Dr. Gopalasamy Reuben Clements has 18 years of experience as a conservation scientist in Southeast Asia. He received an MSc and BSc in Biology from the National University of Singapore, and a PhD in Conservation Science from James Cook University, Australia. During an 8-year career in academia where he finished as a full Professor and served as an Associate Dean and Chief Scientist, Reuben published over 100 articles that include nature, and his work has been featured in the BBC, New York Times and National Geographic.

Before that, Reuben served as the Species Manager of WWF-Malaysia’s tiger and rhino programs, and co-founded a Malaysian non-profit known as Rimba, which raised more than USD4 million over 10 years to help conserve threatened species and ecosystems in Peninsular Malaysia. In one of Rimba’s conservation projects in Kenyir, Terengganu, Reuben’s team helped nab 36 poachers, removed over 300 snares, and helped create a 30,000-hectare protected area known as the Kenyir State Park. By 2020, Rimba successfully incubated four new organizations, one of which is Nature Based Solutions Sdn Bhd, which currently aims to develop conservation finance mechanisms to conserve threatened landscapes in Malaysia.

Reuben is currently a Sustainable Finance Specialist with the Zoological Society of London in the UK, where he is not only engaging with ASEAN finance institutions to assess biodiversity and deforestation risks in their portfolios, but also developing projects harnessing nature-based solutions in ASEAN and Central Africa.

Formerly a Consultant with the World Bank, Reuben still serves as an Editorial Board Member with the Elsevier journal Climate Change Ecology and the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, and is a Biodiversity Expert with Climate Governance Malaysia, and a consultant with the Asia Foundation. Reuben recently reached the finals 2023 Rolex Award for Enterprise, which awarded him a grant to continue his conservation endeavors.