass.” (1985) became a touchstone of environmental epidemiology.
DiPerna is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Women’s Executive Forum. She is a frequent panelist and conference speaker and is based in New York City.