Harald Braun

Ambassador Harald Braun is currently Chairman of the Board, EVZ Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future”, Berlin and Dean, Agora Strategy Institute, Munich. From 2014 to 2017 Ambassador Braun served as the Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations in New York and Vice President of the 71st UN General Assembly 2016/2017 during which the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) were passed. Prior to his nomination to the UN, Ambassador Braun was State Secretary of the German Foreign Ministry from 2011 to 2014. His earlier diplomatic postings since 1981 included Beirut, London, Bujumbura, Washington and Paris. Harald Braun also served as Chief of Staff to former Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher (1992–94), Deputy Foreign and Security Adviser to the Federal Chancellor (2003–05) and Director-General for Management of the German Foreign Office (2009-11). From 2005 to 2008, he spent three years in the private sector as Corporate Senior Vice President for Group Policy and External Affairs at Siemens AG in Munich. In 2008, Harald Braun was appointed Honorary Professor for Global Studies and Diplomacy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and since 2017 he is Practitioner-in -Residence for International Law at Humboldt University Berlin. Harald Braun was awarded an Honorary Citizenship of Washington D.C. in 2002. He is Grand Officier of the National Order of the French Légion d’honneur, bearer of the Grand Cross of the Italian Order of Merit and further international distinctions, as well as a member of the Knights of the Order of St. John. Ambassador Braun is a Council Member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, member of the German Council on Foreign Relations, Presidium member of the United Nations Association of Germany and a trustee of the Roland Berger Foundation. After graduating from Goldberg-Gymnasium in Sindelfingen in 1971 and completing his national service in the army, Harald Braun (born 1952) was selected for a two-year apprenticeship at IBM Germany. He then completed two M.A. degrees in economics and history in Tübingen and New York and added a doctorate at SUNY Stony Brook before entering the Foreign Service in 1981. He has been married to Dr. Ute Braun since 1980; they have three children and two grandchildren.