As Regional CEO of WWF Central and Eastern Europe, Andreas Beckmann is responsible for leading and coordinating the efforts of WWF, the global conservation organisation, to ensure a living planet for nature and people in and from the Central and Southeastern Europe. „WWF-CEE” seeks to preserve the „Green Heart of Europe“, including globally important forests, wetlands and wildlife and promote long-term sustainable local development. The organisation currently employs ca 180 staff working from WWF-Romania, - Bulgaria, -Hungary, -Slovakia and -Ukraine as well as in the Czech Republic and Moldova (wwfcee.org).
Andreas currently chairs the WWF Global Partnerships Committee, which oversees the corporate engagement of the WWF global network. He has served on the boards of a number of organisations including the Czech and Slovak Environmental Partnership Foundations, Greenpeace Czech Republic, the Bradford University MBA Industry Advisory Board as well as a number of WWF organisations (WWF-Hungary, WWF-Romania, WWF- Bulgaria, WWF-Slovakia, WWF-Ukraine, the WWF-Mediterranean Programme and WWF- Adria).
Previous to his current position, Andreas worked at WWF as deputy director for the WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme, the predecessor of „WWF-CEE“ (2005-09) and as EU Accession Coordinator (2001-05). Before coming to work for WWF in 2001, Andreas spent 10 years living and working in Prague, the last five years managing communications, development and regional coordination for the Environmental Partnership (www.environmentalpartnership.org), a consortium of foundations dedicated to fostering partnership action for the environment and local communities in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. Andreas has an MBA in Innovation and Circular Economy from the University of Bradford, an MA in East European History from Stanford University, a BA with High Honors from Swarthmore College (History, Politics and International Relations). He has also studied at then University of Köln in Germany (Fulbright Scholarship) and at the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys (Russian), and also holds a certificate in conservation leadership from the WWF Conservation College. He has written extensively about the environment and local development in Central and Eastern Europe.
Born in 1968, Andreas lives in Vienna and is married to the artist Lena Knilli, with whom he has two daughters, Lucie Jo and Isa Franziska Knilli.