Claire Warmenbol

Claire is a strategic communications professional with 20 years experience shaping global campaigns, narratives and coalitions in sustainable development, nature conservation, and climate action. An alumna of Yale’s Executive Education and the University of Melbourne, she joined ICIMOD as Head of Communications in Kathmandu, Nepal in August 2026. In this role she leads the communications team across ICIMOD’s eight regional member countries and strategic programmes, translating complex science into narratives that drive policy, instigate change, support investments, and amplify the voices of mountain communities.

Prior to her current role, Claire served as Senior Communications Consultant for The Planetary Guardians at Virgin Unite, helping elevate the science of the Planetary Boundaries framework, and as Head of Communications for the Nature Positive initiative with the Rockefeller Foundation, coordinating communications across a coalition of 27 organisations. Her earlier career spans roles in communications and knowledge management with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Geneva and Brussels, the United Nations EU Office, the BBC documentary series ‘Nature Inc’, and the European Environment Bureau, alongside regional assignments in Oceania, Asia, and Africa that deepened her expertise in cross-cultural engagement and multilingual communication.

Claire is a member of Global Optimism and Climate Bridges, with a particular interest in gender equality, renewable energy, and health and wellbeing. Convinced that environmental challenges require political action, she served as an elected Green Party politician in Nyon, Switzerland. Twenty years living in the Swiss Alps gave her a firsthand understanding of glacial melt, water security, and mountain livelihoods, issues that now shape her work across the Hindu Kush Himalaya, with hiking boots traded from one majestic mountain range to another.