Gauri Khandekar is Researcher in the Environment and Sustainability Cluster at the Brussels School of Governance. Gauri holds two masters degrees in European Studies with distinction from the Institute of Political Sciences in Lille (France), and the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium). Prior to joining us, she was the Deputy Director and Director Europe at think tank Global Relations Forum based in its office in Brussels, Belgium; Coordinator for the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung’s Energy and Urban Transformation Project; and Project Leader for the EU Delegation to India’s Think Tanks Twinning Project. Between 2010 and 2015, Gauri was Head of Asia Programme at Brussels and Madrid based think tank FRIDE. In 2012, Gauri was Resident Handa Research Fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Pacific Forum in Honolulu, USA where she conducted research on the US's Asia rebalance policy and implications for the EU.
Gauri has a wide range of professional experience in European and international affairs, having worked at the European Commission’s DG External Relations, the European Parliament, the G20, the United Nations Headquarters in New York, a Brussels based American consultancy (Burson Marsteller) and a Brussels based communications enterprise (Tipik S.A.). She has also worked for three years in a development and social welfare NGO in India. In 2013, Gauri initiated a large-scale development programme in the South of Uganda.
