Martin Lees is a graduate in Mechanical Sciences from Cambridge University (1964) with a post-graduate Diploma in European Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium (1970).  After some years as a manager in industry, he started his international career at OECD in 1971 where he was responsible for programmes on Cooperation in Science and Technology, on Innovation in the Procedures and Structures of Government and also for the design and launching of the “InterFutures Project” on the long-term future of the world economy.

He then served at the United Nations in several capacities and in 1984, he was appointed Assistant Secretary General for Science and Technology for Development.  During this period, he was also responsible for the establishment of the InterAction Council of Former Heads of State and Government and was based in Vienna as Director General (1984-1986). He left the UN in 1988.

He has also been responsible for several high level programmes of International Cooperation with China 1980 , including: a cooperative programme on science, innovation and investment, (1980-1986); Coordinator of a programme to brief the leaders of China on international issues, “China and the World in the Nineties”(1988-1995); the establishment of “The China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development” in 1992 of which he was a founder and a Member for 15 years; Co-Chair of a programme on “The Integration of Economic Planning and Environmental Protection in China,” (1997-2001) with the Vice Chairman of the State Development and Planning Commission, now NDRC; and most recently, collaboration with NDRC on the design of a World Center on Climate Change in Beijing and on indicators for the Xiao Kang programme.

From 1991-1996 he developed and implemented programmes of cooperation with the Newly Independent States of the Former Soviet Union, as Director General of the International Committee for Economic Reform and Cooperation, based in Bonn.

In 1996, Mr. Lees assisted in establishing the International Advisory Board of the Toyota Motor Corporation in Nagoya Japan, of which he was Moderator and member until 2008. 

Mr. Lees was elected Rector of the University for Peace of the United Nations on 1^st January 2001.  From November 1998 to December 2000, he had assisted in the revitalization of the University as Director for Programme Development, leading to his appointment as Rector.  He was responsible to the Council for the revitalisation of the University, including the development of a new academic programme, the establishment of a sound organisation and the extension of the programme of education for peace across the world using state-of-the-art technologies combined with networks of partner institutions. (See attachment for more information.)   In April 2005, Martin Lees retired from the post of Rector, becoming Rector Emeritus.

In September 2007, Martin Lees was elected Secretary General of the Club of Rome developing new substantive activities and an organisation to international standards from 1^st January 2008 to 31^st March 2010.

In recent years, Martin Lees has been speaking in all regions of the world on issues of economic growth, economic and financial system reform, sustainable development, non-traditional threats to international security and peace, systems thinking, climate change, urbanisation and other related issues.  He has moderated over two years, a high-level international task-force setting out the scientific realities of climate change at the request of President Mikhail Gorbachev and presented the results at Rio+20. 

He is now principally engaged on China’s emerging economic and international policies to meet new challenges, on the establishment of curricula and the institutional framework of the Pan African University, on issues of urbanisation and climate change and on the application of systems thinking to policy and institutional reform.