Before joining UNEP, Mr. Steiner served as Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) from 2001 to 2006. He was prior to that the Secretary General of the World Commission on Dams.
His professional career has included assignments with governmental, non-governmental and international organisations in different parts of the world, including India, Pakistan, Germany, Zimbabwe, USA, Vietnam, South Africa, Switzerland and Kenya.
He worked both at grassroots level as well as at the highest levels of international policy-making to address the interface among environmental sustainability, social equity and economic development.
Steiner, a German and Brazilian national, was born in Brazil in 1961. His educational background includes a BA from the University of Oxford as well as an MA from the University of London with specialisation 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.
During Steiner’s tenure as UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, UNEP made significant strides, from the launch of the Green Economy Initiative in 2008 to the strengthening of UNEP as part of the Rio+20 outcome, the establishment of the first international science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystems (IPBES), the adoption of the milestone Minamata Convention on mercury, and the production of authoritative and influential environmental assessments and tools to guide some political negotiation processes as well as policy development and implementation.
