About
Dr. David O'Connor
Biography
Dr. David O'Connor has worked for the past 7 years as Ambassador to the United Nations of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a leading international organization advancing sustainability science, perhaps best known for its Red List of Threatened Species (iucn.org). Prior to that he was the Chief of Policy and Analysis in the United Nations Division for Sustainable Development, where he led the team that provided substantive support to the formulation and negotiation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Before joining the UN, Dr. O'Connor spent a decade-and-a-half at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, doing policy-relevant research for emerging and developing economies at the OECD Development Centre. He has published on climate and biodiversity finance, the co-benefits of climate policies in emerging economies like Chile, China and India, managing the environment with rapid industrialization in the East Asian emerging economies, and policies and measures designed to phase out ozone depleting substances (like CFCs) from the electronics industries of Asia. He has a PhD in Public Policy from University College London, an M.S. in Agricultural Economics from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a B.A. (Summa) in Philosophy from Yale University.