Marianna Koval is the Director of the Invest NYC SDG Initiative at the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, where she manages a team that is engaging the private sector to drive financing toward creating a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient New York City. Together, using the UN SDGs as a guiding framework, the team is developing investable projects to advance NYC’s sustainability goals in waste, food and health, climate resilience, renewable energy, the built environment, and sustainable mobility.

A lawyer, with more than 30 years of experience working in environmental sustainability, public policy, and government in New York City, Marianna has successfully taken on complex multi-stakeholder projects, difficult policy challenges, and brought conflicting interests together to create concrete projects. She served as the senior advisor to the Commissioner of NYC Environmental Protection, building green infrastructure policy and partnerships in a $2.4 billion stormwater management program. She created the first NRDC-DEP partnership to develop a private market for green infrastructure, a project that she later managed from NYU Stern, Center for Sustainable Business, which produced an influential report, "Catalyzing Green Infrastructure on Private Property: Recommendations for a Green, Equitable, and Sustainable New York City." Marianna was president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy for more than a decade, where she helped develop the vision, attract the initial $280 million in funding, and construction of this major city park.

She holds an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a JD from Fordham University Law School, and an AB from Princeton University.