Peter Eigen

Peter Eigen (born June 11, 1938 in Augsburg, Germany) founded the Advisory Council of Transparency International (TI), a non-governmental organization promoting transparency and accountability in international development since 1993. Headquartered in Berlin, TI supports National Chapters in more than 90 countries.

A lawyer by training, Eigen has worked in economic development for 25 years, mainly as a World Bank manager of programmes in Africa and Latin America. Under Ford Foundation sponsorship, he provided legal and technical assistance to the governments of Botswana and Namibia, and taught law at the universities of Frankfurt and Georgetown.

In September 2001, Eigen joined the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as Visiting Scholar while teaching at Johns Hopkins University/ SAIS. He also joined the Board of The Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and since 2002, has been teaching as an Honorary Professor of Political Science of the Freie Universität, Berlin. In 2005, Eigen chaired the International Advisory Group of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and became Chair of EITI in 2006.

In 2000, he received the award of Honorary Doctor of the Open University, UK and in 2004, received the Readers Digest Award "European of the Year 2004".

From 1988 to 1991 he was the Director of the Regional Mission for Eastern Africa of the World Bank, and from 1999 to 2001, Eigen was a faculty member of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Eigen is a member of the Africa Progress Panel (APP), a group of ten distinguished individuals who advocate at the highest levels for equitable and sustainable development in Africa. As a Panel Member he facilitates coalition building to leverage and broker knowledge, and convenes decision-makers to influence policy for lasting change in Africa.

In 2007 Peter Eigen, together with Burkhard Gnärig, founded the Berlin Civil Society Center, and is currently the organisation's Chair.

In 2004 he married Gesine Schwan, the social–democrat candidate for the federal presidential elections in Germany in 2004 and 2009.

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