Biography|Achim Steiner — The Gland Headquarters He Took at Thirty-Nine

On 1 March 2001 IUCN announced Achim Steiner as Director General from its seat in Gland.

He was 39.

President Yolanda Kakabadse pointed to the World Commission on Dams report, launched the previous November, as the work that brought him back to the Union.

He succeeded Maritta Koch-Weser. Simon Stuart held the post as acting director until Steiner arrived.

The headquarters at Rue Mauverney 28 had been opened on 3 November 1992 by Swiss president René Felber.

The green Conservation Centre now in front of that block was not finished on his watch. IUCN's council mandated an expansion in December 2003; the new wing opened in 2010.

A UN biographical note issued when he left for UNEP put the secretariat at 1,000 staff in 42 countries.

He held the Gland post until the General Assembly elected him to UNEP in March 2006.

A visitor today sees the 2010 extension first. The older 1992 house is the building that matches his years.

Photo: Defrenrokorit, IUCN Headquarters in Gland, 2016, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.