Since August 2021, Birgit Vogel is the ICPDR Executive Secretary, the first woman to take on the role, and the 4th Executive Secretary since the ICPDR’s establishment.
An Austrian native and water resources manager, she has a very elaborated multicultural and international work experience in river basin management. Over more than 20 years, she has worked across Europe, India, South-East Asia, China, Africa, and the South Caucasus, covering many transboundary river basins like the Danube, Mekong, the Ganga, the Okavango.
Ms. Vogel previously worked for the Secretariat of the Mekong River Commission, where she tackled coordination matters including mainstream hydropower development and possible transboundary impacts. Her last post was in Delhi with GIZ India within an EU and German BMZ co-financed action, in which she successfully supported the EU to strengthen the India-EU Water Partnership and the joint water policy dialogue regarding the challenging management of river basins of India.