Will Dawson Email & Phone Number

United Kingdom

London Area, United Kingdom

Advising Plastic Solutions Fund (PSF) on the growth of their philanthropic partnerships in Europe.

London Area, United Kingdom

Leading on developing the charity's impact model and new philanthropic partnerships.

I founded Open Wave Ltd to provide expert philanthropy consulting and advisory services for non-profits in climate and environment. I am currently working with leading funders and sector organisations in the spaces of plastics, sustainability, behaviour change, policy and finance.

London, England, United Kingdom

London, England, United Kingdom

I co-led a team to raise over $250M for climate action from family, corporate and other funders, far exceeding our initial targets.As co-MD I held accountability for the success of the organisation including Impatience's brief for building international partnerships and managing our team. Day-to-day, I also led the recruitment, design and delivery of bespoke support programmes for some of our most complex clients.Initially joining as a Director of Climate Philanthropy in October 2020, my role was to lead the start up of the organisation with the founders as one of two 'Day 1' hired staff. I took over from the founders as a co-MD in January 2022.

London, United Kingdom

The Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) is a multi-stakeholder initiative that brings together like-minded and leading organisations with shared goals and equal determination in improving the sustainability of the shipping industry in terms of social, environmental and economic impacts.Working with the other trustees I: _manage the charity’s resources working with the Executive Director, considering and approving budgets and accounts _act to ensure the charity is accountable_ensuring that the charity complies with its governing document, charity law requirements and other laws _review the executive officers' strategic plans and actions to ensure that they further the objectives of the charity

London, United Kingdom

I was Forum's global lead on climate change. My role was to design and enable the delivery of a portfolio of collaborations and partnerships that can contribute most powerfully to limiting warming to 1.5°C this century. The core aspects of my role were: _Designing the 5-year theory of change and annual strategies, enabling geography leads in Europe, US and Asia to develop our regional climate programmes based key trends and events._We Mean Business Coalition Power System Team member_Building the profile of the 1.5°C Climate Challenge Lab to its core audiences: funders, businesses and other mission-driven organisations. _Building strategic relationships and collaborations across funders, businesses, non-profits and civil society _Designing, fund-raising for and directing complex collaborative projects and partnerships._Delivery of strategic advice and coaching to increase organisations' climate impact potential. _Contributing leading thinking from our practice as principal spokesperson on the climate crisis.Some of my activities and outcomes were:Led innovation collaboration including O2 and FirstGroup with a budget of £3.4 million that developed and launched ground-breaking UK mobility-as-a-service mobile app ‘travly’ in the UK.I conceptualised the online matchmaking platform powerpaired.org which launched in 2019 to break the barrier for community energy groups to find willing owners of rooftops and land to host renewable energy projects on. I oversaw the fundraising and delivery of the £250,000 programme.I expanded Forum’s mobility programme to the US, launching MOVING US at New York Climate Week in 2019, to develop a network of city innovation CoLabs to enable breakthroughs in sustainable urban transportation. I led the design and delivery of capacity-building and coaching programmes for major funders to shift their strategy to system level change, including for all 200 EIT Climate-KiC staff and senior managers and the Bosch Foundation.

London, United Kingdom

I business developed, fund raised for and directed the delivery of Forum's energy system change programme of projects which deliver both long-term energy system transformations working with others in the UK, India, US and Asia Pacific and strategies for businesses, NGOs and governments globally. As a member of the management team I contributed to the design and implementation of our corporate strategy, structure, resourcing models and management systems. I held responsibility for the design and development of our business model - a £6 million turnover 'consultancy style' - to maximise profitability whilst controlling financial risk. Some of my activities and outcomes are: _I started the multi-award winning Community Energy Coalition grouping of 40 UK civil society and sustainable energy groups which have worked together since 2011 to rapidly scale the sector._I led engagement with the Secretary of State for Energy which saw the UK become the first country to set out a Community Energy Strategy, within which I personally proposed innovative policies for including the right for local communities to own a share of renewable energy projects._I led a team of twenty facilitators to the UK Government and energy intensive industries (e.g. steel) to develop and agree Decarbonisation Action Plans. _I developed and saw Unilever adopt world-leading targets on energy and climate that were launched in time to influence the Paris Climate Agreement negotiations. Unilever was unique in committing to carbon neutrality, 100% renewable electricity and ending all coal use across all global manufacturing sites by 2020. _ I developed and oversaw Forum's programme to deliver cutting-edge climate risk advice to companies. _ Internally, I led the review of Forum's £6-million turnover business model making recommended changes that saw an increase in profitability.

London, United Kingdom

In this role, I focused on creating sustainable financial products and services in the areas of enterprise finance, venture capital and clean technologies. I managed Forum's corporate partnerships with financial institutions including RSA Insurance, Barclays, Aviva and Prudential. My achievements included:_Leading the innovation of a new financial mechanism for energy efficiency upgrades of shipping fleets working with the Sustainable Shipping Initiative. _Leading the development of new private housing sector finance schemes to pilot in the Bristol City Region_Developing and successfully lobbying for the introduction of a new feed-in tariff for community energy organisations _Writing the first how-to guide for community organisations and local authorities on revolving funds for renewable energy projects under the feed-in tariff, renewable heat incentive and retrofit financing _Developing and leading a new collaborative innovation programme 'Climate Finance' in 2008 sponsored by the South East of England Development Agency (SEEDA) that supported the starting up of Low Carbon Hub and OVESCo now international leading community energy groups.

_Analysis of the contribution technology investment vehicles make to sustainable development _Created a new strategy for fostering sustainable innovation within SMEs _Conducted feasibility study into creating regional sustainable enterprise investment funds for the charitable trust of a major European brewer. The main part of this was to create innovative ways to create a sustainable transformation within enterprises using the power of financial markets._Designed an innovative approach to enterprise finance based on the localisation of investment funded to align investor and portfolio interests with sustainability

Brussels Area, Belgium

REACH Unit, DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission, Brussels Innovation, competitiveness and environmental aspects and socio-economic analysis methodology of the REACH (Chemicals) Directive

Msc., Environmental Technology, Distinction

Multi-disciplinary masters degrees across environmental science, law, economics and political science. Awarded Research Council scholarship.

Basecamp, System Change For Sustainability

Learning tools and methods to lead ambitious initiatives and engage others. Navigating five core capabilities for system change: 1.

Technology Ventures Fellowship, Entrepreneurship/Entrepreneurial Studies

Major MBA modules in Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Finance Created and presented an investment fund plan for renewable energy.

Bsc, Natural Sciences, 2:1

Majors in Biology and Earth Sciences Interdisciplinary scientific degree, specialising in environmental science