Gino Van Begin, Secretary General, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, has been working for ICLEI for more than 15 years. In his roles as Regional Director for Europe (since 2002), Deputy Secretary General (since 2007) and Secretary General (since 2013), he has consistently worked towards ensuring ICLEI’s quality as a not-for-profit, responsible and forward-looking local government organization serving its members worldwide. In addition, Gino ensures that ICLEI takes every opportunity to decisively influence global negotiation processes and increase cities’ presence on the global stage in order to promote the sustainability agenda at all levels.
Before joining ICLEI, Gino worked in Russia for seven years as an advisor and as Team Leader at the EU-funded Environmental Centres for Administration and Technology in Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg. Prior to that, he worked in Brussels for five years at the European Commission, DG Environment.
Trained as a lawyer at the University of Brussels, Gino speaks Dutch, French, English, German and Russian. “I am thrilled to see how since its foundation in 1990, ICLEI has developed into the world's leading association of over 1,500 metropolises, cities, and urban regions dedicated to promoting global sustainability through local action. Our Members already represent 20 per cent of the world's urban population - let's continue working together to make our economies and infrastructure greener and more sustainable, resilient, resource-efficient, biodiverse, low-carbon, healthy and happy!”