Christoph Aubrecht manages the Global Development Assistance (GDA) program at the European Space Agency (ESA). GDA forms the technical backbone of the ‘Space for International Development Assistance’ (Space for IDA) initiative, jointly implemented with World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), and has mobilized more than $85 million in both space and development finance resources dedicated to mainstreaming satellite Earth Observation in development operations.
Chris joined ESA in 2016 and served as ESA representative and senior advisor to the WB until 2020, still advising the Bank programmatically to date. Prior to that, Chris led the spatial analytics efforts under the World Bank’s CDRP Disaster Resilience initiative. He has lived and worked on 3 continents and has gained cross-disciplinary experience (aside ESA and WB) through positions across academia, public and private as well as intergovernmental institutions including GFDRR, NOAA, Astrium, Columbia University, and the Austrian Institute of Technology.
Chris holds master’s and PhD degrees in integrated GI science and remote sensing (TU Vienna) as well as certificates in executive leadership and management development (Harvard University). He currently serves on the GPSDD and GEF technical advisory groups and on the advisory board of the UK FCDO-funded Humanitarian Innovation Hub.
