Mr. Hans Guttman shares his opinion during a meeting at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center.

Mr. Hans Guttman has been appointed Executive Director of Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC). Mr. Guttman joins ADPC with over 25 years of policy and development experience specifically in the field of aquatic resources and water management.

His background includes hands-on experience with implementing on-the-ground sustainable rural development initiatives at the local, national and regional levels in Southeast Asia. Most recently he provided advisory and technical expertise on the subject to donors, consultancy companies and international agencies.

Mr. Guttman has served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Mekong River Commission Secretariat based in Vientiane, Lao PDR from 2011 – 2015. During this time, he supervised the implementation of the 1995 Mekong Agreement among other responsibilities.

Previously, he also served as a Coordinator for the Wetlands Alliance (WA) Program where he managed the delivery of 20 WA program activities with the goal of strengthening the capacity of local change agents to support sustainable aquatic resources/fisheries management for the benefit of the poor.

Mr. Guttman holds a Master of Science degree in Aquaculture from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok, Thailand.

He will be taking up his official duties as Executive Director in the first week of January 2017 and is set to support the organization in the implementation of the ADPC 2020 Strategy. The document outlines the goals of the organization and is currently being updated to remain relevant in the post-2015 development agenda and the associated global frameworks. These include the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).