Franz Baumann
President-Elect and Director
Franz Baumann is a Visiting Research Professor at New York University. He spent most of his professional life as a United Nations official, serving with the UN Industrial Development Organization, the UN Development Programme, and with the UN Secretariat in Lagos, Port-au-Prince, Vienna and New York. He served as Assistant Secretary-General (ASG) for General Assembly Affairs and Conference Management, as well as ASG and Special Adviser on Environment and Peace Operations. He started his career at the European Parliament in Luxembourg before transferring to the European Commission in Brussels, and eventually joining Siemens in Munich. He earned his doctorate in Political Science (African Studies) from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He has taught at the Hertie School in Berlin, the Universität Konstanz, and New York University. He is an Executive Editor of Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development , a member of the Scientists for Future (S4F) Professional Board, the Board of Advisers of the Centre for United Nations Studies at the University of Buckingham and of the Nigerian Institute for Governance and Economic Transformation (IGET). Since Global Heating is the greatest international public policy challenge humanity has ever faced, for the past years, much of his writing, teaching and mentoring has focused on this wicked problem.