Secretary-General Appoints Giancarlo Summa of Italy Director United Nations Information Centre in Mexico City

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Giancarlo Summa of Italy as Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Mexico City, which serves Mexico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.  Mr. Summa assumes his duties today.

Prior to this appointment, Mr. Summa was the Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, since 2007, where he guided efforts to strengthen web-based communications in Portuguese and led communications initiatives in the country for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), the 2014 FIFA World Cup and other major events.  Mr. Summa served as Press and Information Officer at the Inter-American Development Bank office in Paris from 2003 to 2006, where he was in charge of press relations and public information activities in 16 European countries.

Mr. Summa was the Head of the Press Office of the 2003 World Social Forum, a meeting of non-governmental organizations, in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where he was responsible for the communications team, coordinating all media and public information activities.

From 1992 until 2002, Mr. Summa worked as a reporter, editor and foreign correspondent for several news organizations, including Reuters, the Brazilian news magazines Atenção and Carta Capital and the Italian newspapers L’Unità and La Stampa.

From 1989 to 1992, Mr. Summa was a consultant for an Italian non-governmental organization, MLAL, working with the Brazilian non-governmental organization CEDI to provide media and information support to campaigns focused on indigenous peoples’ human rights and the protection of the Amazon rainforest.

Mr. Summa holds a master’s degree in Latin American studies from the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris.  He is the author of several books and essays on Latin American politics and media issues.  Mr. Summa is fluent in English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.