Sebastian WINKLER

Sebastian Winkler is a Mexican-French-German-Swiss national who grew up and worked on 3 continents while being resident in more than 20 countries. Currently he is Director General of the CIC – International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation. He is a leader in environmental policy and diplomacy, with strong expertise in environmental economics, climate change, biodiversity, resource mobilisation and innovative sustainable finance, natural resource accounting, and sustainable development metrics. An accomplished broker across the UN, Government, Business and NGOs - with more 20 years professional experience in working for these sectors (10 years in senior management positions). He started his career as Environmental Economist with UNEP’s Financial Service Sector Initiative in 1997. From 1997 to 2010 he worked for IUCN. His wide-ranging professional experience in IUCN covers substantive issues being among the first Environmental Economist drafting the first Private Sector Engagement Guidelines (1997-1999); Special Assistant to the Director General leading business development and change management process along with a gender policy (1999-2000); Head, Conservation Finance & Donor Relations leading outreach and fundraising so as to double the unrestricted income to annually 19 million (2000-2003); Senior International Policy Advisor redesigning IUCN’s approach to policy with a particular focus on biodiversity, climate change, disaster risk reduction, agriculture and trade (2003 - 2005); and Senior EU Policy Advisor and Founder of the Countdown 2010 Movement which gathered more the 2000 business, cities, NGOs and governments making commitments to reverse the loss of biodiversity (2005-2010). Since 2010 he is Social Entrepreneur and Founder of a Swiss registered Sustainability Consultancy Company with exclusive long-term assignments to reform and re-position organisations and processes, such as the UNEP–Senior Advisor; Global Footprint Network-Vice President Programme & Outreach; Gabriel Resources Gold Mine-Senior Advisor Strategy & Sustainability; Forest Trends-Senior Policy Advisor Offsets; Spanish EU Presidency-Lead Negotiator Biodiversity & Climate; Global Crop Diversity Trust-Head Partnerships. His academic background has exposed him to multiple and different schools of thought. He holds a BA from the University of Konstanz, Germany (Development Economics, Administrative Science and Policy), and an Honours BA from the University of Guelph, Canada (Environmental Economics, Politics and Development Studies). He holds various MAs from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, The Netherlands (Docturandus in Regional Development Planning and Politics of Alternative Development Strategies), and from the University of Trier, Germany and the Ecole Polytechnique of Lausanne, Switzerland (European Master in Environmental Management and a Certificat Postgrade in Environmental Engineering). He also studied at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Grenoble, France (Political Science) and at the Harvard Business School (Management).