Maritta Rogalla von Bieberstein Koch-Weser
Director General, IUCN
The World Conservation Union,
formerly Director, Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Department
Latin American and Caribbean Region, The World Bank

Maritta Koch-Weser took up her new duties as Director General of IUCN in Gland Switzerland in March 1999. Previously, she worked at the World Bank, where she was Director of the Sector Management Unit for Environmentally & Socially Sustainable Development of the Latin America and Caribbean Region.

Mrs. Koch-Weser joined the World Bank in 1980. Before the assignment to her latest position in 1997, she had several other assignments at the World Bank. Most recently she was Chief of the Environment and Natural Resources Management Division of the Asia Technical Department. Earlier, she was Chief of the Environmental Assessments and Programs Division of the Environmental Department. In the 1980s she was responsible for environmental and rural development programs, as senior sociologist in the environment division of the Technical Department of the Latin America and Caribbean Region, as project officer in the Brazil Agriculture Division and in the Agriculture Department of the World Bank.

Mrs. Koch-Weser is a German national. She holds a Ph.D. from the Universities of Bonn and Cologne, where she studies Social Sciences and Latin American History. She did her Ph.D. field research on African Traditions in Brazil. Before joining the World Bank, she taught anthropology at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and worked as consultant for several development aid agencies.

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