Jon-Paul Bowles is a Senior Advisor at I4DI, where he helps organizations design and refine strategies that generate social, environmental, and financial returns — and build the cross-sector partnerships needed to sustain them. His approach is rooted in a conviction that market-based solutions to social and environmental challenges will define the next generation of development impact, and that the organizations doing this work need to be as adaptive and data-driven as the markets they operate in.

Jon-Paul’s career began on the ground in Latin America, where he spent years at World Vision — first in Honduras building coalitions to combat child labor, then managing a $25 million portfolio of development programs across the Latin America and Caribbean region, and ultimately joining World Vision’s global headquarters to help design and pilot a partnership-based programming model rolled out to nearly 100 country offices. From there, he moved into sustainable tourism and destination management — at the United Nations Foundation’s World Heritage Alliance, at Sustainable Travel International where he built partnerships with National Geographic and the Inter-American Development Bank, and through his own consultancy, Destination Management Advisors, where he helps rural communities make tourism work for local economies and ecosystems.

What connects the thread is a talent for getting the right people in the room and building something that lasts. Jon-Paul holds an M.A. in Public Communication from American University and a B.A. in Political Science and Communication from Furman University.