Secretary-General Appoints Fabrizio Hochschild Drummond of Chile Special Adviser on Preparations for Seventy-Fifth United Nations Anniversary

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Fabrizio Hochschild Drummond of Chile as his Special Adviser on the Preparations for the Commemoration of the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the United Nations at the Under-Secretary-General level.

Mr. Hochschild, Assistant Secretary-General for Strategic Coordination in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General since 2017, will support the Secretary-General in coordinating the preparations for the commemoration of the Organization’s seventy-fifth anniversary in 2020 and related celebrations, through a system-wide process of consultations and reflections on the role of the United Nations in advancing international cooperation and in supporting the ability of Member States to respond to emerging challenges and frontier issues.

Volker Türk of Austria will succeed Mr. Hochschild as Assistant Secretary-General for Strategic Coordination, and the effective handover will take place in July.

The Special Adviser will liaise and work with Secretariat entities in support of the intergovernmental consultations on the commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary, led by co-facilitators appointed by the President of the General Assembly and future intergovernmental processes.  He will also draw on expertise within the Secretariat and the wider United Nations system to further develop proposals for the Secretary-General on themes and events, allowing for reflection on the contribution the Organization can make to the future that we aspire to, based on the goals enshrined in the Charter.

To this end, Mr. Hochschild will facilitate consultations with civil society, youth representatives, academia and the private sector.  He will also continue to support the Secretary-General on issues related to frontier technologies to ensure the follow-up to the High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation.

Mr. Hochschild brings diversified United Nations senior leadership experience, both at Headquarters and in the field, having served as Deputy Special Representative for the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) in 2016; United Nations Resident Coordinator, Humanitarian Coordinator and Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Colombia from 2013 to 2016; Director of the Field Personnel Division in the then Department of Field Support in New York from 2010 to 2012; and as Chief of Field Operations and Technical Cooperation in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva from 2005 to 2009.

He began his United Nations career in 1988 with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Sudan and served in subsequent postings with UNHCR, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and in United Nations peacekeeping.  He has been posted in Sudan, Jerusalem, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Geneva, New York, Timor-Leste, Serbia and the United Republic of Tanzania.

Mr. Hochschild is a graduate of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

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*     This supersedes Press Release SG/A/1695-BIO/4914 of 3 January 2017.