Dr. Tariq Banuri is the chairman of the Pakistani Higher Education Commission, an independent, constitutionally established institution, with a mandate to finance, oversee, regulate, and accredit all institutions of higher learning in Pakistan. Banuri moves into the role from his prior positions as an economics professor and associate director of the U.S.-Pakistan Centers for Advanced Studies in Water at the University of Utah and Director of the UN Division for Sustainable Development. Earlier, he had been instrumental in the design of a number of institutions and networks on sustainable development, including the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), the Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP), the Asia Centre of the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), the UN Office of Sustainable Development (UNOSD), the Ring Alliance, the Sustainable Mekong Research Network, the Human Development Foundation of North America, and the Great Transition Initiative.