Catherine McKenna

Catherine McKenna is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the climate change advisory firm, Climate and Nature Solutions. She is Canada’s former Minister of Environment and Climate Change and former Minister of Infrastructure and Communities. She is Chair of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Expert Group on Net-Zero Commitments for companies, financial institutions, cities, and regions. Catherine founded Women Leading on Climate and hosts its new podcast. She is a member of Temasek’s Global Sustainability Advisory Panel and Singapore’s International Advisory Panel on Carbon Credits, and is a Visiting Professor in Practice at the Grantham Institute at the London School of Economics. She serves on the advisory boards of several private sector companies and is a frequent global speaker on climate action, net-zero leadership, and women’s empowerment.

Prior to entering politics, Catherine practiced corporate, trade, and competition law at leading firms in Canada and Indonesia. She served as lead negotiator on the Timor Sea Treaty with the UN Peacekeeping Mission in East Timor. She founded Canadian Lawyers Abroad (now Level Justice) and taught in the Master of Global Affairs program at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. She studied at the University of Toronto, the London School of Economics, and McGill University Faculty of Law, and is called to the Bars of Ontario and New York.

Catherine was named a Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur by the French government, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and holds an honorary Doctor of Science degree from McMaster University. She is the author of Run Like a Girl, a memoir about ambition, resilience, and fighting for change. She is a mother of three children and an avid open-water swimmer.

Updated March, 2026