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Today a member of the Institut de France, Jean-David Levitte has had a distinguished and outstanding career in the French Foreign Service, serving on the staff of three French Presidents and holding key senior positions in the French Foreign Service.

From 2007 to 2012, Ambassador Levitte was the Senior Diplomatic Adviser and Sherpa of President Sarkozy.

He served as Ambassador to the United States, from 2003 to 2007 during the difficult period of the war in Iraq.

From 2000 to 2002, he was the French Ambassador to the United Nations. In New York, Ambassador Levitte successfully handled several international negotiations, including resolution 1441 on Iraq.

Ambassador Levitte served as Senior Diplomatic Adviser and Sherpa of President Chirac from 1995 to 2000.
From 1990, he held senior positions in the French Foreign Ministry, first as Assistant Secretary for Asia and then as Undersecretary for Cultural and Scientific Cooperation.

In 1988, he was designated to his first position as Ambassador and served as the French Ambassador to the United Nations Office in Geneva.

Before 1988 Mr. Levitte was assigned as Deputy Chief of Staff to the Foreign Minister ; Deputy Assistant Secretary in the African Bureau ; Second Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations in New York.

Mr. Levitte joined the Foreign Service in 1970. He was first posted in Hong Kong and Beijing in the early 1970's. A few months after his election in 1974, President Valery Giscard d'Estaing asked him to work on his staff at the Elysee Palace, where he stayed from 1975 to 1981.

Born in 1946 in the south of France, Ambassador Levitte earned a law degree and is a graduate of Sciences-Po (the renowned Institute for Political Science in Paris) and of the National School of Oriental Languages, where he studied Chinese and Indonesian.

Ambassador Levitte is married to Marie-Cécile Jonas and has two daughters and three grandchildren.

Ambassador Thomas Greminger served as Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) from July 2017 until July 2020. On May 1, 2021, he took over as Director of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP).

As Secretary General, he acted as an effective crisis manager supporting successive Chairmanships in an increasingly polarized environment. In the final months of his term, he dealt with the COVID-19 crisis, working to protect the health and safety of staff while ensuring that the OSCE continued to carry out its critical mandates and maintained business continuity.

Despite the highly polarized political climate, Ambassador Greminger promoted dialogue among the 57 OSCE participating States as one of his key priorities. He sparked informal discussions on emerging challenges and opportunities such as the importance of technology to all dimensions of security or the link between climate change and security.

He supported the OSCE in maintaining field presences to support participating States in implementing OSCE commitments, and preventing or managing conflicts – notably the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. He engaged in diplomatic efforts and supported those of various mediators addressing emerging and protracted conflicts in the OSCE area.

Ambassador Greminger promoted effective multilateralism by strengthening ties with the OSCE’s partners among international and regional organizations. He highlighted the OSCE’s contribution in helping participating States to implement the Sustainable Development Goals.

In his capacity as OSCE Chief Administrative Officer, Ambassador Greminger introduced a “fit for purpose” agenda focused on adapting the OSCE to changing realities and new opportunities against a background of limited and declining resources. This included a management review of the OSCE Secretariat that resulted in procedural and structural improvements, including by making the best use of technology. He also introduced an OSCE gender parity strategy and openly addressed sexual harassment and other challenges to creating a healthy and inclusive professional working environment. In view of his engagement, he was invited to join the International Gender Champions’ network.

Previously, Ambassador Greminger served as Deputy Director General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. As Head of South Cooperation, he oversaw cooperation with 21 partner countries and regions, entailing an annual budget of USD 730 million and 900 staff in Bern and abroad. In this function, he regularly represented Switzerland at international conferences as State Secretary.

From 2010 to 2015, Ambassador Greminger served as the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the OSCE, the United Nations and the International Organizations in Vienna. He was instrumental in devising the consecutive chairmanships and joint work plan of Switzerland (2014) and Serbia (2015). During the Swiss Chairmanship, he chaired the OSCE Permanent Council and played an active role in addressing the crisis in and around Ukraine that rapidly unfolded during the course of 2014. For the first time in years, the OSCE managed to achieve consensus on new OSCE operations – the most important being the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.

Ambassador Greminger was responsible for preparing the successful 2014 OSCE Ministerial Council in Basel, which yielded 21 consensus decisions and declarations. He chaired the OSCE Human Dimension Committee in 2011 and 2012. He introduced the structured agenda, substantive human dimension discussions as well as regular exchanges with OSCE institutions, field missions and UN mandate holders. As a member of the OSCE Troika, he chaired the OSCE Mediterranean Contact Group (2013) and the OSCE Asian Contact Group (2015).

Through his comprehensive expertise in security policy, Ambassador Greminger marked a number of important achievements in the OSCE: he contributed significantly to Ministerial Council Decision 3/11 on the conflict cycle, and the subsequent development of mediation and facilitation capacities in the OSCE Conflict Prevention Center.

During his term as Permanent Representative, Switzerland became the coordinator for the Vienna Document and introduced a number of modernization proposals. By strongly promoting partnership with the Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), he helped the OSCE Secretariat and field missions to build capacities in security sector governance and reform.

From 2004 to 2010, he served as Head of the Human Security Division of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. The Division is the Department’s main competence center for peace, human rights and humanitarian and migration policy, with an annual budget of around USD 70 million and 100 staff in Bern and abroad. During his tenure, the division offered and supported facilitation and mediation services to more than half a dozen peace processes worldwide (including in the Middle East, Colombia, Nepal, Burundi, Uganda and Sudan) and launched a number of important diplomatic initiatives, including those which led to the creation of the UN Human Rights Council, the UN International Tracing Instrument for SALW, and the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development.

Ambassador Greminger also served as Deputy Head of the Human Security Division from 2002 to 2004, and from 1999 to 2001 as Country Director at the Swiss Embassy in Maputo, Mozambique, where he managed Switzerland’s largest development cooperation programme with an annual budget of around USD 30 million and staff.

From 1994 to 1998, he served in different posts in the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, including Head of the Policy and Research Unit.

Ambassador Greminger holds a PhD in history from the University of Zurich. He is Lieutenant Colonel GS (company and battalion commander of infantry unit of the Swiss Armed Forces; G6 and Deputy Chief of Staff of Infantry Brigade). He has authored numerous publications on military history, conflict management, peacekeeping, development and human rights. His mother tongue is German; he is fluent in English and French and has a good working knowledge of Portuguese. Ambassador Greminger was born in 1961 and has four daughters.  

Christina Orisich is the Deputy Director of GCSP and Head of  GCSP’s “Executive Education” activities, developing and expanding the organisation’s comprehensive portfolio internationally.

Ms Orisich brings an extensive international experience in executive education to GCSP, as well as expertise in consulting in organizational and leadership development, change management, strategy and leading a business. She has a very good understanding of challenges leaders face in this complex and ever-changing world both in the private and public sector.

Prior to joining the GCSP, she worked for 12 years for the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) - Europe, where she was Head of the Coaching and Leadership Development Practice, responsible for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Previously as EMEA Design Practice Leader, she led a cross-cultural team of experienced instructional design faculty who delivered highly customized leadership solutions in response to very specific client challenges. In her role as Regional Director, responsible for Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and France at CCL she was responsible for all CCL activities in these countries (multi-million businesses). She built extensive experience in partnering strategically with international global corporations and institutions to support them with their organizational, talent and leadership development challenges. She was Senior Lead Faculty for several client engagements and worked with most of the large international corporations from the Pharma, Health Care, Chemical, Automotive and Financial Services industry. She is also a very experienced Executive coach, and regularly worked with senior leaders from big blue chip corporations as well as international organizations.

Before this, Christina worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC Consulting) in Brussels and London leading EU financed projects in Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Romania in the public and private sector. Christina also worked at the European Commission in Brussels, Ericsson in Vienna and the Austrian Trade Commission in New York City.

Christina has a broad international background and has always worked in multi-cultural environments across a wide range of industries, leading and working with cross-cultural teams. She is Austrian and has lived and worked in 13 countries (Austria, The Netherlands, Belgium, Romania, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Ukraine, Estonia, Russia and Poland). She speaks 8 languages.

She holds a degree in International Business Administration from the University of Economics and Business Administration in Vienna, Austria. She earned her postgraduate degree in European political studies, from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. She is a certified Leadership Embodiment Coach and is certified by the International Coaching Federation. 

Philippe Meyer graduated from the French Air Force Academy in 1977, and earned his wings as tactical transport pilot in 1978. He logged over 5,000 flying hours on C160 Transall and C130 Hercules, commanded the tactical transport wing of Orleans, and his flying operational career included many detachments in Africa and others in Cambodia (UN), Sinai (MFO) and Saudi Arabia (Desert Storm). Since 1993 he has been deeply involved in international relations and politico-military issues, serving in the Ministry of Defence’s office in the diplomatic cell and as advisor at the strategic planning office of the joint headquarters. He was assigned for four years in Doha (Qatar) as Defence Attaché at the French Embassy and four years in Vienna as General Head Military Advisor to the French Ambassador near the OSCE. Before joining the GCSP in 2011, he ended his career at the Air Defence and Operations Command in Paris where he was Deputy to the Commander, in charge of international relations (EU, NATO).

From 2011 to 2014 he was seconded from the French Ministry of Defense to the GCSP and served as Special Advisor of the Director and Senior Defense Advisor in the Regional Development Programme. In that position, he supervised relations between GCSP and the French Ministry of Defense and developed the “Francophonie” programme. Lecturer on diplomacy and defense issues, he helped further GCSP projects in the Gulf Region and Africa.

He was appointed as COO on the 1st of July 2014.

His educational background includes a Diploma of Engineering in Aeronautics, and courses at the US Air War College at Maxwell AFB, the National Defence and Security Institute in Paris, the High Military Institute in Paris and the European Security and Defence College.

Born in 1956, he is married and has three children.

Christian Bühlmann is the Head of the Regional Perspectives Programme . He is seconded from the Swiss Armed Forces.

Prior to this assignment, he gained extensive experience in the area of defence policy, politics, and military strategy as Senior Advisor to the Chief of Swiss Armed Forces. He has over 25 years of combined civilian and military experience. His previous appointments include : Head of Sales Defense at a major Swiss company (as a civilian) as well as head of doctrine research and development (as a regular officer).

He graduated from the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne (Master of Science in Computer Sciences), and the Swiss Military Academy. He received a Master of Arts in International Studies (King's College, London) after attending the Royal College of Defence Studies, London. In his spare time, he is working on a PhD thesis in political science assessing the influence of political ideas on the transformation of Swiss defence policy.

Christian Bühlmann co-authored a book on a Colonel Daniel Reichel, a maverick Swiss military thinker, and has published numerous article on doctrine, strategy, defence policy, and history.

He is a Swiss national; his mother tongue is French and he is proficient in German and English

Isabelle Gillet is the Head of Community Engagement and leads, develops, and organizes the Centre’s community programmes in Geneva and abroad, including community-led projects. She aims to facilitate mutually beneficial and sustainable relationships between the GCSP and its alumni community.

Isabelle has joined the GCSP early 2008 and has held different positions throughout this period. She began at the Centre in the Protocol and Events department where she managed expert seminars, diplomatic dialogue, executive training workshops and major international conferences. In December 2013 she began working for the GCSP’s alumni development and introduced a new strategic plan and new technology to most effectively engage alumni in the life of the GCSP.

Prior to joining the GCSP, Isabelle worked for 14 years for Geneva Tourism & Convention Bureau, where she started to work in the Sales and Promotions department. As its Manager in the later years, she was in charge of a cross-cultural team to brand and develop the destination’s leisure tourism sector. Herself responsible for the Asian market, she established Geneva’s partnerships in the Far East and implemented commercial strategies and promotional projects with an active participation at sales meetings, workshops trade shows and other task forces to further drive business.

Isabelle has a large international background and has continually evolved in a multi-cultural environment. Isabelle is Swiss and lived and worked in the US, UK, India, the Middle East, and the Far East.

She is trilingual in English, French and German and holds a degree in international hotel business management.

Anne-Caroline is the Head of the GCSP’s Global Fellowship Initiative and Creative Spark. Anne-Caroline joined the GCSP in September 2003 and has held different positions throughout this time. She spent a number of years working with the Director of Special Programmes on diplomatic activities and training courses abroad. She then worked with the External Relations Team and, as its Manager, was in charge of the Centre’s external communications - GCSP website, media relations and publications. She later joined the Emerging Security Challenges Programme as a Senior Programme Officer responsible for the Security and Law activities of the Centre. Since 2015, Anne-Caroline coordinates the GCSP Global Fellowship Initiative and currently also heads the development of the Creative Spark.

She holds a Master’s Degree (LL.M.) in International Humanitarian Law, jointly awarded by the Law Faculty of the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute of International Studies (HEI). She studied Law at Pierre Mendes France, University of Grenoble (France), and after her Maîtrise with specialisation in European Law, she obtained a Diploma from their European Summer Academy on "Europe in Transition".

Prior to her employment at the GCSP, she worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Athens (Greece), and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) in Geneva.

Anne-Caroline speaks English, French, Greek, Spanish, Italian and German.