Hans Bruyninckx
Executive Director of the European Environment Agency
Hans Bruyninckx is the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency, since 1 June, 2013.
In 1996 Dr Bruyninckx completed a PhD in international environmental politics at Colorado State University.
From 2010 until his appointment at the EEA, he was head of the HIVA Research Institute in Leuven, Belgium, a policy-oriented research institute associated with the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, where he was also head of the Political Science department from 2007 to 2010.
Over the last 20 years, he has conducted research in more than a dozen countries, in areas including environmental politics, climate change, and sustainable development. He has taught on global environmental politics and global environmental governance in relation to the European Union (EU), publishing extensively on EU environmental policies and its role as an actor in global environmental governance.
Throughout his career Dr Bruyninckx has worked with governmental agencies, civil society and businesses, often in an advisory role.