Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder

Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, LL.M, is IISD's Interim Co-President and Co-CEO, serving alongside Martha Casey in this role. Nathalie is also IISD’s Vice-President, Global Strategies and Managing Director, Europe.

Nathalie leads major new initiatives across IISD’s programs, is the institute’s senior leader in Europe, and heads IISD’s Economic Law and Policy program. She is based out of IISD’s office in Geneva, Switzerland, and is IISD Europe’s representative in the Think Sustainable Europe network of think tanks.

Nathalie has extensive legal, policy, and training experience in the areas of public and private international law, trade, investment, sustainable development, human rights, international environmental law, and international dispute settlement. She has authored and edited several peer-reviewed publications and collections covering various facets of international law.

Additionally, Nathalie is a visiting professor on international investment law at the Geneva Graduate Institute and is the Vice-Chair of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Team of Specialists on Environmental, Social and Governance Traceability of Sustainable Value Chains in the Circular Economy.

Before joining IISD in 2009, Nathalie served as Managing Attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) in Geneva, after previously being based out of CIEL’s Washington, D.C. office. Earlier, she was a fellow at the International Institute of International Economic Law at Georgetown University Law Center and worked in Hanoi, Vietnam, for a legal reform project of the United Nations Development Programme. She previously worked at an Australian law firm and at the Swiss Department of Justice in the Section for International Law. In Switzerland, Nathalie is admitted to the Bar of Basel.

She is based in Geneva and is fluent in English, German, and French.