Achim Steiner is an environmentalist, of Brazilian-German ancestry, who currently serves as the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. Before joining UNDP, he was Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme UNEP, and director of the Oxford Martin School. He has also served as Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Secretary-General of the World Commission on Dams. 

Education: University of London · University of Oxford · Worcester College, Oxford · SOAS University of London · Harvard Business School.

• 1989:Steiner started his career in 1989 at the Rural Regional Development Department, GIZ, in Germany.

• 2001:In 2001 he returned to IUCN as Director-General.

• 2006:Acting on the nomination of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the United Nations General Assembly in 2006 unanimously elected Steiner Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for a four-year term.

• 2016:In addition to his role at the University of Oxford, Steiner was appointed Envoy of the Chair of the Platform on Disaster Displacement by the Federal Government of Germany in October 2016.

• 2017:In April 2017, following consultations with the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Steiner as the programme's new Administrator.

• 2018:In November 2018, Guterres also appointed Steiner to co-chair (alongside Maria Ramos) the United Nations' Task Force on Digital Financing of Sustainable Development Goals.