Helga Flores Trejo

Biography

Helga Flores Trejo, Vice President and Special Envoy for Sustainability & Multilateral Affairs at Bayer, is a seasoned foreign policy and development expert. With over 20 years of experience, she has navigated the realms of government, international financial organizations, foundations, think tanks and the private sector. She has worked on strategic outreach and partnerships in Berlin, Brasilia, Belgrade, Guadalajara and Washington DC. At Bayer she drives sustainability and multilateral affairs, to enable new sustainable business models and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals SDGs. In addition, she advances geopolitical affairs and relations with international organizations such as the G20, UN agencies, Multilateral Development Banks, and key networks such as the World Economic Forum (WEF), and the Munich Security Conference (MSC). Before joining Bayer, she led open innovation at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), where she established and expanded strategic partnerships to foster innovation and solve development challenges. Previously, she served as Head of External Relations at IDB Invest, where she worked on promoting financial inclusion solutions with a focus on SMEs in Latin America and the Caribbean. Within the IDB Group, she held diverse positions, including Chief of the Constituencies Unit – in charge of relations with US Government, NGOs and Parliaments - and Head of Strategic Communications for Sectors. Additionally, she led external relations of the IDB Group in Brazil. She is the former Executive Director the Heinrich Böll Foundation North America. In this capacity she worked promoting transatlantic policy exchange on sustainable development issues and global affairs. Helga began her career as and an Advisor on Development Policy and Latin America in the German Parliament (Bundestag). In Germany she also worked as Chief of Staff to Hamburg's Representative at the German Bundesrat and as European Affairs advisor. Following that, she was a Senior Advisor for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Belgrade, where she mobilized funds and introduced a program on Parliamentary support. Helga Flores Trejo is Member the Board of the Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU), Member of the Advisory Council of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center and Member of the World Economic Forum’s Geopolitical Advisory Group. Former member and deputy Co- Chair of Brazil’s B20 Sustainable Food Systems and Agriculture Task Force. She has been a Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution Center for the US and Europe and has received fellowships from the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Prince of Wales’ Business and Environment Program, and the BMW Herbert Quandt Foundation. She holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science and International Law from Frankfurt’s Goethe University in Germany; she speaks fluently Spanish, German, English, French, and Portuguese.