Kay Williams is the Head of the Global Framework on Chemicals Secretariat at the United Nations Environment Programme, based in Geneva, Switzerland. She brings decades of leadership and international policy expertise to the role, with much of her career spent at the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), where she most recently served as Head of the International Chemicals, Pesticides, and Hazardous Wastes Hub.
Kay has played a central role in global chemicals governance, serving as a lead negotiator for the Minamata Convention on Mercury, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the Basel Convention on Hazardous Wastes, and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM).
She has also chaired the OECD’s Chemicals and Biotechnology Committee under the Environment, Health and Safety Programme, co-chaired the UNEP Special Programme Executive Board, and contributed to the UN Beyond 2020 intersessional process to develop the new Global Framework on Chemicals.
Kay holds a PhD from Imperial College London and began her career as an applied researcher at the UK’s Central Science Laboratory. Since transitioning into government policy in 1999, she has held a wide range of policy posts covering topics from sustainable procurement to agricultural policy.