Jean-Nicolas Marti was born on 4 July 1967 in Fribourg, Switzerland. He is a Swiss national and holds a degree in military science from the Federal Polytechnic School of Zurich.
Mr. Marti has started his career in the ICRC as a delegate in Sri Lanka (June 1997 - July 1998).
Later onwards Mr. Marti worked at the ICRC Headquarters in Geneva (October 1998 - June 2003) where he took up inter alia the function of deputy head of the unit responsible for relations with the Armed and Security forces.