Past team

Karen Mathiasen, Past Chair

Gates Foundation

Karen Mathiasen is a Senior Program Officer with the Development Policy and Finance team at the Gates Foundation. She is a former senior civil servant who worked at the U.S. Treasury in the Office of International Affairs under Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama. She ran several regional offices covering the Middle East and North Africa, South and Central Asia, and Central and Southeastern Europe. Mathiasen also spent six years during the Obama Administration heading the Office of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and served as the U.S. Director of the World Bank. She is a strong proponent of environmental justice, especially in the context of economic development programs, and served on the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health to build evidence and awareness around the impact of pollution.

Richard Fuller, Founder and Past Chair

Pure Earth

Fuller is an Australian-born, U.S.-based engineer, entrepreneur, and environmentalist best known for his work in global pollution remediation. He is founder and president of the nonprofit, Pure Earth (formerly known as Blacksmith Institute), dedicated to solving pollution problems in low- and middle-income countries, where human health is at risk. To scale up proven solutions and bring together LMICs and funders to collaborate on addressing pollution and health, Mr. Fuller formed the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP) in 2012. From 2012 to 2021, he served as chair of the GAHP board and now sits as a non-voting Observer to the Board. In October 2017, he co-chaired the seminal Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health. Fuller is also the founder and absentee Chairman of Great Forest Inc., one of the leading sustainability consulting companies in the U.S. He is the author of The Brown Agenda, published in 2015.

Partnering to Solve Pollution Problems