Secretary-General Appoints Åsa Regnér Of Sweden Deputy Executive Director, Intergovernmental Support, Strategic Partnerships, UN-Women

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Åsa Regnér of Sweden as Deputy Executive Director, Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnerships, United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women).  She will succeed Lakshmi Puri of India who served in this role during the past eight years, and to whom the Secretary-General and the Executive Director for UN-Women are grateful for her commitment and dedicated service.

Ms. Regnér has served since 2014 as Minister for Children, the Elderly and Gender Equality of Sweden, where her focus has been on concrete results in the implementation of Swedish gender equality policies as well as a shift towards prevention of violence against women and the involvement of men and boys in gender equality work.

She has extensive experience in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment, having held various leadership positions in Government, non-governmental organizations and the United Nations.  She has led important processes and campaigns as a leading advocate for feminism and gender equality in Sweden and beyond.  She has built and managed strong partnerships with a range of key stakeholders, including women’s movements and civil society, both at the global and in country contexts.

She previously served as UN-Women Country Director in Bolivia (2013-2014) and Secretary-General of Riksförbundet för sexuell upplysning, Swedish International Planned Parenthood Federation branch.  Between 2004 and 2006, she served as Director of Planning, Ministry of Justice, and previously, as Political Adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office, from 1999 to 2004.  She began her career in women’s rights as a volunteer for a Swedish non-governmental organization in La Paz, Bolivia, (1990-1991) and moved to the Ministry of Labour working on gender and labour market issues for several years in the 1990s.

Ms. Regnér holds a master’s degree in democratic development from Uppsala University.  Born in 1964, she has two children.