Gerhard is currently the Forests Advisor, leading the World Bank Forestry Team in the Sustainable Development Department at the World Bank. He has had 28 years of experience in national and international forest and environmental policies, development policies, consultative processes, projects on sustainable forest management and forest conservation.
He holds a Master’s of Science in Forestry and a PhD in technical and economic analyses of sustainable forest management systems. His previous positions included working with the German forest administration, the European Union, overseas project work in Togo and Indonesia, working in the cabinet of the German minister for agriculture/forestry, and a diplomatic posting in Rome as German Alternate Permanent Representative to FAO, WFP and IFAD. He has also carried out research at the Faculty of Forestry, Freiburg University in Germany, and was previously the lead forestry specialist in the Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank.
Gerhard is the World Bank Focal Point for the Implementation of the Forest Investment Program (FIP). He is also a Steering Committee member of the Forest Dialogue Initiative (TFD).