Achim Steiner is the Executive Director of UNEP and Under-Secretary General of the United Nations.
Before joining UNEP, Mr. Steiner served as Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) from 2001 to 2006, and prior to that as Secretary General of the World Commission on Dams. 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. Mr. Steiner serves as the International Vice Chair of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) among others. His work has been recognized by a number of awards such as the Tallberg Foundation’s Award for Principled Pragmatism and the Steiger Award for “commitment and important work in the protection of the planet”. In 2009, Prince Albert of Monaco conferred upon Mr. Steiner the decoration of Officer of the Order of Saint Charles.
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 and Policy. He also studied at the German Development Institute in Berlin and the Harvard Business School.
