Biographical Note

Secretary-General Appoints Michael Keating of United Kingdom

 

Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan

 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Michael Keating of the United Kingdom as his Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan.  Mr. Keating will also serve as Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator.

He succeeds Robert Watkins of Canada, who has been appointed the Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon.  The Secretary-General is grateful to Mr. Watkins for his dedicated service to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

Mr. Keating brings to his new position extensive experience in planning and managing responses to complex humanitarian emergencies and post-conflict recovery programmes in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa.  He currently serves as Director of Development and Special Adviser to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan.

Having previously served as Executive Director of the Africa Progress Panel in Geneva, Mr. Keating was, before his latest assignment, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Malawi.  He also served as Director of Socio-Economic Affairs in the Secretary-General’s Office for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO), in Jerusalem and Gaza.

From 1999 to 2001 he was Adviser to the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York, before which he served as Adviser to the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan from 1997 to 1999.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Keating worked for the United Nations Office for Humanitarian and Economic Assistance to Afghanistan, initially as Executive Assistant to the newly appointed Under-Secretary-General, and then as Head of the Peshawar Field Office in Pakistan.

Mr. Keating holds a Master of Arts in history from the University of Cambridge.

Born in 1959 in Kampala, Uganda, he is married and has four children.

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