Professor Tim G. Benton leads the Environment and Society Programme at Chatham House. He joined Chatham House in 2016 as a distinguished visiting fellow, at which time he was also Dean of Strategic Research Initiatives at the University of Leeds. He served as the ‘champion’ of the UK’s Global Food Security programme, a multi-agency partnership of the UK’s public bodies with an interest in the challenges around food.

A leading advocate on food systems transformation, he has worked with a range of national governments, the EU, G20 and leading businesses and civil society organisations. He was an author of the IPCC’s Special Report on Food, Land and Climate (2019), and the UK’s Climate Change Risk Assessment (2017, 2022).

He has published more than 200 academic papers, many tackling how systems respond to environmental change. His work on sustainability leadership has been recognized with an honorary fellowship of the UK’s Society for the Environment, and a doctorate honoris causa from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. He also remains a (part time) Research Professor at the University of Leeds.