Dr. Christoph Aubrecht manages the European Space Agency’s Global Development Assistance programme. GDA is implemented under a strategic cooperation framework in partnership with International Financial Institutions like World Bank, ADB, IDB, and IFAD. More than €100 million in
programmatically aligned space and development finance resources have been mobilised through GDA to boost adoption of satellite Earth Observation in development operations.
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. As of 2023, he is member of the European High-Level Group on
Financing Sustainability Transition. Prior to joining ESA, Chris led spatial analytics under the World Bank’s CDRP Disaster Resilience initiative.
He has lived and worked on 3 continents and gained cross-disciplinary experience through positions across academia, public and private as well as intergovernmental institutions including GFDRR, NOAA, EADS-Astrium, Columbia University, and the Austrian Institute of Technology.