Julia Marton-Lefèvre is Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) based in Gland, Switzerland.
IUCN is the world’s oldest and largest global environmental network – a democratic membership union with more than 1,000 government and NGO member organizations, and almost 11,000 volunteer scientists in more than 160 countries. The IUCN’s mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.
She has previously held the positions of Rector of the UN-mandated University for Peace, a graduate-level international university of peace and conflict studies based in Costa Rica; Executive Director of LEAD (Leadership for Environment and Development) International; and Executive Director of the International Council for Science (ICSU).
Julia Marton-Lefèvre is a member of the Board of Directors of LEAD International. She was a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) until 2007 and a member of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), an advisory body to the Chinese Government, from 1992 to 2002.
Julia Marton-Lefèvre studied history, ecology and environmental planning in the USA and France and was born in Hungary.
She was conferred as a Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur (Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honor) by the French Ministry of Environment in recognition of her career and outstanding work on sustainable development in 2008. She also received the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Award for International Cooperation in Science in 1999.
Julia Marton-Lefèvre was a member of the Global Holcim Awards jury 2012. She was keynote speaker at the global Holcim Awards Gold 2009 ceremony held in Fez, Morocco.
[last updated 23-Mar-12]