HANS FRIEDERICH is Head of IUCN Strategic Partnerships. A Dutch geographer by training, Hans obtained his PhD at the University of Bristol, UK in groundwater hydrochemistry. He left Europe in 1982, and started a career that has seen him based first in Africa, in Botswana and Kenya, and later in Asia, in Vietnam and Thailand. He has been working with IUCN since 1989, first as the Head of Project Management in the Eastern Africa Regional Office. In this capacity he helped set up the successful collaboration between the (then) Ministry of Environmental Protection and IUCN in Uganda to develop the National Wetlands Programme, and supported the creation of the National Conservation Strategy in Ethiopia.

In 1994, Hans moved to Asia, to work as Senior Technical Advisor in the National Environment Agency of Vietnam. During this time he helped finalize the Vietnam Biodiversity Action Plan. In January 1997, Hans became the first IUCN Country Representative in Vietnam, a position he handed over to a Vietnamese colleague in mid-1999. The IUCN Vietnam Programme focused on policy support and capacity building at national level, with field projects along the coast and in some of the protected areas further inland. When his term in Vietnam came to an end, Hans became the first foreigner to be decorated with the Medal for Science and Technology, for services to environmental protection.

From 1999-2003, Hans worked in the IUCN Asia Regional Office in Bangkok, first as Head of the Regional Wetlands and Water Resources Programme and Coordinator of the IUCN Water and Nature Initiative (WANI) in Asia, and subsequently as Head of Project Development in Asia and IUCN China Programme coordinator. He kicked off the Mekong Wetlands Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use Programme, a joint project of UNDP, the Mekong River Commission and IUCN, involving the four lower Mekong countries Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam.

As Head Conservation Finance and Donor Relations within the IUCN Corporate Strategy Group, Hans will be responsible for overseeing IUCN’s relationship with the donors that currently support the Union’s Programme, and for exploring and developing funding arrangements with new donors and sponsors.

Hans is 48 years old and is married to a British artist.