Dr. Christoph Aubrecht represents the European Space Agency (ESA) at the World Bank, providing strategic advice and coordinating collaborative activities. ESA’s Earth Observation for Sustainable Development #EO4SD initiative provides support to International Financial Institutions in increasing uptake of Earth Observation with the aim of long-term mainstreaming and transfer into development operations. Prior to joining ESA, Chris was leading the spatial analytics efforts under the World Bank’s LAC CDRP disaster resilience initiative. For 10 years he also worked at the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, in the end serving as senior geospatial strategy advisor. Further previous affiliations include GFDRR, EADS-Astrium, NOAA, Columbia University’s CIESIN and the attached NASA SEDAC, and the University of Southern California. Chris has guest lectured on dynamic spatial modeling and Earth Observation at Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University and was recently appointed as visiting professor in GIScience at University of Vienna where he had previously served for several years as adjunct lecturer. He holds a PhD in integrated GIScience and remote sensing from Vienna University of Technology, a prior Master’s degree from the University of Vienna, and certificates in executive leadership and management development from Harvard University.