A graduate of Yale University (B.A. History) and holder of a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University, Monty Simus spent several decades at the nexus of impact investing, catalytic philanthropy, and innovative social finance, building and scaling high-growth, purpose-driven, commercial and philanthropic initiatives that served millions in the Global South. Internationally recognized, he has contributed a range of papers on environmental issues and joined The Ocean Cleanup in 2024 to lead the Global Public Affairs and Blue Finance team’s work with governments and international organizations to rid our rivers and oceans of plastic pollution.

Monty is also the founder of Water Politics, a geopolitical risk advisory and consulting firm examining the global environmental, political, security, economic, and social impacts resulting from the increasing scarcity of — and competition over — limited freshwater resources, and is a member of the Treatied Spaces Research Group based at the University of Birmingham, U.K., a research center bridging disciplines and sectors to make traditional Indigenous knowledge, treaties, and environmental concerns central to global education, policy, and public understanding.  He is conducting interdisciplinary PhD research on one of the world’s primary sites of contemporary water cultures in profound conflict: Pebble Mine, Bristol Bay, Alaska.  Monty’s PhD project explores the new, global dependence on energy transition minerals; how Indigenous and non-Indigenous imperatives intersect within debates on their potential development; and what Pebble Mine — one of the largest known undeveloped copper-gold-molybdenum deposits in the world that sits aside Bristol Bay, the world’s largest salmon fishery — can teach the world about growing tensions between decarbonization and conservation.