Julia Marton-Lefèvre

Julia is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.  

Former positions include: Director General of IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN; Rector of the University for Peace; Executive Director of LEAD International and of the International Council for Scientific Unions (now the International Science Council.  

Throughout her career, Julia delivered speeches, wrote articles, and contributed to books. She currently chairs the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement; the Donor Council of the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund (CEPF); the Villars Institute Foundation, and the strategic advisory council of IDDRI. She has recently joined the corporate Board of Directors of Veolia Environment.  

She maintains active contacts with several universities: Yale University’s School of the Environment; Oxford University's James Martin School; Arizona State University, and the Graduate Institute of Geneva.   

Julia has received numerous awards, including from the AAAS for International Cooperation in Science; from France as Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur and Officier dans l'Ordre National de Mérite;   from Monaco as Chevalier dans l'Ordre de Saint-Charles; from Hungary the ProNatura Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Global Council for Science and the Environment.   

Born in Hungary and educated in the US and France, Julia considers herself a global citizen.