IISD Announcement: Nathalie Bernasconi joins IISD’s investment program
The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) is pleased to announce that Nathalie Bernasconi, a Swiss-based international lawyer with an extensive background in trade and investment law, has joined the IISD’s program on investment.
Ms. Bernasconi will take over the management of IISD’s Investment for Sustainable Development program. The program has been managed since its inception over a decade ago by Howard Mann, who will continue to play a major role in the development and delivery of IISD’s work on investment.
“I am delighted to be able to hand over the reins to Nathalie. We have worked together on many occasions in the past few years. I do not think there is anyone better placed to take the program forward into its second decade. I look forward to working with Nathalie, and to the opportunities her joining IISD will create,” said Mann.
Mark Halle, Director of IISD’s Trade and Investment Program, said that the team at IISD dedicated to foreign investment issues has been remarkable for the influence it has achieved. The addition of Ms. Bernasconi to the team will allow that influence to grow:
“Nathalie is a fantastic addition to our team. She has established herself as an extremely articulate advocate of trade and investment laws and policies that make a positive contribution to sustainable development. Nathalie’s management experience also brings added depth at a time when the program’s scope and workload is expanding.” said Halle.
Ms. Bernasconi joins the IISD after four years as the managing attorney of the Center for International Environmental Law’s Geneva office, where she concentrated on issues relating to trade, investment and sustainable development. Prior to this, Ms. Bernasconi was a fellow of the Institute of International Economic Law in Washington D.C. She has also worked for the UNDP in Viet Nam, for the Australian law firm of Phillips Fox, and in the International Law Section of the Justice Department of Switzerland.
She has an LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center, Washington D.C., and Lic. iur. Université de Neuchatel, Switzerland. She is a member of the Bar of Basel, Switzerland.
IISD’s Investment for Sustainable Development program focuses primarily on the international legal regime that governs foreign investment. Among its many activities in this field, the Institute provides capacity support and capacity training to developing countries, has developed a model international investment agreement designed to foster sustainable development, conducts research into the state of the art of investment treaties, and has actively engaged with the UNCITRAL Working Group on Arbitration in an effort to promote greater transparency in investor-state arbitrations.
IISD is also the publisher of Investment Treaty News.
Nathalie can be reached at nbernasconi@IISD.org.
