René Holenstein has a doctorate in history and was active for many years in private and state development cooperation and policy, including as President of the Berne Declaration (now Public Eye). He was a lecturer at NADEL / ETH Zürich and worked for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) at the headquarters in Switzerland and abroad (Burkina Faso, Bosnia-Herzegovina). Most recently he was Swiss ambassador to Kyrgyzstan and Bangladesh.