Yvo de Boer Profile
Director General, Global Green Growth Institute
April 2014 - present
Yvo de Boer is the Director-General of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), a Seoul-
based international organization. He was appointed as the Director-General by the GGGI
Assembly, GGGI’s supreme governing body to serve a four-year term beginning on April 15,
2014.
2010 - 2014
Previously, Mr. de Boer served as KPMG’s Global Chairman of Climate Change & Sustainability
Services (CC&S). In this role, he led KPMG’s international network of climate change and
sustainability consulting businesses, which comprise several hundred sustainability
professionals in over 60 countries.
As well as leading KPMG’s CC&S agenda Mr. de Boer advised corporate leaders on the impacts
of rapid environmental, social and political change and how their businesses should respond
in order to grasp opportunities and manage risks.
In 2011 he was appointed to chair the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on
Climate Change.
2006 - 2010
Before joining KPMG in 2010, Mr. de Boer led the international process to respond to climate
change in the role of Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) from 2006 to 2010.
During his tenure he raised the issue of climate change to the highest levels of political and
media attention. He brought over 100 world leaders to Copenhagen for the international
climate negotiations in December 2009 and secured commitments from over 90 countries to
reduce greenhouse emissions.
Throughout his career, he has focused on the economics of climate and sustainability to help
policy makers and the business community understand the consequences of acting, or failing
to act, in economic terms.
Prior to 2006
Prior to his UN role, he was extensively involved in European Union environmental policy as
deputy Director General of the Dutch Environment Ministry. He also served as vice-chair of
the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development, and acted as an advisor to the
Government of China and the World Bank.