Julia Marton-Lefèvre has completed a year as the Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Environmental Scholar at Yale University and a Fellow of Davenport College at Yale.  She continued her links with Yale University as an Executive Fellow at the Yale School of the Environment, and as a board member of the Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative. She also serves on the boards of directors of several other universities: the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies; Oxford University’s James Martin School and the Global Institute of Sustainability (Arizona State University).

Julia stepped down as Director General of IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) in January 2015, after eight years as head the world’s largest international conservation membership organisation.  Prior positions have included Rector of the UN-mandated University for Peace (UPEACE); Executive Director of LEAD (Leadership for Environment and Development) International, and Executive Director of the International Council for Science (ICSU).

Julia has given hundreds of speeches throughout her career, written articles, op ed pieces, and contributed to several books.  Her board memberships today include:  chairing the Executive Committee for the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, the Donor Council of the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund, and Bioversity International. Her other board memberships include  the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation; the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), the Global Footprint Network, the Turkana Basin Institute, and the advisory board of TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity). Private sector links include chairing the independent Advisory Board to the Sustainable Biomass Program; and membership in the Critical Friends advisory group to the CEO of Veolia Environment S.A. and the Ethics Committee of BNP Parisbas.

Julia received the AAAS Award for International Cooperation in Science; and has been honoured as a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur  by the government of France; as a Chevalier dans l’Ordre de Saint-Charles by HSH Prince Albert of Monaco; received the ProNatura award from the government of Hungary and the  Presidential citation from the Republic of Korea. She was elected a member of the World Academy of Art and Science and the World Future Council and the Royal Geographic Society.  

She was born in Hungary, educated in the United States and in France, and having lived in several continents, considers herself a global citizen.