Biographical Note

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS SAAD HOURY AS DEPUTY EXECUTIVE

 

DIRECTOR OF UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN’S FUND

 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Saad Houry as Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).  Mr. Houry is a native of Lebanon and also carries Canadian citizenship.

Since January 2003, Mr. Houry has been the Director of UNICEF’s Division of Policy and Planning.  He is also a member of its Global Management Team, its Programme Management Group and its Audit Committee.

His distinguished career with UNICEF, which began in 1978, has included service as the agency’s Chief of Staff and as Deputy Regional Director in the Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa, located in Jordan, as well as assignments in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon.  He has also been employed as a consultant by the World Bank and, in 1983, was seconded to the Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development Organizations to establish that entity’s Programme Division.

Prior to joining UNICEF, Mr. Houry worked at the American University of Beirut.

Mr. Houry holds a Master of Science in neurobiology from the University of London and a Bachelor of Science in biology from the American University in Beirut.  He is fluent in Arabic, English and French.

Born in 1952, he is married and has three children.

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