James Gustave “Gus” Speth is senior fellow and distinguished Next System Fellow at The Democracy Collaborative. In 2009 he completed his decade-long tenure as Dean, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and joined the Vermont Law School in 2010. From 1993 to 1999, Gus Speth was administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and chair of the UN Development Group. Speth has served as a senior adviser on environmental issues to Presidents Carter and Clinton. His 2014 memoir Angels by the River traces his path from mainstream environmental insider to a champion of fundamental systemic change in our political and economic institutions. He is the editor, with Kathleen Courrier, of The New Systems Reader: Alternatives to a Failed Economy (Routledge, 2021).