The World Wide Fund for Nature has announced that Pakistani academic Dr Adil Najam has been chosen to lead the organisation as its president.

Dr Najam will take charge from July 1 as interim President Neville Isdell’s tenure ends.

“Adil Najam is an outstanding individual to take on the role of President of WWF’s International Board. He is well-known as a pioneering thinker and highly influential expert amongst global policy makers,” Isdell said.

This will not be the first association with WWF for Dr Najam who has trustee of the organisation’s international board for eight years.

Dr Adil Najam has served as the dean of Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, as well as the vice-chancellor of Lahore University of Management Sciences.

He has been a part of the Committee for Development Policy by the United Nations Secretary General and has also been awarded the Sitara-e-Imtiaz by Pakistan’s government.

WWF’s statment describes Dr Najam as a public policy scholar whose work focuses on ‘conservation and environment, sustainable and human development, and climate change in the Global South.’

“I am greatly humbled to be invited to become the next President of WWF at a time when its long-standing mission of working to heal and sustain the natural world and its life-supporting systems has become more urgent than ever,” Dr Najam said.

“I am deeply honoured to be able to work again with dedicated ‘pandas’ all across the world – members, partners, experts, and colleagues – whose dedication and commitment to creating a just, fair and sustainable planet for all its people and for nature has always been a source of great inspiration for me.”

WWF presidents can serve for two consecutive four-year terms.