Maurice A. Bloem

As CWS’s Chief Sustainability and Impact Officer, Maurice A. Bloem is responsible for strategic analysis, advice and impact initiatives, high level representation with key stakeholders, and increasing organizational thought leadership and visibility. Bloem applies the use of innovation, technology, data and research (especially via the CWS Innovation Hub) to ensure that CWS increases its impact and is a “state of the art” organization. He also ensures that CWS communicates its work in the larger context of the SDGs and Global Climate Change.

Further, he is the agency’s main representative to the UN. Bloem is the former country director and regional director of CWS in Indonesia/Timor-Leste. In that position he led CWS’s multi-million-dollar response to the tsunami & the earthquakes that devastated the region in 2004 & 2005 & directed the development & implementation of innovative HIV/AIDS programs & programs for youth. A native of the Netherlands, Bloem earned a Master of Science degree in cultural anthropology from the University of Leyden in the Netherlands. 

In 2011, Bloem started the 100-mile Walk, to raise awareness of issues around hunger and poverty. As part of the annual effort, Bloem Walks 100 miles in a single week, visiting programs supported and funded by CWS. More recently, as he needed to walk alone during the 2020 100-mile campaign, he started a podcast called Walk Talk Listen, so that he could still walk virtually with a number of guests. Now, he speaks on a weekly basis with leaders, including young and emerging ones, from different walks of life. The objective is to connect people around the world and to show that everyone's perspective is true, albeit partial. Connecting might lead to listening and talking and even to walking and/or taking actions to make this world a bit better.