Debra Tan

Tan heads CWR, a non-profit that aims to “mainstream” water & climate risks into financial decision-making & corporate strategies. She built CWR from an idea into a 'go-to' resource in the global climate water risk conversation. Today, CWR’s decade+ of work on assessing and valuing risk exposure to rising water scarcity & coastal threats is highlighted in TCFD’s Knowledge Hub, technical guides for disclosure (IFRS/CDSB, SBTN, CDP) and various textbooks on water risk valuation. Tan’s research & reports unpacking water risks with financial institutions & government-related organisations in China were ground-breaking and instrumental in understanding not just China's but future global water challenges; they are widely cited: by media, finance to the IPCC.

She is published by Springer Nature, Palgrave MacMillan, China policy journals and was a contributing author to the latest IPCC report “Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability”. Tan has advised numerous corporates, MNCs and FIs and currently sits on the Board of Governors of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). Before water, Tan spent over a decade in finance.

She spends her spare time exploring Himalayan glaciers.