Background

Benjamin Yongsheng Zhu is a Procurement & Operations Manager at the United Nations University Vice Rectorate in Europe (UNU-ViE). He holds a university degree in International Communications from the Communication University of China where he received the honor of excellent university graduate of Beijing City. He is currently pursuing a MBA/MSc degree in International Management focusing on International Finance and Human Resources Management at the University of London. Furthermore, Benjamin is involved in a graduate diploma training programme in public procurement authorized by the Chartered Institute for Purchasing & Supply Chain (CIPS), UK, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). He has also developed good knowledge of International Management and Communication Science at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, as well as knowledge of Marketing at Peking University. Apart from his native language Chinese, he is a fluent speaker of English, German, Cantonese and Korean with intermediate level of Spanish and French and also basic knowledge of Japanese and Swedish.

Benjamin has many years experience in communications, administrative management, project management and interpretation. Prior to joining UNU, he worked as special assistant to the delegation for the Olympic Project at the Swiss National Broadcast Corporation and European Broadcast Union and as moderator and journalist at Deutsche Welle (German International Radio Station). He worked at the Europe Media Research Center of CUC in China and also was the focal point for the US, Korean and Hong Kong academic exchange programme. He used to be coordinator for Volunteer Programme at the municipal government of Qingdao, China. Benjamin was granted the certificate of certified professional interpreter at the age of 17 and was honored as the youngest professional interpreter in China.

Working Area at UNU-EHS

Benjamin is coordinating procurement, finance and administration related matters at the Administration and Finance Unit including market research and analysis (sourcing), procurement solicitations and evaluations, supplier relations, contracting, asset management, financial management and reporting, public services and general finance and administrative affairs. Benjamin also used to work in the UNU-ViE SCIENTIA section for the D4S – Dialogue on Science for Sustainability project and the knowledge management initiatives - in the aspect of project coordination, research and events organization. Besides, he also worked for the Munich Re Foundation Chair Project (MRF) supporting the coordination of the project and summer academy in terms of project communications. He has been co-organizing several conferences such as EMFSV, MRF Summer Academy on Social Vulnerability, as well as the E-learning Conference and D4S Conference.