Secretary-General Appoints Ayşe Cihan Sultanoğlu of Turkey United Nations Representative to Geneva International Discussions

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today announced the appointment of Ayşe Cihan Sultanoğlu of Turkey as the United Nations Representative to the Geneva International Discussions (UNRGID).

In that position, she will also be responsible for the United Nations role in support of the Joint Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism.  She will succeed Antti Turunen of Finland, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his dedication and service to the Organization.

Ms. Sultanoğlu brings more than 35 years of distinguished service in the United Nations.  Since 2012, she has served as the Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Assistant Administrator and Director of the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.  Prior to that, she was the Director of Human Resources in UNDP’s Bureau of Management.

She has also served as United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Belarus (2004-2007) and in Lithuania (2000-2005), and as UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Morocco (1995-2000).

Ms. Sultanoğlu holds a Master of International Affairs degree with a specialization in Economic and Political Development and International Business from the School of International Affairs (SIPA) of Columbia University as well as a Bachelor of Arts honours degree in Economics from Colombia’s Barnard College in New York.  She was appointed United Nations Commissioner-General to EXPO 2017 in Astana, Kazakhstan.

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*     This supersedes Press Release SG/A/1684-BIO/4901 of 21 November 2016.