Dear Reader,

We are very excited to announce that the MCII project office at UNU-EHS in Bonn will have a new Executive Director in place by December 2016!

Mr. Soenke Kreft will lead MCII’s work on both, feeding back insurance-related expertise into international policy making processes, as well as continuing the implementation of innovative ideas on how to make climate risk insurance work for poor and vulnerable people at risk from climate change.

“The Munich Climate Insurance Initiative has established itself as the leading actor in the field of climate insurance and I am honoured to be able to work with the great individuals that form the MCII Board and Membership, and with a remarkable team of colleagues”, said Soenke when he accepted his new post.

He is a forerunner in international climate policy, having lead the Climate Policy Team at the German NGO Germanwatch for the past 3 years, which allowed him to provide major inputs to the Paris Agreement (UNFCCC) and also contribute to other initiatives, such as the G7 InsuResilience. Soenke has been familiar with MCII for many years and participated in the initiation of the first phase of MCII’s project “Climate Risk Adaptation and Insurance in the Caribbean” in 2011, and was responsible for a large capacity development and agenda setting programme with the Least Developed Countries group on climate-induced Loss and Damage which in turn provided the rational to launch G7 InsuResilience.

“I am looking forward to refine and co-create the political, operational and organizational strategies of the organization and to make change in the real world for the better of climate impacted people.”

Please join us in warmly welcoming Soenke to his new post!