In April 2024, the UN Secretary-General appointed Astrid Schomaker Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Prior to her appointment as Executive Secretary, Astrid was the Director for Green Diplomacy and Multilateralism with the European Commission. There she promoted a global transition to resource-efficient, low emission, nature-positive circular economies.
She also focused on increasing the EU's effectiveness in addressing international environmental challenges, strengthening multilateralism and international environmental governance, and working towards the full implementation of multilateral environment agreements. Astrid also worked as the Director for Global Sustainable Development at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Environment.
Astrid studied English, history and law in Hamburg and Norwich and has an LLM in international legal cooperation from Brussels' Free University. After briefly working at the law schools of the Universities of Hamburg and Ann Arbor (Michigan), she joined the European Commission in 1992, working on EU - US relations.
She returned to Brussels in 1999 where she oversaw regulatory cooperation with Japan. In 2001, she became Head of Unit for Relations with the Andean Community in the Directorate-General for External Relations. Astrid moved to the Environment Department in 2004 and led work on a variety of issues within the Directorate-General for Environment.