By Nora Delaney
Gaia van der Esch has devoted her career to addressing global challenges, from poverty and climate change to gender inequality. She’s been at the front lines of humanitarian work, stepped into executive policy roles, and become an author and prominent speaker. “I want to feel fulfilled in my role, knowing I’m using this precious time to have an impact that benefits society, humanity, and nature,” van der Esch says. “And having been in different sectors, I know each of them has a vantage point to drive impact, and each of them has weak points.”
With Italian and Dutch parents, van der Esch grew up in Italy with an international outlook that guided her through her studies and into her career. After earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in Rome and a master’s degree in international relations in Paris, she worked with a nongovernmental organization, providing humanitarian relief to Syrians in Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Turkey and managing refugee camps.
Thriving in these roles, van der Esch quickly moved into leadership positions, where she had to bring together people with different views and experiences. By her mid-twenties, she was responsible for teams in roughly 30 countries as the global deputy director of a Geneva-based humanitarian think tank. “I was managing thousands of people at age 25,” she says. “I was on the management executive track early on.”
“I want to feel fulfilled in my role, knowing I’m using this precious time to have an impact that benefits society, humanity, and nature.”
But the dizzying pace of her career gave van der Esch little time to reflect. She realized she wanted to step back, look at the big picture, and think about how she could make an enduring impact on the issues she cared about. “When you’re a humanitarian worker, you feel like you are a nurse that can put on a plaster, but that can’t fix the reason why there is a war or a climate crisis,” she explains. To get to the root of the challenges she saw, she knew that public policy was part of the solution.
So, van der Esch enrolled at Harvard Kennedy School. She expected to focus on policy issues but was surprised to also discover an interest in writing after taking a communications course. With encouragement from Lauren Brodsky, the senior director of the HKS Communications Program and a lecturer in public policy, van der Esch started writing about Italian society and politics—work that would eventually become her first book.
After she graduated from the Kennedy School, van der Esch’s career took another turn. She landed a role with the Italian government as an envoy for an initiative to advance women’s economic representation across G20 countries. Italy held the G20 presidency at the time, providing van der Esch a fascinating opportunity.
“It was a turning point in my career because I never thought much about gender equality,” she says. Still, she had lived experience with gender dynamics, having been a young female manager working in male-dominated fields. She felt that much of the leadership training women receive is focused on “fixing” them or “making women more like men” in the workplace. That narrative, van der Esch realized, is flawed and outdated and could stifle diversity. She began to explore the stories of female leaders, resulting in her second book Leading Our Way: How Women Are Re-Defining Leadership, which draws on interviews with figures from feminist leader Gloria Steinem to fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg. While the people profiled have a range of experiences and views, they each provide insights into leadership.
In addition to speaking about her book and the issues it covers, she currently holds a leadership role at 3ZERO, an international foundation addressing crises related to climate, poverty, and civic participation around the world. And van der Esch is open to where her commitment to addressing tough global challenges will take her next—including, potentially, politics, where the skills of bridging divides are essential. She feels there is a universal need for skilled and disciplined politicians. “I’m embracing my nonlinear career,” van der Esch says. “Who knows where it will take me?”
