Balthasar Staehelin is the ICRC’s Special Envoy, Foresight and Techplomacy. Prior to that, he was ICRC’s Director of Digital Transformation and Data in May 2020. He joined the ICRC in 1993 and has served in the Middle East, Africa, the Balkans and at headquarters. From 2002 to 2006, he was Delegate-General for the Middle East and North Africa, overseeing all ICRC work in the region, including operations in Iraq. He served as Deputy Director of Operations for Policy and Global Affairs from 2006 to 2008. In 2008, he left the ICRC to join the local government in Geneva, Switzerland where he ran the department in charge of providing social welfare, housing, health and integration programmes for asylum-seekers and refugees.

He returned to the ICRC in August 2012, where he has served as Deputy Director-General for the last eight years. His portfolio includes overseeing the ICRC’s cooperation and coordination with the Red Cross and Red Cross Movement as well as the organization’s Global Compliance Office. He holds a master’s degree in history, English literature and constitutional law from the University of Basel, Switzerland.