Astrid Maria Jakobs de Pádua
Minister Counselor for Food and Agriculture
Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Washington, DC
Astrid Maria Jakobs de Pádua, a member of ACE Health Foundation’s ACE Global Leaders of Excellence Network , has been serving as Minister Counselor for Food and Agriculture at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Washington, DC, since September 2021. Prior to that, she was on a secondment by the German Government to the World Bank (IBRD) in Washington, as Senior Agriculture Specialist at the Global Practice for Agriculture and Food. Between 2014 and 2018, Astrid completed a first term as Minister Counselor for Food and Agriculture at the German Embassy in Washington, DC. From 2008 to 2014, she was Head of the Division for Food Security and International Organizations at the German Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture in Berlin. Astrid joined the Ministry for Food and Agriculture in 1992, serving initially as an adviser for international fisheries, then on international relations, and later as senior adviser on cabinet, parliament, and protocol issues. From 1998 to 2002, she served as Agriculture and Food Attaché at the German Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1995, she supported the German Permanent Representation to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome as an adviser. Astrid studied law at the University of Bonn from 1981 to 1986. Between 1987 and 1992, she worked as a research assistant at University of Bonn, studied law at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil and underwent her legal clerkship in Bonn and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Astrid holds a full law degree, awarded in 1992.