Among the challenges facing Asia is how to build modern societies and sustainable economies while preserving the natural world upon which all life depends. How to create jobs that enhance rather than damage the environment? How to engineer a prosperity that is not ultimately self-defeating?

Russell Leiman, Regional Managing Director for The Nature Conservancy's Asia-Pacific Region, explores this timely topic in a luncheon lecture on Tuesday, February 8, 2011, hosted by Asia Society Texas Center. He is the second speaker in ASTC's 2010-2011 ConocoPhillips Speaker Series.

Leiman will discuss the Conservancy's 10-year project to create sustainable, environmentally friendly jobs for some 17,000 people living inside Indonesia's famed Komodo National Park, home of the Komodo Dragon. In the past, the pressure of poverty forced many of these people to engage in destructive harvesting of coral reef fish.

Leiman has headed the Conservancy's Asia-Pacific Region since 1999 and has led efforts to identify private sector finance-related conservation opportunities, including sustainable forestry and fisheries. Before assuming his present post he enjoyed a successful career in global finance, including stints as Managing Director of Peregrine Derivatives Ltd. in Hong Kong and Chairman of Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia.