Max Han majors in Environmental Studies at Yale-NUS College and attended Yale College in 2023. Growing up in Malaysia, Max witnessed the devastating effects of deforestation and transboundary haze on his local community. Struck by the climate crisis, Max works toward equity and sustainable development, and hopes to advance Southeast Asian environmentalism.

At age 19, Max founded Youths United For Earth (YUFE), a grassroots non-profit mobilizing Malaysian youth for local climate action. YUFE has since reached more than 30,000 Malaysians and engaged stakeholders such as UN Agencies, Malaysia’s Environmental Ministries, the Central Bank of Malaysia, and ASEAN. In 2021, he was chosen as a YSEALI Fellow by the U.S. Department of State and represented Malaysia alongside key Southeast Asian leaders in Hawaii. He has also been invited to present his work at Princeton’s Climate and Conservation Summit, UNICEF’s Mongolia Climate Change and Youth Summit, and engaged in global forest policy at the UN Forum on Forests as a delegate at the United Nations Headquarters.

Max believes the best environmentalists can speak the language of every stakeholder and have sought experiences across the nonprofit, public, and private sectors. He has worked as a sustainability analyst in a DAO in Los Angeles, fostered partnerships in an Asia-Pacific-based ocean startup incubator, and engaged in sustainable infrastructure at McKinsey & Company. At Yale, he was a sustainability consultant under the Yale School of the Environment and CBEY working on renewable energy transitions.