James Workman designed and developed the world’s first online water credit trading platform, the public benefits corporation AquaShares Inc. As an ICWA fellow (Southern Africa, 2001–2003), he analyzed international water sharing in arid regions from Cairo to Cape Town, profiling communities in the Namib, Kalahari, Sahara and Negev deserts. Later, he was a White House-appointed speechwriter to US Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and wrote Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought. James is also a principal at Confluence Communications, a freelance consultancy on building resilience in water, forestry and fishery resources. He holds a BA in history from Yale and has been a visiting professor at Wesleyan University and Whitman College.