Scott Vaughan is the International Chief Advisor to the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) and an IISD Senior Fellow. Until early 2019, he was president and CEO of IISD and chair of the IISD Experimental Lakes Area (IISD-ELA) board. Before his work at IISD, Scott served as Canada’s federal Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development; director of the Department of Sustainable Development, Organization of American States (OAS); Visiting Scholar, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; head of Economics and Trade, NAFTA Environment Commission; and counsellor, World Trade Organization (WTO).

At UN Environment, he initiated the UNEP Financial Initiative (UNEP FI), headed the UNEP Environment and Trade work, and worked in the office of the UNEP executive director. Scott has also worked in economic and corporate affairs in the head office at RBC Financial Group and in the office of the Canadian federal Minister of the Environment. Current affiliations include associate with the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre, associate editor of the Chinese Journal of Urban and Environment Studies and member of the advisory committee of the Global Development Center, Boston University. He is a graduate of Mount Allison University, Dalhousie University, the University of Edinburgh and the London School of Economics.