Program Officer, Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Berne, Switzerland

Simon Tschurr started to work for Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in 2001 as program officer and head of the Turkey office in Izmit and Istanbul. Through this assignment he specialized on disaster risk reduction related to natural hazards with special focus on community based preparedness and urban search and rescue (USAR).

From 2008-2010 he was responsible at SDC Headquarters for the Humanitarian activities in Europe such as in South and North Caucasus and Belarus and furthermore for the INSARAG classification of Swiss Rescue team as deputy exercise director. Currently he leads the thematic desk for USAR Capacity Building in SDC’s Rapid Response Unit in Berne.

Simon Tschurr holds a degree in architecture from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich/Switzerland. Before his work for Humanitarian Aid he practiced architecture and construction management.