Deputy Director General - Corporate Services

SungAh Lee brings with her more than 20 years of experience in corporate strategy and results-based management, international relations, partnership-building, resource mobilisation, as well as global positioning and policy advocacy. She has been leading work across several industries, including international organisations, foundations, NGOs, membership-based networks and the private sector. Throughout her career, she has been deeply passionate about and committed to building sustainable and inclusive economies and societies that create opportunities for all.  

As the Deputy Director General and a member of the Executive Board of IUCN, she implements the strategy of the Union, while having particular responsibility for leading a cohesive and integrated services for all of IUCN including membership, commissions, convenings, partnerships, HR, IT, Communications, Legal, Oversight and program performance, monitoring and evaluation.

Before joining IUCN she was heading the Country Accelerators, Shaping the Future of the New Economy and Society at the World Economic Forum. In taking forward this work, she has been focusing on closing the innovation; skills and employment; and gender gaps around the globe.

Prior to this work, she led the global policy advocacy for Financial Services for the Poor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, focusing on digital financial services. She was one of the founding members and Director of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) and grew the organization to become a dynamic global network of central banks and ministries of finance from over 80 countries. She also served as the Director at the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC). In her earlier career, she worked at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the International Trade Centre (ITC), and LG Card, a financial company in South Korea.

SungAh Lee is a recipient of the Presidential Award from the President of the Republic of Korea for her outstanding contributions to the Korean Presidency of the G20 (2011). She also served as a Board member at the United Nations Capital Development Fund’s (UNCDF) Shaping Inclusive Finance Transformations (SHIFT) programme, the Better than Cash Alliance (BTCA), a public-private partnership hosted by the UN and at Digital Frontiers, a global capacity building institution for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).