Oliver M. Brandes is an economist and lawyer by training and a trans-disciplinarian by design. He serves as Co-Director of the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance, based at the University of Victoria’s Centre for Global Studies, where he leads the POLIS Water Sustainability Project. His work focuses on water sustainability, sound resource management, public policy development, and ecologically based legal and institutional reform.

Oliver serves as the Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships and Public Policy at the University of Victoria’s Centre for Global Studies. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Law and School of Public Administration, and is a fellow of the Environmental Law Centre. In 2012, he co-developed B.C.’s first water law course at the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Law.  Oliver is a founding member of the national Forum for Leadership on Water (FLOW), which he currently co-chairs, and is an advisor to numerous national, provincial, and local water organizations, governments, and funders.