Martin W. Janowitz

Marty Janowitz has been affiliated with Naropa since its inception in 1974 when he was invited by its founder, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, to serve as its first chief administrative officer (then titled executive director). He was a founding member of the Board of Trustees and served as chair from 2000-2011.

Marty has been a senior teacher within the Vajradhatu and Shambhala Buddhist community for many years. He served as a senior member of Trungpa Rinpoche’s staff and as a member of the boards of Vajradhatu, Nalanda Foundation and Shambhala International. In 1986 he and his family immigrated to Nova Scotia with Rinpoche. In 1998 Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, Trungpa’s spiritual heir as leader of the Shambhala Buddhist lineage, appointed him Warrior General, responsible for advancing Shambhala’s commitment towards the emergence of transformative enlightened societies and more recently he was appointed as an Acharya, an empowered teacher within his lineage.

He served as executive director of The Clean Nova Scotia Foundation, Atlantic Canada’s largest environmental education organization, and as chair of the Authentic Leadership in Action (ALIA) Institute, president of the Nova Scotia Nature Trust and Genuine Progress Indicators Atlantic. He’s involved in diverse initiatives focused on an environmental and sustainable future both locally and internationally. Marty is currently Chair of the Nova Scotia Round Table on Environment and Sustainable Prosperity (the highest advisory body to government on these topics) and serves on the Sustainable Infrastructure Advisory Board (hosted by the Harvard Graduate School of Design). He is Vice President of Sustainable Development for Stantec, a leading global provider of environmental, engineering, design and planning services where he leads emerging initiatives focused on integrated sustainability for both public and private sector clients.