Dr. Christoph Aubrecht manages the European Space Agency’s Global Development Assistance program. GDA is implemented in partnership with International Financial Institutions leveraging programmatically aligned space and development finance resources to boost adoption of satellite Earth Observation in development operations. Alongside World Bank (WB), all major regional development banks are participating in ESA’s vision to jointly innovate and accelerate impact.
Joining ESA in 2016, Chris was initially assigned as ESA representative and senior advisor to the WB until 2020. Furthermore, he has served on advisory boards of GEF, GPSDD, Development Data Partnership, and Humanitarian Innovation Hub. He currently is member of the European High-Level Group on Financing Sustainability Transition and vice-chair of the CEOS Working Group on Capacity Development and Data Democracy.
Prior to joining ESA, Chris led spatial analytics under the WB’s CDRP Disaster Resilience initiative. He has lived and worked on 3 continents and gained cross-disciplinary experience across academia, public, private and intergovernmental institutions including GFDRR, NOAA, EADS-Astrium, Columbia University, and the Austrian Institute of Technology.
Chris holds Master's and PhD degrees in geography, GI science and remote sensing (U Vienna, TU Vienna), and certificates in executive leadership & management development and impact communication (Harvard U, Cambridge U).