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Speaker profile

Bjorn Hansen

Bjorn Hansen

Executive Director, European Chemicals Agency

Bjorn Hansen is ECHA's second Executive Director with a mandate running from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2022. He is ECHA's legal representative, in charge of the day-to-day management and all staff matters.

After a post-doc in probability theory in Germany, he joined the European Commissions in 1991. Working first at the European Chemicals Bureau at the JRC in Italy and then from 2003 in the Chemicals Unit of DG Environment in Belgium. There Bjorn became Head of Unit in 2012. He already spent one year in ECHA in 2007-2008 as Director of Operations.

Bjorn was involved in the development of REACH and CLP from their very early days. He has been involved in international chemicals work since 1991.