Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder

Vice-President, Global Strategies and Managing Director, Europe

Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, LL.M, is IISD’s Vice-President, Global Strategies and Managing Director, Europe.

Nathalie is responsible for initiating and overseeing major initiatives across IISD’s programs, including secretariats managed by IISD, such as the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development and the International Support Office (SISO) of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), among others. She is also the institute’s senior leader in Europe, based out of IISD’s office in Geneva, Switzerland.

Nathalie has extensive legal, policy, and training experience in the areas of public and private international law, trade, investment, sustainable development, human rights, international environmental law, and international dispute settlement. She has authored and edited several peer-reviewed publications and collections covering various facets of international law.

Additionally, Nathalie is a visiting professor on international investment law at the Geneva Graduate Institute.  

Before joining IISD, Nathalie served as Managing Attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) in Geneva, after previously being based out of CIEL’s Washington, D.C. office. Earlier, she was a fellow at the International Institute of International Economic Law at Georgetown University Law Center and worked in Hanoi, Vietnam, for a legal reform project of the United Nations Development Programme. She also worked at an Australian law firm and at the Swiss Department of Justice in the Section for International Law. In Switzerland, Nathalie is admitted to the Bar of Basel.

Additional information

Areas of expertise
Investment Law & Policy
Food and Agriculture
Public Procurement
Sustainable Finance
Mining
Standards and Value Chains
Trade
International Economic Law
International Investment Agreements
Investment (Arbitration)
Investment and Sustainable development
Investment Treaties
Investor-State Contracts
Staff type
Experts
Senior Management
Staff
Education
Master of Laws, Georgetown University Law Centre, Washington. D.C
LL.B. (lic. iur.), Universite de Neuchatel, Switzerland
Languages spoken
English, French, German