Dr Michael Köhler is Ambassador and Co-lead of Grand Bargain, where he oversees the quality funding and catalysing sector-wide transformation focus areas. He is the Deputy Director-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations in the European Commission’s DG ECHO where he coordinates the world-wide EU humanitarian aid activities. From April 2022 to February 2023 (both inclusive), he also served as Acting Director-General at DG ECHO. Koehler has 36 years of professional experience in international cooperation, aid and foreign policy. After six years as a Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation director in charge of four German financed development projects in Morocco and Tunisia, he joined the German cooperation ministry BMZ for two years before starting his career in the EU in 1994, working in a succession of Middle Eastern, aid, policy coordination, maritime policy, energy, neighbourhood policy and humanitarian policy functions throughout his career. Michael Köhler holds a Dr. phil. in History and Middle Eastern Studies from Hamburg University (1987). Since 1997 he is a professor for “Europe and the Mediterranean” the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, teaching also at PSIA-Sciences Po Paris.