Dr Williams completed 10 years as NZ’s Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment in March 2007. Prior to this he held research and policy roles in agriculture, worked widely in the South Pacific, undertook research in Antarctica and represented New Zealand’s research interests internationally.

In his third phase of life, Morgan now chairs the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in NZ and is a member of the WWF Global Council, Chair of the Cawthron Foundation, a trustee of the National Energy Research Institute, an advisory trustee of Leadership NZ, on the Advisory Board of the University of Auckland Centre for Environmental Law and a trustee of a Farming for the Futures group based in Hawke’s Bay. Recent work has included: working with a German team from the Bertelsmann Stiftung Foundation to judge the Tasmanian entry in the global Reinhard Mohn Prize 2013, a prize for Strategies for a Sustainable Future; for the seventh year judging the 2015 Aggregate and Quarry Association environmental excellence; Chairing a MPI committee allocating erosion control funding ($9M) to Councils, facilitating research/industry forums on forestry on NZ steep-lands; chairing the organising committee of a ‘Climate of Change – Pathways for society’ Forum held in March 2011.

A driving force behind Morgan’s efforts for over 30 years has been his great interest in how people think about and relate to the natural world - particularly in terms of the political, social and economic constructs that influence the management of our natural capital and thus the broad canvas of sustainable development.

Morgan grew up on a dairy farm near Kaiapoi in Canterbury. He has degrees in ecology from the Universities of Canterbury (BSc and MSc) and Bath (PhD). Lincoln University awarded Morgan an honorary doctorate in Natural Resources. He shares his environmental and sustainability interests with his wife Pam who completed a PhD in 2008 in the field of tertiary education for sustainability.

Pam and Morgan built a very energy efficient home in Nelson in June 2012 to enable a return to the South Island, scope for serious gardening, close to Wellington but with much better weather!