Achim Steiner's Bio-data

UNEP Executive Director and Director General UNON

Achim Steiner, Director General, UNON,
UNEP Executive Director and
United Nations Under-Secretary General

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, has appointed Mr. Achim Steiner as Director General of the United Nations Office in Nairobi (UNON), effective 1 March 2009. Mr. Steiner has been the Executive Director of UNEP since March 2006. He becomes the third Director General in UNON's history.

Before arriving in Nairobi, Achim served as Director General of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) from 2001 to 2006. IUCN is widely regarded as one of the most influential and highly respected organizations in the field of conservation, environment and natural resources management. He held responsibility for the management and oversight of 1,000 staff located in 42 countries.

His professional track record in the fields of sustainable development policy and environmental management, his first-hand knowledge of civil society, governmental and international organizations, as well as his global experience spanning five continents, make him an excellent choice to lead the United Nations Environment Programme.

His professional career has included assignments with governmental, non-governmental and international organizations in different parts of the world. In Washington, where he was Senior Policy Advisor of IUCN's Global Policy Unit, he led the development of new partnerships between the environment community, the World Bank and the United Nations system. In Southeast Asia he worked as Chief Technical Advisor on a programme for the sustainable management of Mekong River watersheds and community-based natural resources management.

In 1998 he was appointed Secretary-General of the World Commission on Dams, based in South Africa, where he managed a global programme of work to bring together the public sector, civil society and the private sector in a global policy process on dams and development.
He worked both at grassroots level as well as at the highest levels of international policy-making to address the interface between environmental sustainability, social equity and economic development.

Achim, a German national, was born in Brazil in 1961, where he lived for ten years. His educational background includes a BA from the University of Oxford as well as an MA from the University of London with specialization in development economics, regional planning, and international development and environment policy. He also studied at the German Development Institute in Berlin as well as the Harvard Business School.

He serves on a number of international advisory boards, including the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED).