New Permanent Observer for International Organization of la Francophonie Presents Letter of Appointment
(Based on information provided by the Protocol and Liaison Service)
The new Permanent Observer for the International Organization of la Francophonie to the United Nations, Ifigeneia Kontoleontos, presented her letter of appointment to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.
Before this latest appointment, Ms. Kontoleontos was the Ambassador of Greece to the Republic of Korea between October 2017 and July 2021, and Ambassador to Algeria from 2014 to October 2017.
In 2012, Ms. Kontoleontos headed the Directorate for the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus, the Caucasus, the Black Sea countries and Central Asia, and was also Director of the Hellenic Aid Directorate, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens.
She was First Counsellor at Greece’s Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels between 2009 and 2011; First Counsellor at its Embassy in Paris from 2008 to 2009; and Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris from 2005 until 2008. Ms. Kontoleontos also served as General Counsel in Moscow from 2003 to 2005; and as Deputy Head of the Prime Minister’s Diplomatic Cabinet in the Foreign Ministry from 2001 until 2003.
She held positions in her country’s embassies in Kyiv, Ukraine, between 1996 and 2001 and Paris from 1991 to 1996, having previously been assigned to the Department of Bilateral Relations with the North America/Latin America/Western Europe-Latin American Section of the Foreign Ministry from 1986 until 1991.
Ms. Kontoleontos attended the Department of Public Law and Political Science at the University of Athens from 1978 to 1982 and the Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne from 1982 to 1983, receiving a Diplôme d'études approfondies in international economic law and international economic organizations from the latter institution. She worked on a doctoral thesis in Paris from 1983 to 1985.
She was born in Athens in 1960.