Boris Martin grew up in France and completed his engineering degree at INSA de Lyon. Boris first learned about EWB at a presentation during his Ph.D. engineering studies and was immediately compelled by the mission. Boris went on to lead his university EWB chapter, organize a large-scale conference, and spend three years in Burkina Faso volunteering. While in Africa, Boris bore witness to the tremendous challenge facing families who live from the land they cultivate by hand and the opportunity and drive of young and talented leaders who want a better future for their country and community. These experiences have fortified Boris's commitment to humanitarian engineering, investing in local capacity and leadership, and supporting communities to adapt.
Now, as CEO of EWB-USA, Boris believes that engineers play a key role in helping humanity adapt to climate change – but that work can only happen in close collaboration with the impacted communities. Boris's track record of building positive, respectful, and mutually accountable partnerships mirrors EWB-USA's long-term commitment to communities that have allowed the organization to understand the deep complexities and nuanced challenges faced by our partners and address these challenges with resilient infrastructure solutions.
Boris' leadership focus is to advance EWB-USA's mission by engaging engineers as volunteers and champions and tapping into the depth of knowledge and expertise of EWB-USA's partner network to address the full complexity of international community development. Perhaps above all, Boris aspires to contribute to EWB-USA's global impact projects that provide reliable access to safe water, renewable energy, nutritious food, and improved economic opportunities for millions of people worldwide.