Roberto Lenton is the Executive Director of the Secretariat for International Affairs and Development of the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction at Columbia University. In this capacity, Dr. Lenton is assisting the Institute to become a truly global organization, led by an international Board and embedded within a network of partner institutions working to support developing country efforts to cope more effectively with climate variability and build adaptive capacity for climate change.

Prior to joining the IRI, Dr. Lenton was Director of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Division (SEED) at the United Nations Development Programme in New York, a position he held from 1995 to end-2000. In that position, Dr. Lenton was responsible for setting UNDP policy in natural resources, energy and environment, and overseeing UNDP's special programs in drylands management and capacity building as well as its activities as implementing agency for the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Montreal Protocol.

From 1987 to 1994, Dr. Lenton was Director General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). During that time, Dr. Lenton helped the institute grow from a small, project-driven organization to a global international research center with field programs in Asia, Africa, and Latin America Dr. Lenton has been a member (since 1990) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

From 1977 to 1986, Dr. Lenton was engaged in international development assistance activities with the Ford Foundation in New Delhi and later in New York.

Dr. Lenton, who is a citizen of Argentina, received a Civil Engineering degree from the University of Buenos Aires and Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Water Resources Systems from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A member of MIT's Civil Engineering Faculty from 1974 to 1977, Dr. Lenton is a co-author of Applied Water Resources Systems, as well as the author or co-author of over 50 professional papers on scientific, technical and policy subjects.