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President of the Council of Foundation

Email: b.haering@gichd.org
Working languages: English, French, German and Italian

Dr Barbara Haering has twenty-five years of experience in national and international security politics, science politics and environment issues. She is director of a private think tank specializing in strategic planning.

Barbara Haering studied at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and has a doctorate in environmental sciences. She is director of econcept Inc., a private think tank with 20 co-workers based in Zurich specializing in strategic planning, environmental policies and knowledge management. She chairs the board of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Public Administration in Lausanne (IDHEAP) and is a member of the European Research Area Board of the EC as well as a member of the Board of the ETH Domain.

Political and international career

Barbara Haering has been a member of the National Parliament of Switzerland from 1990 until 2007. She chaired the Defense Committee as well as the Committee on Science, Education and Culture. She has focused on the parliamentary oversight of the security sector, on environmental security as well as on implementing UNSCR 1325. As Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, she has taken over responsibility for election observation missions. In 2004 the Chairman in Office of the OSCE appointed her as special representative to lead the short-term OSCE Election Observation Mission of the Presidential and Congressional Elections in the USA. She also chaired the short-term OSCE Election Observation Mission in Latvia in 2006 and participated in EOMs in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia and Armenia.

Conferences and Publications