NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF GUATEMALA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
Press Release
BIO/3208
NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF GUATEMALA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
19981211 Biographical NoteGert Rosenthal, the new Permanent Representative of Guatemala to the United Nations, today presented his credentials to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
In the past year, Mr. Rosenthal has served as a member of the Follow-up Commission of the Guatemalan Peace Accords.
He joined the United Nations in 1974 as Director of the Mexico office of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). In 1987, he went to Santiago, Chile, as Deputy Executive Secretary of the Commission, becoming Executive Secretary one year later, a position he occupied until 1997.
Before joining the Commission, Mr. Rosenthal was actively involved in the process of Central American economic integration. Between 1972 and 1973, he was Director of a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) project of technical cooperation for that purpose. In 1964 and 1968, he served in the regional bodies derived from the General Treaty for Economic Integration in Central America.
Since 1960, when he joined the Secretariat of Economic Planning in Guatemala, Mr. Rosenthal had held various positions in the national public administration. Between 1969 and 1970, he was the Secretary-General of his country's National Council for Economic Planning.
In 1971, Mr. Rosenthal, an economist, was a Fellow for the Adlai Stevenson Institute for International Affairs in Chicago. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. He held teaching posts at the Rafael Landivar University in Guatemala from 1969 through 1974.
Mr. Rosenthal has published a book on "The role of foreign investment in Central American development process" (1972), as well as numerous articles on economic issues.
Born on 11 September 1935, Mr. Rosenthal is married and has four daughters.
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