Prof. Dr. Peter Eigen has worked in economic development and governance for several decades and has led initiatives for better global governance and the fight against corruption.

A lawyer by training, Eigen has worked as a World Bank manager of programs in Africa and Latin America; from 1988 to 1991 he was the Director of the Regional Mission for Eastern Africa of the World Bank. Under Ford Foundation sponsorship, he provided legal and technical assistance to the governments of Botswana and Namibia to strengthen the legal framework for mining investments.

In 1993 Eigen founded Transparency International (TI), a non-governmental organization promoting transparency and accountability in international development. From 1993 to 2005 he was Chair of TI and is now Chair of the Advisory Council. In 2005, Eigen chaired the International Advisory Group of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), was the Chairman of the EITI from 2006 to February 2011 and is now EITI Special Representative. In 2016 he co-founded the HUMBOLDT-VIADRINA Governance Platform (Berlin), initiating governance programs - such as the Fisheries Transparency Initiative, which he chairs.

Eigen has taught law and political science at the universities of Frankfurt Main, the John F. Kennedy School of Government/ Harvard, SAIS/ Johns Hopkins, University of Washington and Bruges College of Europe. Since 2002, he is teaching as an Honorary Professor of Political Science at the Freie Universität, Berlin. In 2000, he was awarded the ‘Honorary Doctor’ degree at the Open University, UK, in 2004, the Readers Digest Award "European of the Year 2004" and in 2007 the Gustav Heinemann Award.

From 2007 to 2017 Eigen was a member of Kofi Annan's Africa Progress Panel (APP), and co-chairs now with fr. President Obasanjo the Africa Progress Group (AFG). From 2009 to 2011 he served as Vice-Chair of the Management Board of the African Legal Support Facility of the African Development Bank.

Eigen is member of the board of the NGOs Kabissa, building the capacity of African non-profits, and of the German Doctors (Ärzte für die Dritte Welt) and from 2011 to 2017 he was a member of the Advisory Council of the Arnold-Bergstrasser-Institute in Freiburg.