José Miguel Ruiz Verona boasts an extensive and pertinent educational background, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in International Land and Water Management Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Water Management, Treatment, Reclamation, and Reuse. Combined with 29 years of hands-on experience, his credentials form a robust foundation for his professional journey. Throughout his career, he has cultivated expertise in various domains including management and leadership, sustainable land management and climate change integration, water management, irrigation and resilient WASH solutions, environmental mitigation, and climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Demonstrated knowledge and extensive experience leading organisational design and development processes, agile teams, and cross-sector / cross-institutional collaboration through gaining work experience, applying multilevel strategic thinking and planning, dealing with different actors at different levels, providing TA and institutional support for institutional strengthening and develop good relationship, networking and M&E knowledge management systems for social auditing and empowerment promoting processes for rapid decisions and learning cycle and familiar with DAC – OECD criteria to ensure objectives of a development intervention are consistent with beneficiaries' requirements, country needs, global priorities and partners' and donors' policies.

Since 1990, he has carried out diverse assignments for different entities in different world settings: Latin America (Bolivia, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay), Europe (Norway, The Netherlands and Spain), Asia (North Korea, The Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore,  Laos, Bruney, Thailand) and Africa (Malawi). Some of the institutions for whom he has been working are Alterra Institute – University of Wageningen, University of Seville, UNESCO, Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Euroclima+ and United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Jose Miguel is currently working for NIRAS International Consulting Group, as a Climate Change Policy Expert and Team Leader, implementing the project EU-ASEAN Green Initiative, targeting the ASEAN Member States.

He has extensive work experience, with excellent analytical, communication, organisation, coordination, and demonstrated people and process leadership skills which enable him to be a good team player, with strong Asian and Latin America Inter-cultural competence, project portfolio development and management cycle, partnership development, strategic planning and report writing, HR management and familiar with donors´ landscape