The Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) has selected Howard Bamsey, an experienced Australian climate diplomat, as the Executive Director of the Fund’s Secretariat. The decision was taken by consensus during the Board’s 14th meeting, following an extensive global recruitment process to select a new head of the Secretariat.
Bamsey succeeds Hela Cheikhrouhou, a Tunisian, who was the Fund’s first Executive Director. She is credited with setting in motion GCF’s first resource mobilisation process and overseeing the establishment of the body’s headquarters in the Republic of Korea.
In between Cheikhrouhou’s stepping down and Bamsey’s selection, Javier Manzanares, GCF’s chief financial officer, was the Executive Director ad interim.
Bamsey, former Director-General of the Global Green Growth Institute, has a career spanning decades in international climate change, environment and sustainable development, both in the diplomatic service and academia.
He co-chaired the United Nations “Dialogue on Long-term Cooperative Action on Climate Change” from 2006 to 2007 and served as Australia’s Special Envoy on Climate Change and Deputy Secretary at the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency from 2008 to 2010. He has also served in a variety of senior government and executive positions.
The GCF was established to support low-emissions and climate-resilient development in developing countries in the context of sustainable development and poverty reduction. The Executive Director will lead the Secretariat of the Fund, headquartered in Songdo, Incheon City, Republic of Korea.
