Wayne S. Balta

Vice President, Corporate Environmental Affairs and Product Safety Chief Sustainability Officer
Terms served on previous ELI Boards of Directors
1995
1988
1999
2001
2005
2007
2008
2013
2016
2017

Wayne S. Balta is the Vice President of Corporate Environmental Affairs and Product Safety at IBM Corporation and the company’s Chief Sustainability Officer. He has global responsibility for environmental affairs, energy efficiency, and toxicology and chemical management as well as product safety and related hardware compliance functions. He joined IBM in 1984.

In addition to his role as IBM’s chief environmental executive, Mr. Balta is a member of IBM’s Acceleration Team – a group of the company’s top leaders that drives company-wide innovation and growth. A 36-year veteran of IBM, he has served on IBM’s Global Enablement Team for Kenya and East Africa and is IBM’s Partnership Executive for Carnegie Mellon University.

Mr. Balta has played a leadership role with a variety of organizations. He has served as Vice Chairman of the Board of the Environmental Law Institute and as Chairman of the Board of the World Environment Center. He has been a member and past Chairman of The Conference Board's Chief Environment, Health & Safety Officers Council. He is a member of the Governing Consortium for the UN Environment Programme’s Science Policy Business Forum. He serves as a member of the Sustainability Advisory Board for the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University and has served on the Strategic Advisory Council for the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise.

Mr. Balta was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2019 and serves on its Civil Engineering Peer Committee. He received the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association for Environmental Management in 2018. He was named a White House “Champion of Change” in 2012 for his efforts to advance corporate environmental sustainability.

Mr. Balta received a Bachelor of Science Degree in civil engineering with University Honors from Carnegie Mellon University in 1982, where he now serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the College of Engineering. He was the recipient of Carnegie Mellon University’s Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 2009. Mr. Balta also earned a Master of Science Degree in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (where he was a Tau Beta Pi Fellow) in 1984.