Aarthi Ananthanarayanan

With 17 years of experience helping nonprofits, foundations, and businesses design, launch, and scale environmental initiatives, Aarthi is a capable generalist and plastics nerd who can dive deep into new topics, untangle messy details, and distill the big picture. She thrives at the intersections—between policy and science, research and advocacy, strategy and execution. She enjoys turning big ideas into implementable ones—through sharp analysis, purposeful project management, and assembling the right people to make it happen.

Most recently, Aarthi built and led Ocean Conservancy’s Climate and Plastics Initiative, developing strategies to engage investors and financial regulators. This work led to invited testimony before the Senate Climate Change Task Force, an Earthshot Prize nomination, and a feature on S&P’s sustainable finance podcast. She presented The Ugly Truth about Big Oil, Plastics, and Our Climate at TEDxPortland. Before this, she helped launch Ocean Conservancy’s plastics and cities initiative, as well as a program in Vietnam.

Throughout her career, Aarthi has worn many hats—staffing a CEO, leading strategic planning for multimillion-dollar budgets, managing a global team of fisheries scientists and modelers, and launching new programs in South Asia and Latin America. She began her career at CEA Consulting, where she spent 6 years advising major environmental nonprofits on program strategy, evaluation, and helping them recruit staff in Asia, Latin America, and Europe. She speaks French, Tamil, and some Spanish, and is based in Washington, DC.