Featured on November 15, 2023
Featured on November 15, 2023
Gary White is the CEO and co-founder of Water.org and Water Equity, nonprofit organizations dedicated to empowering people in the developing world to gain access to safe water and sanitation. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Missouri S&T in 1985 and 1987, respectively, and is a member of Missouri S&T’s inaugural class of Alumni of Influence for his work to empower millions of people in need with access to safe water and sanitation.
White and Water.org co-founder Matt Damon were named to TIME magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people. White also has been awarded the Forbes 400 Lifetime Achievement Award for Social Entrepreneurship, was named to the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Water, and was selected as Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur and a Skoll Foundation Social Entrepreneur.
White developed Water.org’s WaterCredit solution, creating new financing options for poor populations to meet their water supply and sanitation needs. He also developed and leads WaterEquity, an impact investment manager dedicated to ending the global water crisis, with an exclusive focus on mobilizing private investments in water and sanitation throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Bringing more than 30 years of experience to work on solving the global water and sanitation crisis, White is a leading advisor in the water and sanitation space, counseling organizations such as the IKEA Foundation, Inditex, Reckitt, AB InBev, Amazon Web Services, the Water Resilience Coalition, and Bank of America on responses to the global water crisis. He is also a founding board member of the Millennium Water Alliance and Water Advocates.
In addition to his two degrees from S&T, White also holds a degree in environmental engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.