Tony Capon is a man of Ngāi Tahu and Pākehā descent, and the world's first professor of planetary health. He directs the Monash Sustainable Development Institute (MSDI) and holds a chair in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University. With more than 30 years of leadership experience in public health research, education, policy, and practice, his research focuses on urbanism, sustainability, and human health. 

A former director of the International Institute for Global Health at United Nations University (UNU-IIGH), Tony was the founding convenor of the climate change adaptation research network for human health in Australia. The inaugural director of public health and medical officer of health in western Sydney, he also worked on the prevention of non-communicable diseases with the Menzies Centre for Health Policy at the University of Sydney. 

Tony was a commissioner with the Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on Planetary Health and now chairs the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Climate Change, the Environment and Health in the Western Pacific Region, co-chairs the Future Earth Health Knowledge-Action Network, and is a member of the international advisory board for The Lancet Planetary Health. He has served in numerous honorary leadership roles with not-for-profit organisations around the world.