A practitioner from the very beginning, Jagdeesh’s 38 year professional engagement has been on interrelated issues of poverty and environmental degradation and on ‘systems thinking’ at the interface of ecology, society and economy. Jagdeesh has been the Chief Executive of Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) since its inception in 2001 till 2020. He is now anchoring an ecosystem initiative titled ‘Common Ground’; to build collaborative action for addressing challenges posed by climate change, loss of economic opportunities and inequalities. He also serves as the CEO of Living Landscapes which has been set up as a backbone organisation to serve the Common Ground initiative.

Jagdeesh has been conferred the ‘Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship’ 2015 and he is also a Henry Arnhold (Mulago) Conservation Fellow (2017) and Senior Ashoka Fellow (2022). His areas of interest include Commons, decentralized governance, informatics for rural areas and systems thinking.