SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS WILLIAM G. WALKER AS HEAD OF UNT"S

25 July 1997

Press Release
SG/A/642

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS WILLIAM G. WALKER AS HEAD OF UNTAES

19970725 Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed William G. Walker of the United States as the new United Nations Transitional Administrator for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, effective 1 August. He will take over from Jacques Klein.

Until his new appointment, Mr. Walker was Vice-President of the United States National Defense College, and before then, ambassador to El Salvador from August 1988 to March 1992. Immediately preceding that appointment, he served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, with responsibility for United States relations with Central America and Panama.

In his 34 years as a Foreign Service Officer, Mr. Walker served in Peru, Japan, Brazil, El Salvador, Honduras and Bolivia. In domestic postings, he was Argentine Desk Officer in the Department of State (1967-1968); served with the Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco, California, (1972-1974); and was the State Department Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City (1977-1988). He also served as a Foreign Service Inspector in the Office of the Inspector General (1978-1980).

Mr. Walker is a winner of numerous awards and decorations, including the Department of State's Meritorious Honour Award (twice); its Superior Honour Award (twice); the America Foreign Service Association's Christian Herter Award; and the President's Meritorious Service Award (three times). He was honoured by the Government of El Salvador with the Order of Jose Matias Delgado in 1992. Also in 1992, he was promoted to Career Minister.

Mr. Walker had his undergraduate studies in architecture and political science, at the University of Souther California and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He completed the course requirements towards a Master of Arts in Latin American studies at UCLA in 1969.

Mr. Walker is married and has four children. He also speaks Spanish and Portuguese.

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