Dr Hans Bruyninckx became the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency on 1 June 2013. In 1996 he completed a PhD in international environmental politics at Colorado State University and from 2010 headed the HIVA Research Institute in Leuven, which specialises in policy research. Over the last 20 years, he has conducted research in more than a dozen countries, in areas including environmental politics, climate change, and sustainable development.