SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS MAHER NASSER AS DIRECTOR OF UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION CENTRE IN CAIRO

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS maher nasser AS DIRECTOR

OF UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION CENTRE IN cairo

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is pleased to announce the appointment of Maher Nasser as the Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Cairo.  Mr. Nasser comes to this post with extensive experience in communications, public outreach, media and donor relations and a thorough knowledge of the Middle East and the work of the United Nations.  Mr. Nasser is expected to take up his duties on 1 January 2006.

Mr. Nasser is currently the Chief of the New York Liaison Office for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), a position he has held since May 2001.

Before taking up his current job with UNRWA in New York, Mr. Nasser worked for UNRWA based first in Vienna, from 1994 until 1996, and then at its Amman headquarters where he was in charge of donor liaison, representation and media relations.  From 1992 to 1994, Mr. Nasser worked as an Associate Information Officer for the United Nations Drug Control Programme in Vienna.  Mr. Nasser also served as UNRWA’s Public Information Officer and Spokesperson in Gaza and in Jerusalem from 1987 to 1991.  Prior to joining the United Nations, he worked for the Arab Thought Forum, a non-governmental organization based in Jerusalem.

In October 1991, Mr. Nasser attended the Madrid Middle East Peace Conference and several sessions of subsequent bilateral negotiations in Washington, D.C., as the personal assistant to the head of the Palestinian negotiating team, Dr. Haidar Abdul Shafi.

Mr. Nasser has a degree from Bir Zeit University in the West Bank.  He is married with three children.

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For information media • not an official record