Lukas Haynes

Lukas Haynes is a New York-based philanthropic leader whose career has been defined by deploying capital and leveraging policy to address climate change and global security. As CEO of the David Rockefeller Fund, he designed and led the foundation’s flagship climate grantmaking program.

He has long been affiliated with Protect Our Winters, which mobilizes the outdoor sports community for climate solutions, and on the advisory board of the Center for Climate and Security, which addresses the intersection of climate risk and national/global security.

He is senior advisor to Walking Softer, an operating foundation investing in young, emerging, and senior leaders and changemakers. As founder of Leveraged Philanthropy, he advises major donors on high-impact climate and energy strategies drawing on 20 years of experience working on the issues.

Haynes has served as a visiting fellow or scholar at Harvard, Stanford and currently the Ralph Bunche Institute at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is also a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of “Peace Through Power: FDR’s Military Leaders and the Pragmatism of the UN Charter” (Foreign Policy Association, 2025). He holds an M.Phil. from Oxford and a B.A. from the College of William & Mary.