Krishna Kumar

Climate consulting leader with progressive experience advising governments, multilateral agencies, philanthropic funders, and development organisations on climate strategy, resilience planning, sustainability transitions, and mainstreaming climate and environment thinking into organisations and programmes where it did not previously exist. Career defined by the ability to translate complex climate science and policy into actionable advisory — authoring climate vision and strategy documents, designing solution frameworks, building programme team capacity from the ground up, and positioning organisations to lead in an evolving climate market. Equally effective as the strategic advisor authoring a State Action Plan on Climate Change, as the mainstreaming specialist embedding climate-smart approaches across livelihoods, health, and public health verticals within a multi-programme organisation, as the capacity builder training programme teams to think and act on climate, and as the delivery leader directing a USD 11.54 million multilateral programme to GEF's highest performance rating.

Brings a rare combination of deep sectoral expertise spanning adaptation, decarbonisation, nature-based solutions, circularity, climate justice, and climate finance with a strong market-oriented mindset honed through two decades of proposal development, donor strategy, ecosystem engagement, and resource mobilisation across corporate, philanthropic, multilateral, and government markets.

Program Director – Climate Initiatives at TeamLease Foundation (TLF) & American India Foundation Trust (AIF) (2025-05 – 2026-06)

Strategic advisory role under a ClimateWorks Foundation-funded climate portfolio

• Authored the climate vision and strategy framework for AIF's climate programming — a foundational document that defined the organisation's climate adaptation priorities, resilience outcomes, geographic focus, and theory of change, aligning leadership, programme teams, and the funder (ClimateWorks Foundation) around a coherent strategic direction
• Led the mainstreaming of climate and environment considerations across AIF's programme verticals — livelihoods, health, and public health — ensuring that climate resilience was not siloed as a standalone initiative but embedded as a cross-cutting lens in programme design, delivery, monitoring, and learning across the organisation
• Designed and delivered structured climate capacity-building modules for AIF's programme teams — training non-specialist livelihoods, health, and public health professionals to understand climate risks, apply climate-smart approaches in their field operations, and independently integrate resilience thinking into their programme planning
• Built climate fluency at the senior and middle management levels through tailored masterclasses, ensuring that climate mainstreaming was owned by programme teams rather than dependent on a single climate specialist
• Led ecosystem engagement with government officials, think tanks, NGOs, and corporate partners — hosting strategic dialogues on climate resilience priorities, identifying partnership opportunities, and co-creating solutions that aligned community needs with funder expectations
• Drove resource mobilisation and business development for climate resilience and conservation programmes — shaping proposals, strengthening technical narratives, and identifying market opportunities under a philanthropic mandate
• Advised on programmatic alignment with national adaptation policies and international safeguard standards — designing climate risk assessment frameworks and resilience metrics for institutional programme architecture

Deputy Director at Action for Food Production (AFPRO) (2024-04 – 2025-03)

Practice-building and consulting advisory for a national development organisation across 15+ states

• Authored the climate strategy framework within AFPRO's 2024–27 Strategic Plan — a vision document that repositioned the organisation's programming around climate-resilient agriculture, drought and heat-stress adaptation, and watershed development as core institutional priorities across 15+ Indian states
• Drove the mainstreaming of climate and environment considerations across AFPRO's existing programmes