Last week I received the sad news that Ambassador Georg Lennkh had passed away, in France, during his vacation, in the wake of an accident. 

After law studies in Graz, Bologna and the US, Georg Lennkh joined the Austrian Foreign Ministry in 1965. He was Chief of Cabinet of Bruno Kreisky, Permanent Representative of Austria at the OECD in Paris, and Director General for Development Cooperation in the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs until 2004. After his retirement from active service, he acted as Austria’s Special Envoy for Africa and Special EU Envoy for Chad. He served as President and member of the Board at CARE Austria and the Bruno-Kreisky Forum in Vienna. 

More than 25 years ago, Ambassador Lennkh, then Director General for Austria’s development policy and cooperation, had co-founded with me the Global Forum on Sustainable Energy. Till his untimely death he faithfully acted as GFSE’s vice-president and sought to promote its objectives. 

Beyond the GFSE, Georg Lennkh has been a boss, a mentor, a revered colleague and – most importantly - a good friend for me. We have written books together on possibilities for cooperation with Africa, our neighbor continent. We have discussed about development cooperation in particular and Austrian foreign policy and geopolitics more generally. 

His unwavering commitment to peace and social justice and his untiring efforts to develop and maintain professional networks and warm relations with people across the globe have inspired me time and again. 

My thoughts –  I trust, the thoughts of the entire GFSE community -  and our good wishes are with his family. At GFSE, let us carry forward his legacy. 

 

Irene Giner-Reichl, President