Global Sustainability Advocate · ESG Innovator of the Year 2024 · 5× TEDx Speaker
A four-decade journey across more than forty countries, translating environmental conviction into measurable change for organisations, governments and the next generation of leaders.
FAMAS Prestige Excellence Award · Global Environmental Sustainability · March 2026
Matthias Gelber — known throughout the sustainability movement as the GreenMan — grew up in Burbach-Lippe, a small village ringed by the forests of western Germany. That early intimacy with the natural world shaped a lifelong vocation: translating environmental knowledge into pragmatic action for the businesses, governments and communities that will define our climate future.
He holds a Master of Science in Environmental Science from Brunel University, United Kingdom (1994), and has worked in more than forty countries as a consultant, trainer and keynote speaker on ESG, decarbonisation and energy efficiency. In 2008 he was voted Greenest Person on the Planet in a global online competition by 3rd Whale, Canada — a title that opened doors to advisory roles with development banks, stock exchanges and Fortune 500 corporations.
ESG is not a compliance exercise. It is a way of innovating smartly — to make more, while doing good.
Matthias co-founded Maleki GmbH in 2007, served as ESG Advisor to the Philippine Stock Exchange from 2019 to 2022, and acted as Net Zero Ambassador for DesertBoard UAE. He became Brand Ambassador for Dorod Group in March 2025 and for Altena Verde in June 2026. He has delivered five TEDx talks, published a book printed on recycled paper with mushroom ink, and in 2017 built South-East Asia's first off-grid tiny eco-home in Malaysia.
From boardroom strategy to factory-floor implementation, Matthias designs and delivers content that audiences apply the next morning — anchored in four decades of cross-border practice.
Founder of the Certified ESG Innovator (CESGI) programme — an HRD Corp-registered training hub equipping leaders with implementable ESG frameworks rather than disclosure theatre.
Helping organisations build credible net-zero roadmaps. Past advisory: Asian Development Bank, the Philippine Stock Exchange, DesertBoard UAE, and dozens of listed corporates.
Workshops, masterclasses and immersive programmes — calibrated to where each organisation can add real business value, not where compliance asks it to perform.
Five TEDx talks, Forbes China keynotes, Masdar conferences. Known for speaking from the heart — weaving science, story and the case for joyful, profitable sustainability.
Forbes China · Masdar · Philippine Stock Exchange · MRANTI · The Star ESG Summit · MTCC Webinars · INTI Global ESG Symposium · World Cleanup Penang · FAST Forward Asia.
Keynote · Influential Business Leaders Summit
ESG & Climate Tech Keynote
Peer Power Panel
Solaire Resort · Philippines
ESG Disclosure to Innovation
Designing the Future of Growth
2025 Influential Leaders
Penang · Malaysia
Generative AI · Sustainability
iTrain Malaysia · HRD Corp Certified
Cross-border ESG Dialogue
ESG Innovator Programme
Global Environmental Sustainability · March 2026
The Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences Prestige Awards — second edition — honoured Matthias for sustained contribution to global environmental sustainability across four decades of consulting, advisory and educational work.
It joins a portfolio of recognitions that began in 2008, when he was voted the Greenest Person on the Planet, and continues to grow as the work itself grows in scale and consequence.
Global Environmental Sustainability — Philippines
Global Sustainability Advocate & ESG Innovator 2024
Asia Pacific CSR Awards · Malaysia
Global Online Competition · 3rd Whale, Canada
Five TEDx stages. Five attempts to make sustainability feel less like sacrifice and more like the smartest, kindest, most beautiful thing a business — or a parent — could ever choose to do.
Keynotes · Workshops · Executive Advisory · ESG Innovator Training · Net-Zero Roadmaps. Available globally, with a particular passion for Southeast Asia and the Middle East.