VOLKER PETZOLDT APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF UN INFORMATION CENTRE IN MEXICO CITY

Biographical Note

VOLKER PETZOLDT APPOINTed DIRECTOR OF UN INFORMATION CENTRE IN MEXICO CITY

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Volker Petzoldt as Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Mexico City.  Mr. Petzoldt, who will assume his duties on 23 August 2004, succeeds Angel Escudero, who has retired from the service of the Organization.

Mr. Petzoldt has extensive public information experience, including over 18 years service with the Department of Public Information of the United Nations.  He served as Chief of the United Nations Information Service in Santiago from 1986 to 1995; from 1995 to 1996, he was Director of the United Nations Information Centre Bogotá; from 1996 to 1998, he served as Director of the United Nations Information Service in Vienna; and from 1998 to 1999, he served as Chief of the United Nations Information Centre Asuncion.  Since 1999, Mr. Petzoldt has served as Director of the Bogotá Information Centre, also providing information support to the Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on Colombia and acting as his spokesman.

Prior to joining the United Nations Secretariat in 1986, Mr. Petzoldt worked as a correspondent for the Inter-Press Service in Venezuela, three years as press adviser for the Latin American Economic System (SELA) and two years as a press adviser for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) regional office for Latin America and the Caribbean, in Caracas.

Mr. Petzoldt, a German national born in Austria, studied at the MunichLudwig-MaximiliansUniversity where he obtained a Master of Arts degree in sociology of communications, social psychology and American studies in 1974.  He has published two books on Latin America.  Mr. Petzoldt is married and has three daughters.

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