Muralee Thummarukudy

Muralee Thummarukudy is currently the Chief of Disaster Risk Reduction at United Nations Environment Programme, based in Geneva, Switzerland. He holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He is an Alumnus of the International Leadership Academy (United Nations University) and a Beahrs’ fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.

Muralee has over 25 years of experience in Environment and Disaster Management around the world. Between 1995-2003, Muralee was Corporate Advisor to Shell operated oil companies in Middle East and South East Asia, dealing with oil industry related emergencies. Since 2003, Muralee has been with the United Nations Environment Programme. As Operations Manager for the Post Conflict and Disaster Management Branch, Muralee coordinated projects ranging from assessment to capacity building and clean up in all over the world.

As a post crisis environment management expert, Muralee was involved in post disaster response and follow up to 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, the earthquake in Haiti, Tsunami in Japan, floods in Thailand and the earthquake in Nepal. Muralee also has been involved in post conflict follow up in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, occupied Palestinian territories, Sudan,  Liberia and Ukraine.

Since 2009, Muralee focuses his work on Disaster Risk Reduction and is engaged in global advocacy for factoring in Ecosystems into National DRR Strategies. Muralee plays a leading role in the Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (http://www.pedrr.net).

He is also a member of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Committee of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna and Advisory Board of the Center for Natural Resources and Development in Cologne.

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Muralee Thummarukudy