NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF HAITI PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

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

The new Permanent Representative of Haiti to the United Nations, Léo Mérorès, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today.

From April 2004 until the present, Mr. Mérorès served as his country’s Chargé d’Affaires at Haiti’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.  From April 2001 to March 2004, he served as a Consultant on management and economic cooperation issues for several United Nations entities, including its Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Mr. Mérorès was associated with the UNDP for many years, beginning in 1974.  From September 1992 to March 2001, he was a principal counsellor for the Programme working with the countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).  From 1984 to 1992, he was the UNDP’s Deputy Resident Representative for Liberia, Mali and Cameroon, and from 1989 to 1992, he was responsible for the UNDP offices in Gabon and Burundi.  From 1978 to 1984, he was the UNDP’s Deputy Resident Representative in Togo and Madagascar, and worked in the UNDP’s office in Rwanda from 1974 to 1978.

Mr. Mérorès started his career in 1961 as a salesman for Enterprises Gerard Theard in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and in 1969-1973, he worked part-time as an accountant, assistant of the Head of the Credit Department at Shapiro & Sons Textile Corporation in New York.

In 1964, Mr. Mérorès received a Bachelor of Laws degree from the LawSchool of the State University of Haiti and an accountant’s diploma from Ecole de Commerce Maurice Laroche in Port-au-Prince.  In 1969, he received a master’s degree in economic science and in 1973, a PhD in economics, both from New YorkUniversity.

Born on 21 April 1943, Mr. Mérorès is married.

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