Heike Kuhn

Dr. Heike Kuhn is Head of Division for 'Millennium Development Goals, poverty reduction, social protection, sectoral and thematic policies' at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Bonn (Germany). She has a background of more than 20 years in European and multilateral development cooperation. Ms Kuhn has long-standing experience in leading and managing multilateral negotiations at European and UN-level, lately as Alternate Representative at the Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic of Germany to FAO, WFP and as Executive Board Director to IFAD. Her recent responsibilities included financial oversight of 3.2 billion EUR p.a. and of 700 employees (about 700 persons in HQ and abroad). Ms Kuhn holds a Ph.D. in Administrative Sciences from the University of Speyer (Germany) on 'The social dimension of the European Community' and she is a fully qualified lawyer, having studied in Freiburg/Germany, Moscow/USSR, Los Angeles/USA and Genoa/Italy.