Maryam Golnaraghi’s 25-year career has been dedicated to pioneering climate resilience, climate risk management and decarbonisation initiatives. Her experience spans senior executive roles, entrepreneurship, and international advisory positions across the private sector, public sector, and United Nations. 

As Director of Climate Change & Environment, she collaborates with CEOs and executive teams of re/insurance companies, multilateral organisation, such as the International Energy Agency and Clean Energy Ministerial, and industrial platforms to boost the industry's contributions to addressing climate change. Her most recent work focuses on:

• Innovative risk-management and risk-sharing solutions to unlock capital and expedite the scaled deployment of emerging solutions, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) and green hydrogen for industrial decarbonisation;
• Improving the insurability of extreme weather events by scaling effective resilience measures with incentives for housing, industrial sectors and energy infrastructure systems;
• Advancing climate risk modelling for business decision-making and regulatory reporting; and
• The implications of climate litigation against corporations and governments for insurers and investors.

Maryam was named InsuranceERM's Climate and Sustainability Champion of the Year (2026) and one of Climate Insider's 20 Leading Women on Climate Tech and Innovation (2024). She was also among InsuranceERM's top 20 Most Influential on Climate Change (2020) and one of The Leaders' Magazine's top 100 influencers on ‘Resilience’ (2020). 

She has provided advice to governments companies and boards of directors and been featured in platforms such as The Economist Climate Summit, Wall Street Journal Pro, BBC Radio, World Economic Forum, InsuranceERM, and Risk.net.

Maryam is an adjunct professor at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia.

Maryam's previous roles include Chief of Disaster Risk Reduction at the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization (2004–2014), where she headed up an international program and delivered capacity development projects in climate and disaster risk management to governments across more than 40 countries. She also led UN initiatives on Early Warning Systems and Emergency Preparedness. She served as an advisor to former US President Clinton in his role as the UN Special Envoy on Tsunamis following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. 

In 1997, she founded and served as the CEO of Climate Risk Solutions, Inc., a research and advisory firm specialising in advanced climate risk analytics and risk management. Her clients included US federal and state governments, public utilities, and companies in the energy, agriculture, finance, and insurance sectors.

In addition, Maryam mentors climate tech startups through the Creative Destruction Lab; was a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, and serves on several boards of directors, as well as advisory committees in the public and private sectors. She has authored numerous reports on climate change and a book on multi-hazard early warning systems (Springer). 

Maryam holds a PhD in Physical Oceanography and an MSc in Applied Physics from Harvard University, and a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University.