Biographical Note

Secretary-General Appoints Ayşe Cihan Sultanoğlu of Turkey Director of Regional

 

Bureau for Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States, UNDP

 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Ayşe Cihan Sultanoğlu of Turkey as Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (RBEC) at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Ms. Sultanoğlu will replace Kori Udovički.  The Secretary-General is grateful to Ms. Udovički for her dedication and commitment to the United Nations during her term as Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) at UNDP.

Ms. Sultanoğlu brings to this position a wealth of strategic, leadership and managerial experience, as well as an in-depth understanding of the political, economic and social features of the Europe and the CIS region.  She has been the Director of Human Resources in UNDP’s Bureau of Management since January 2010.  Prior to this, she served as Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Regional Director, RBEC at UNDP headquarters, and in a number of countries within the RBEC region, including as United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Belarus and as United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Lithuania.  In her more than 30‑year career with UNDP, she has held a variety of positions at UNDP headquarters, as well as in Asia, Africa and the Arab States.

Ms. Sultanoğlu believes that the Regional Bureau has been very successful in cooperating with the United Nations system agencies and international financial institutions on substantive areas, and has created synergy around common goals, sharing and disseminating lessons learned.   She will work to capture this knowledge for UNDP’s transformational change process, thereby increasing its organizational and programmatic effectiveness so that the organization’s development impact at the country level is even greater.   

Ms. Sultanoğlu holds a master’s degree in international affairs from the School of International Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Barnard College at Columbia University.

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For information media • not an official record