Blair Burns

Chief Partnerships Officer

Blair Burns serves as IJM’s Chief Partnerships Officer where he leads the development and execution of the global programme and activation strategy to make justice for people in poverty unstoppable. Blair also leads the development and drives the execution of a global activation strategy that mobilises key centers of global power to provide the resources and influence necessary for the transformation of local justice systems.

Most recently, Blair served as IJM’s Chief Program Officer where he directed IJM’s casework operations around the world in Latin America, Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, developing intervention strategies and advocating with local and national authorities; he supervises the HQ Field Operations, Aftercare, Investigations and International Church Mobilisation departments. Before that, Blair served as the Vice President of Regional Operations for Southeast Asia. Blair joined IJM Chennai in 2004, and over the course of four and a half years he led a team to bring more than 700 people to safety from slavery.

Before IJM, Blair worked as an associate lawyer at Bersch, Rhodes & Butler, where his practice focused on business, corporate and elder law. Blair holds a B.A. from James Madison University and a J.D. from Wake Forest University. He lives in the Washington, DC area with his wife, Christina, and their three children.