Nei McCarthy is CEO of World Urban Parks and is an active leader in the International National Park City program. He is also executive director at Mosaic Insights a strategy, planning and design practice. Neil is an international leader in natural resource management (NRM) with a strong focus on policy and strategy, especially parks and waterways. He has extensive understanding and experience in the complexities required to achieve balance between environment and development for the betterment of the community. Neil has spent much of his career developing best practice and strategic partnerships between parks and NRM agencies. He has been responsible for leading some of the most significant global initiatives in parks management, including Parks Victoria's Healthy Parks, Healthy People program, and implementation of World Urban Parks (as Vice Chair). Neil held strategic executive roles in Parks Victoria before becoming the CEO of the North East Catchment Management Authority in Victoria Australia. Neil has been recognised for many of his contributions and was World Urban Parks' 2016 Distinguished Individual Award recipient. He was originally educated in forest science at the University of Melbourne, holds an MBA in government policy and reform from Monash University, and did further Executive study at MIT, USA.