SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS TUNKU ABDUL AZIZ OF MALAYSIA AS SPECIAL ADVISER ON ESTABLISHMENT OF ETHICS OFFICE

Biographical Note

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS TUNKU ABDUL AZIZ OF MALAYSIA

AS SPECIAL ADVISER ON ESTABLISHMENT OF ETHICS OFFICE

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today announced the appointment of Tunku Abdul Aziz of Malaysia as the Special Adviser on the Establishment of the Ethics Office, effective 16 February.  Mr. Aziz will advise on the set-up of the Ethics Office and its operating procedures, as well as on the process of recruiting the regular staff members.  At present, there is an interim team of seconded United Nations staff members.

Mr. Aziz founded, with the support of like-minded individuals, the Malaysian Chapter of Transparency International, known locally as the Kuala Lumpur Society for Transparency & Integrity, of which he was the President until December 2004. In October 1997 he was elected to the international board of Transparency International and in March the following year he became Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Transparency International.  He devoted his time, on a voluntary basis, to Transparency International from 1995-2004, and has written and spoken widely on integrity and corruption issues, both domestically and internationally.

Mr. Aziz has held senior management positions in large private and public sector organizations in Malaysia, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.  He began his business career with the Guthrie Corporation Ltd. after tertiary education in the United Kingdom and Australia.  He then moved to the Central Bank of Malaysia as an adviser.  He returned to the private sector, joining Dunlop Malaysian Industries, before being appointed a Group Director of Sime Darby Limited.  He left Malaysia in 1985 to serve as the Director of Administration and Finance at the Commonwealth Secretariat, London, until 1992.

Mr. Aziz is a member of the World Bank High Level Advisory Group on Anti-Corruption in the East Asia and Pacific Region, as well as a member of the Advisory Board of Global Public Policy Networks, a project of “Visioning the United Nations”, an initiative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the United Nations Foundation.  He also serves as a member of the Asian Pacific Advisory Panel on Good Urban Governance and is a member of the Board of the International Institute of Public Ethics.  Mr. Aziz is on the Global Advisory Council of Caux Roundtable, a United States-based business organization, promoting, among other goals, principles of good governance.  In February 2004, he was appointed a member of the Royal Commission inquiring into the police service of Malaysia.  He was also a member of the United Nations Development Programme Advisory Panel for the Human Development Report 2002.

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