Gilles Carbonnier

Founding Member

Gilles Carbonnier is Professor of development economics at the Geneva Graduate Institute (since 2007) and co-Director of executive education. From 2018 to 2026, he was the Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). He has over 30 years of professional experience in international trade, development cooperation and humanitarian action. His research and publications focus on geoeconomic dynamics with a focus on energy transition and the nexus between natural resources and development. His work also addresses war economies as well as international cooperation, humanitarian action and diplomacy, and includes his book entitled Humanitarian Economics: War, Disaster and the Global Aid Market.

Prior to joining the Graduate Institute, Gilles spent several years with the ICRC: he worked in the field from 1989 to 1991 as head of subdelegation in Ethiopia and Iraq and as a delegate in Sri Lanka and El Salvador, then at headquarters from 1999 to 2006 as an economic adviser. He was on the board of directors for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Switzerland from 2007 to 2012. Between 1992 and 1996, he was in charge of international trade negotiations (GATT/WTO) and development cooperation programmes for the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.