Biographical Note

New Permanent Representative of Gabon Presents Credentials

 

(Based on information provided by the Protocol and Liaison Service.)

The new Permanent Representative of Gabon to the United Nations, Noel Nelson Messone, today presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Prior to his current appointment, in 2010, Mr. Messone served as Gabonese Ambassador to the Benelux States and the European Union, while concurrently serving as Senator of Gabon.

Between 2007 and 2009, Mr. Messone was Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Gabon, and prior to that, from 2003 to 2007, he was Senior Political Adviser to the Secretary-General of the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie, in Paris, France.  He was West Africa Regional Director for Agence Intergouvernementale de la Francophonie, in Lon, Togo, between 1999 and 2003, before which he served as Associate Director of US Peace Corps, Gabon, in Libreville, from 1995 until 1999.  For one year prior, from 1994 to 1995, he was training director of US Peace Corps.

Also that year, Mr. Messone was an Assistant Professor at the Institut de l’Economie et des Finances, Gabon.  In 1993 he was an Instructor and Research Fellow at the University of Kentucky, in Lexington, Kentucky, United States.  From 1985 to 1987, the new envoy was Training Coordinator of US Peace Corps in Gabon.

A former Fulbright scholar, Mr. Messone holds a doctorate degree in political economy from the University of Kentucky (1994); a master’s degree from the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, Lexington, Kentucky (1991); and a university diploma from the Université de Paris Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris, France (1988).  He specialized in American studies at the University Omar Bongo Odimba in Libreville, Gabon, in 1987.

Born on 22 December 1960 in Ovan, north-east Gabon, Mr. Messone is married with three children.

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For information media • not an official record