Simon Baldwin is an innovator, researcher, entrepreneur, and thought leader in blue, green, and regenerative economies. As a designer and systems architect, he spends his days developing solutions to some of today's most complex and pressing social and environmental challenges. Growing up in a small community on the rugged coast of Tasmania, Simon's early values of family, community, and the natural environment continue to drive and inform much of his work.

After leaving Tasmania for university and traveling throughout Asia, Simon's eyes were opened to the injustices of poverty and environmental degradation and their impacts on current and future generations. As a young academic and researcher, Simon's earliest work in Papua New Guinea focused on harm minimization and strategies to slow the spread of HIV. PNG quickly won a place in his heart, leading him to return many times, advising NGOs and various levels of government on using market mechanisms to address social problems.

With a 25-year career spanning the private, government, and non-profit sectors in over two dozen countries, Simon has concluded that socially and environmentally inclusive economic systems are key to addressing the world's seemingly intractable problems. In his role as Senior Vice President at SecondMuse, Simon oversees business strategy and growth, development, program delivery, and operations across the Asia Pacific. He has collaborated with international organizations, governments, and some of the world's most recognizable brands, including Nike, NASA, and Visa, to build, test, and scale sustainable economic models.

Simon's current portfolio includes projects aimed at reducing ocean plastics and working with multi-sectoral alliances to build nature-positive economies in Brazil, Bhutan, multiple countries across Asia, and Papua New Guinea. His vision is for an interconnected network of regenerative economies linked together locally and across the globe. Working at the forefront of sustainable economic innovation, his circles include some of the world's sharpest minds in economics and technology, and his contributions have been widely published across multiple platforms.

“Right now, we are in a time where there is a confluence of consumer demand, political will, and technology that provides both connectivity and real-time data. It’s a historic moment. It’s not a matter of if nature-based financial mechanisms break through, it’s when.”

“Because of the natural and cultural attributes, the landowner laws, and the team at Niu Nature, the work in PNG is probably the most exciting I’m involved in anywhere, but the challenges are real. There is definitely a huge opportunity for PNG to be one of the main players at the international table, but there is also a danger of failure to launch due to some of the issues that have plagued the country historically. Around the world, this is happening. Let’s hope PNG can be a key part of that.”