Joël Houdet (Ph.D.) is an internationally recognised expert on business and biodiversity, as well as on natural capital measurement, valuation, accounting and reporting. He has advised more than 50 major companies and international organisations/governments over 13 years. He has pioneered double-entry bookkeeping for biodiversity and GHG emissions.

The Biological Diversity Protocol (BD Protocol) Lead at the Endangered Wildlife Trust / National Biodiversity and Business Network of South Africa and a Senior Research Fellow at the Albert Luthuli Centre for Responsible Leadership, he undertakes research, capacity building, policy analysis and advisory work in the governance and management of world’s natural capital, biodiversity and ecosystem services.

He was a Technical Group member of the WBCSD-led consortium in charge of drafting the Natural Capital Protocol and an expert working on the scoping phase of regional / sub-regional assessments for Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Joël holds a PhD in Management Sciences from AgroParisTech (France), a Masters in Practicing Accounting from Monash University (Australia) and Bachelor of Sciences from Rhodes University (South Africa). He also has 5 years’ experience in the think tank industry in Paris. He worked for OREE / CREED – Veolia Environment as a research engineer and advisor to CAC40 companies, SMEs and public organizations on biodiversity and ecosystem services issues.