Alwin Kopse is Head of International Affairs at the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture. He represents the Office and Switzerland in various international organisations, such as FAO, OECD and WTO, in matters of sustainable agriculture, agricultural trade and food systems. Alwin is the current Chair of the Committee for Agriculture of the OECD. He had also the privilege of leading the International Advisory Panel of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Alwin was the Chair of the 11th Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and is member of the Bureau for the 12th Session. He is the current National Convenor for Switzerland for the UN Food Systems Summit follow up process.
Alwin Kopse was appointed Deputy Assistant Director-General of FOAG in October 2018 and holds a MLaw of the University of Berne and an MSc in Public Policy and Management of the University of London (School of Oriental and African Studies). Before joining the FOAG in 2015, he held leadership in various organizations in civil society, research, the industry and in the public sector.