Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder
Vice-President, Global Strategies and Managing Director, Europe
Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, LL.M, is Vice-President, Global Strategies and Managing Director, Europe and directs the Economic Law & Policy Programme of the International Institute on Sustainable Development (IISD). In this role, she manages IISD’s work on international trade, investment, and finance. On a sectoral level, this work spans across sustainable agriculture, mining, and infrastructure. She also oversees IISD’s function as the Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF) and the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED).
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 serves as Vice-chair of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Team of Specialists on Environmental, Social and Governance Traceability of Sustainable Value Chains in the Circular Economy.
Nathalie previously was Managing Attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) in Geneva, after working in 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 (UNDP) and for the Australian law firm Phillips Fox. In Switzerland Nathalie is admitted to the Bar of Basel and worked for the Swiss Department of Justice in the Section for International Law.
She is based in Geneva and is fluent in English, German, and French.