Biographical Note

New Permanent Representative of belgium Presents Credentials

(Based on information received from the Protocol and Liaison Service.)

Johan C. Verbeke, the new Permanent Representative of Belgium to the United Nations, presented his credentials today to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

From 2000 until his appointment, Mr. Verbeke served as Chef de Cabinet (Chief of Staff) of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Belgium.  From 1999 to 2000, he was Director-General for European Affairs, and from 1998 to 1999, he served as First Deputy Director-General for Political Affairs.

Mr. Verbeke joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1981 and has been posted in Lebanon, Jordan, Burundi and Chile and, from 1994 to 1998, he was Deputy Chief of Mission at the Belgian Embassy in Washington, D.C.  From 1992 to 1994, he was Chief of Staff to Belgium’s Permanent Representative to the European Union, and from 1990 to 1992, he was the Ministry’s chief spokesman.

Before joining the diplomatic service, Mr. Verbeke was a junior associate with the law firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York from 1978 to 1981 and Assistant Professor in European economic law at the University of Ghent, Belgium from 1975 to 1977.

Mr. Verbeke received his Masters of Arts and Doctor of Laws degrees at the University of Ghent, both in 1974.  He obtained a “Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures Européennes” from the Université de Nancy, France in 1975 and a Master of Laws from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, in 1978.

Born in Ghent on 9 July, 1951, Mr. Verbeke is married and has three children.

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