Secretary-General Appoints Tegegnework Gettu of Ethiopia Associate Administrator of United Nations Development Programme

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced today the appointment of Tegegnework Gettu of Ethiopia as Under-Secretary-General and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Mr. Gettu succeeds María Eugenia Casar of Mexico, who is taking up a new position as the Executive Director of the Agency for International Co-operation and Development of Mexico.  The Secretary-General expressed his gratitude to the outgoing Associate Administrator’s services to the Organization and her role in leading change within UNDP.

Mr. Gettu is currently serving as Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management, and has previously had a distinguished career within UNDP.  He served as UNDP Assistant Secretary-General and Regional Director of the Bureau for Africa from 2009 to 2013.  Mr. Gettu has held other positions, including as Chief of Staff and Director of UNDP’s Executive Office in New York, and as United Nations Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative in Nigeria, as Country Director for Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean countries, and as Acting Resident Representative in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Prior to that, he had more than 20 years of increasingly responsible positions in the development field, at both the national and international levels, in academia, Government and the private sector.  During his academic career, Mr. Gettu was a Fellow and Assistant Professor at Columbia University, and a Lecturer at the University of Rochester in New York.

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

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*     This supersedes Press Release SG/A/1581 of 30 June 2015.