By a decree dated 29 July 2020, Ms Céline Jurgensen was appointed Ambassador, Permanent Representative of France to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) as of 10 August 2020. She took office on 15 August 2020. A career diplomat, she has held numerous multilateral positions in the areas of humanitarian affairs and security.
Céline Jurgensen is a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies and the National School of Administration (René Cassin year group, 2003). She joined the French Foreign Ministry in 2003, in the Legal Affairs Directorate, where she was primarily in charge of environmental issues and the European Union's common foreign and security policy.
From 2008 to 2010, she was responsible for negotiations involving the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons at the Directorate of Strategic Affairs, Security and Disarmament. Her appointment to the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations took her to New York from 2010 to 2012. In 2012, she joined the Ministry of Defence as Deputy Director of strategic affairs.
From 2014 to 2016, she was Deputy Director of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs at the Directorate of the United Nations, International Organisations, Human Rights and La Francophonie. As such, she defined and developed the French humanitarian strategy within international organisations. She participated with the French delegation in the first World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in May 2016.
From 2016 to 2020, she was the Director for Strategy at the Military Applications Department of the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission.
In addition to her professional activities, she teaches at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ulm) as well as at the University of Paris II Panthéon Assas and the Aix-Marseille University. She is a member of the advisory board of the Thucydide Centre at the University of Paris II Panthéon Assas. She has published several articles and a co-authored book.
She is a Knight of the National Order of Merit.
