Santiago Aparicio

Based in Colombia, Santiago Aparicio, is the manager of Americas Flyways Initiative, an alliance powered by Audubon, Birdlife, and CAF Latin America Development Bank. Santiago is an environmental policy and conservation expert with more than 15 years of extensive experience in the public and private sectors, with international donors and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in designing, leading, and delivering innovative programs to tackle climate and biodiversity challenges. He has an academic background in government and international relations and received a Chevening Scholarship to pursue a MA in Applied Imagination at Central Saint Martins, School of Art and Design, University of the Arts London.

Prior to joining Audubon, he was the Director of Environment and Sustainable Development at the National Planning Department of Colombia and has been working as an advisor to international institutions such as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Resource Institute (WRI), and have worked with local NGO´s on the ground projects. He is an environmental entrepreneur who co-founded two Social Enterprises: A B Corp focused on promoting the reduction of single-use plastics through reusable shopping bags to reduce plastic contamination and a social enterprise focused on delivering solar lamps and systems to communities without reliable energy access.