Izabella Koziell has served as Deputy Director General of the Kathmandu-headquartered International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) since 2021. She is the first woman in ICIMOD’s history to hold the position of Deputy Director General.

Izabella’s oversees the programmatic portfolio at ICIMOD, led the development of the organisation’s Strategy 2030: Moving Mountains and the formulation of the Medium Term Action Plan 23-26, and is committed to increasing the pace at which the organization delivers results.

Prior to joining ICIMOD she has worked in multiple leadership and management positions in various international organisations, working on the interconnected risks presented by climate, environment, biodiversity, and development, primarily for the Global South. Her previous positions have included 5 years as Director for a cross CGIAR programme around Water, Land and Ecosystems at the International Water Management Institute in Sri Lanka, 15 years within the UK Department for International Development (DFID, now FCDO) in a variety of policy and programming positions. She has also worked for the International Institute for Environment and Development where she led some of the early work linking biodiversity with development, having begun her career in dryland Tanzania working with farmers and pastoralists with the Lutheran World Service.

She is a dynamic leader, highly skilled in strategy and delivery, with a rare capacity to work effectively across policy, science and implementation communities, with a vast network across the climate and development arena, and who is deeply committed to creating solutions that make a significant impact towards resolving the triple planetary crisis