Team
Gary White
Co-Founder, CEO, Board Chairman
Gary White manages the overall operations of WaterEquity, bringing 25 years of experience in sustainable innovation in water and sanitation. In addition to founding and leading WaterEquity, Gary is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Water.org, a nonprofit organization that harnesses philanthropy to empower people in the developing world to gain access to safe […]
Gary White manages the overall operations of WaterEquity, bringing 25 years of experience in sustainable innovation in water and sanitation.
In addition to founding and leading WaterEquity, Gary is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Water.org, a nonprofit organization that harnesses philanthropy to empower people in the developing world to gain access to safe water and sanitation. (Water.org is the resulting organization of the July 2009 merger between WaterPartners, co-founded by Gary in 1990, and H2O Africa, co-founded by actor Matt Damon). He developed Water.org’s WaterCredit Initiative, creating new financing options for families living in poverty to meet their water and sanitation needs.
Gary is a leading advisor in the water and sanitation space, counseling organizations such as the Skoll Foundation, Bank of America Foundation, PepsiCo Foundation, IKEA Foundation, and the Caterpillar Foundation on responses to the global water crisis. Gary is a founding board member of the Millennium Water Alliance and Water Advocates.
Gary was selected as a Skoll Foundation Social Entrepreneur in 2009 and a Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur in 2012. In 2011, he was named to the TIME 100 list of the world’s most influential people. In 2014 he was named to the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Water. In 2017, Gary was awarded the Forbes 400 Lifetime Achievement Award for Social Entrepreneurship.
Gary’s educational credentials include three degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Missouri University of Science & Technology.
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Matt Damon
Co-Founder
Academy Award winner Matt Damon is an actor, screenwriter, producer, and humanitarian, who has garnered international acclaim for his work both on- and off-screen. Inspired during international travel with his family throughout Mexico and Guatemala as a youth, Matt has long been devoted to environmental and social issues. Learning about the immense challenges of accessing […]
Academy Award winner Matt Damon is an actor, screenwriter, producer, and humanitarian, who has garnered international acclaim for his work both on- and off-screen.
Inspired during international travel with his family throughout Mexico and Guatemala as a youth, Matt has long been devoted to environmental and social issues. Learning about the immense challenges of accessing safe water and sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa, Matt was inspired to create the H20 Africa Foundation. In 2009, he teamed up with Gary White to merge their organizations and launch Water.org, and in 2017, to create WaterEquity.
For his work with Water.org, Matt and WaterEquity co-founder Gary White were recognized among TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world. He also received the Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum and the Environmental Media Award from The Environmental Media Association. Matt has become one of the world’s experts on water and sanitation issues through a decade of participation in his organizations’ work, including site visits to multiple countries, strategy development, advocacy, and engagement with institutions such as the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.
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