Secretary-General appoints Marta Ruedas of Spain Deputy Special Representative for Iraq

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today announced the appointment of Marta Ruedas of Spain as his new Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).  Ms. Ruedas will also serve as the United Nations Resident Coordinator, Humanitarian Coordinator and Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Iraq.

She will succeed Lise Grande of the United States who has served in Iraq since December 2014.  The Secretary-General is grateful for Ms. Grande’s leadership and dedicated service during her tenure.

Ms. Ruedas brings to this position more than 27 years of experience in coordinating United Nations development and humanitarian work in conflict and post-conflict countries, as well as extensive experience supporting peacebuilding transitions.  Ms. Ruedas has since 2015 served as the Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan.

She previously served as the UNDP Country Director in Afghanistan, as well as Deputy Director of the UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery as United Nations Deputy Special Coordinator, United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Lebanon.  Earlier in her career, she served as Deputy Regional Director at the UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, Resident Coordinator in Bulgaria and in São Tomé and Príncipe.  She also served with UNDP in Bolivia, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Nepal, Mongolia and Mexico.

Ms. Ruedas holds a Master of Arts in international relations from Columbia University, United States.

__________

*     This supersedes Press Release SG/A/1086-BIO/3909 of 16 August 2007.