Julia Marton-Lefèvre stepped down as Director General of IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) in January 2015, having served as the head of this unique global membership organization bringing together governments and non-governmental organisations, scientists and experts to seek a ‘’just world that values and conserves nature. As Director General she was also CEO of IUCN’s Secretariat of over 1000 persons with offices in some 50 countries.
Prior to her eight years at IUCN, she was Rector of the UN-mandated University for Peace (UPEACE) with its main campus in Costa Rica. UPEACE is a graduate-level international university providing education, training and research on issues related to peace, conflict, and environmental security.
Earlier offices held by Ms. Marton-Lefèvre include the Executive Director of LEAD (Leadership for Environment and Development) International, a programme established by The Rockefeller Foundation to bring together and train mid-career leaders from all parts of the world and from several sectors to improve their leadership skills around the issues of sustainable development.
Ms. Marton-Lefevre also served for many years as the Executive Director of the International Council for Science (ICSU) with its headquarters in Paris. ICSU is non-governmental membership organization of national academies of science and international unions of scientific disciplines.
Ms. Marton-Lefèvre has given hundreds of speeches throughout her career, written articles, op ed pieces, and contributed to several books. She has served on dozens of boards, councils and committees which include today, the Chair of the Executive Committee for the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Oxford University’s James Martin School, The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, Bioversity, the Turkana Basin Institute, and the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI).
In her efforts to bridge the gap between business and civil society, J. Marton-Lefèvre has served on the environmental advisory boards of the Dow Chemical Company the Coca Cola Company, Nespresso and on the board of the UN Global Compact. In 2015 she has been selected to chair an Advisory Board to the Sustainable Biomass Partnership, and is on committees advising Veolia and BNP Parisbas.
In recognition of her work at ICSU, Ms. Marton-Lefevre received the prestigious AAAS Award for International Cooperation in Science. She has also been honoured as a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by the government of France, as a Chevalier dans l’Ordre de Saint-Charles by HSH Prince Albert of Monaco, the ProNatura award by the government of Hungary and the Presidential citation from the Republic of Korea. She was elected as a member of the World Academy of Art and Science and the World Future Council and as a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society. As a policy fellow, selected by The Rockefeller Foundation she plans to begin a writing project during 2015 at the Foundation’s Bellagio Center, and in 2016 she will be the Edward Bass Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Environment at Yale University.
Ms. Marton-Lefèvre was born in Hungary, educated in the United States and in France, and having lived in several continent s, considers herself a global citizen.