Rick Wayman

Rick Wayman is a values-driven executive with 20 years of experience in organizations ranging from business startups to international NGOs, combining visionary leadership, meticulous program planning, and efficient operations management to meet and exceed goals. His extensive experience building, managing, and participating in diverse and effective teams – both large and small – has led to significant achievements, including a new treaty at the United Nations and the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.

Rick has a Bachelor’s degree in International Business and a Master’s degree in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management. While most of his work throughout his career has been in climate and peace issues, his business and nonprofit management background provides him with leadership skills that are transferable across any given mission.

In 2024, Rick co-founded and launched a new nonprofit called the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative. He took the lead on all non-scientific work, which included branding, launch, media, strategic planning, legal research, compliance, operations, budgeting, fundraising, and hiring.

As President & CEO of the Foundation for Climate Restoration (F4CR), Rick’s top priority was to bring equity and justice frameworks into the organization’s work on climate restoration and greenhouse gas removals. This lens was largely lacking in an emerging industry that will undoubtedly become much bigger in the coming years. At the same time, he introduced an internal process of Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training and action among the F4CR staff and its volunteer Board of Directors.

Prior to his professional experience in the climate movement, Rick spent 13 years with the Santa Barbara-based Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF), where he took the lead on short- and long-term strategic planning as well as responsibility for fundraising, special events, and all operational aspects of the organization.

Rick served as a key member of the civil society team at the United Nations that negotiated the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2017, an achievement for which the campaign he was a part of received the Nobel Peace Prize that year. Their success in achieving this treaty was the result of short-, medium-, and long-term strategies to engage activists, funders, researchers, frontline communities, governments, and many more stakeholders.

Rick also led the civil society effort to support the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) in its lawsuits against the nine nuclear-armed nations at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He built an international coalition of over 100 groups to serve as allies and megaphones in the RMI’s effort, and provided logistical and organizational support to the team of pro bono lawyers arguing the cases in The Hague.