Secretary-General Appoints Robert Glasser of Australia Assistant Secretary-General, Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Robert Glasser of Australia as Assistant Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

Mr. Glasser will succeed Margareta Wahlström of Sweden, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedication and excellent leadership of UNISDR over the past seven years.

Mr. Glasser is currently Executive-in-Residence at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, where he has focused on the humanitarian impacts of climate change.  He moved to the Geneva Centre earlier this year from CARE International, where he had been Secretary-General since 2007.

He brings to UNISDR over 20 years of experience in disaster response and fighting poverty.  Prior to joining CARE International, he was Chief Executive of CARE Australia, overseeing aid and humanitarian relief programmes in Cambodia, Viet Nam, Papua New Guinea and the Middle East.  He was previously Assistant Director General of the Australian Government aid programme.

Born in 1959, Mr. Glasser holds a PhD in international relations (strategic studies) from the Australian National University.  He is married with three children.