Kilian Kleinschmidt believes in thepower of connectivity and that we can fix it all through better and moreeffective access of the disadvantaged populations and fragile regions to theimmense wealth of knowhow, technologies and finance we have accumulatedcollectively. It is his conviction that the global brain and the collectiveresilience grows with every connection made successfully solving a challengeand seizing an opportunity.
Kilian is an internationalnetworker, development and migration expert with 35 years of experience in awide range of countries, emergencies and refugee camps as United Nationsofficial, Aid worker and Diplomat. He is developing and advising a number ofventures which aim at sustainable investment and social impact in very fragileenvironments. His work on emerging cities, Special Development Zones andurbanization of refugee camps is widely recognized as the way forward dealingwith mass migration, population shifts and transformation of society. He ischallenging the Humanitarian Aid Sector through a range of new and unorthodoxpartnerships, technologies and ways of financing building on networking andswarm intelligence rather than hierarchies and ineffective bureaucracies.
More recently he has joined the MunjaEnergy Group based in Kenya as partner and the Director for Social Impact andPartnerships. The Munja Group operates across Africa raising finance throughCarbon and Social Impact Credits, and reinvests in green and social impactprojects including Oasis Energy Community Hubs and Electric Mobility.
He became known as the “Mayor ofZa'atari" when he managed the refugee camp of Za'atari in Northern Jordan from 2013-2014 onbehalf of UNHCR. Za'atari has become a symbol for new and innovative approachesin refugee and humanitarian management under his leadership. His careerincluded positions as Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, DeputySpecial Envoy for Assistance to Pakistan, Director for Communities andMinorities in the UN administration in Kosovo, Executive Secretary for theMigration and Refugee Initiative (MARRI) in the Stability Pact for SoutheasternEurope and many field based functions with UNHCR, UNDP and WFP. He workedextensively in Africa, Southeastern Europe, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and duringthe European refugee crisis advised the Austrian Minister of Interior onRefugee reception centres. He was a Special Advisor to the German Minister ofDevelopment on Refugee issues and innovative partnerships (2016) and advisingAustrian Chancellor Christian Kern on migration issues in Africa. With IPASwitxboard Tunisia he has been implementing a major program aiming at reducing. irregular migration (2020-2022) andin 2022 he has advised a major international logistics company on humanitarianissues related to the war in Ukraine, including frequent travel.
He is a public speaker and coach andhas published three books - “Weil es um die Menschen geht” (ECON 2015), “Beyond Survival” (Dumont-Mair2016) and “Tod dem Helfer” (Dumont-Mair 2017) and authored anumber of articles on refugee and migration issues. He is a renowned publicspeaker in conferences, TEDx and other events.
