Klaus von Grebmer

Von Grebmer earned a M. Ec. in 1970 and a Ph.D. in economics in 1972, both from the University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany. Von Grebmer worked for over 26 years in the private sector as a consultant, health economist, and senior manager in communications. While at Ciba-Geigy, he served as a senior communications manager during the crisis of a drug produced by Ciba-Geigy believed to cause the Sub-acute Myelo-Optic Neuropathy (SMON)] in Japan starting in 1980, as reported in the book Bad Medicine: The Prescription Drug Industry in the Third World.[1]

From 1973 to 1976 von Grebmer was an associate lecturer on Health Economics at the University of Konstanz, Germany, and one semester at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. During 1998, von Grebmer joined the World Bank Executive Staff Exchange Program as a Principal Operations Officer in rural development.

In 1999, von Grebmer joined the International Food Policy Research Institute as Director of Communication and stayed in that position until 2011. Under his leadership, the first edition of the Global Hunger Index[2] was launched in 2006; von Grebmer was one of the promoters of publishing a hunger index that would support the public debate on the issues of hunger. He encouraged the author Doris Wiesmann who wrote an initial research paper on indexing hunger under the leadership of Joachim von Braun to move in this direction. In 2015, von Grebmer co-authored the working paper Methodological Review and Revision of the Global Hunger Index[3] which has since then be the basis of an improved and revived Global Hunger Index.[4] He is the lead author of the Global Hunger Indexes from 2006 till today.[5] The index is frequently mentioned in the media around the world as a source to characterize the hunger situation in a given country.[6]

Von Grebmer received in 2008 for the International Food Policy Research Institute the COM+ Communications Award from the Alliance of Communicators for Sustainable Development.[7]

The Global Hunger Index has won The Mercury Gold Award for best non-profit-human welfare report twice. The 2010 Global Hunger Index: The challenge of hunger,[8] won the Best of Annual Reports for DEUTSCHE WELTHUNGERHILFE E.V.in the 2010/2011 Mercury Excellence Award.[9] The 2011 Global Hunger Index, The Challenge of Hunger: Taming price spikes and excessive food price volatility,[10] won the Best of Annual Reports and Overall Presentation for Europe.[11]