SG/A/2036*

Secretary-General Appoints Courtenay Rattray of Jamaica High Representative for Least Developed, Landlocked Countries, Small Island Developing States

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Courtenay Rattray of Jamaica as High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States.  He will succeed Fekitamoeloa Katoa ‘Utoikamanu of Tonga, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedication and commitment to the United Nations.

Mr. Rattray is an accomplished diplomat with a distinguished career in the Jamaican foreign service.  He brings to the position broad-based managerial and leadership experience of working within and across multicultural settings, with a focus on addressing the developmental challenges faced by countries in special situations, particularly in the area of development finance.

Currently Jamaica’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Mr. Rattray also serves as Co-chair of the Group of Friends of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Financing; Children and the SDGs; as well as the Group of Friends of Decent Work.  He has chaired several key initiatives, including the fifty-second session of the Commission on Population and Development in 2019, Co-facilitator for the Conclusions and Recommendations of the 2018 Financing for Development Forum, Chair of the United Nations Permanent Memorial Committee to honour the victims of slavery and Chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on United Nations Security Council Reform.

Mr. Rattray is a past Chair of the Committee on Disarmament and International Security (First Committee).  He also co-facilitated negotiations for the Ministerial Declaration of the High-level Political Forum of the Economic and Social Council and chaired the sixth Biennial Meeting of States on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons.

Before taking up his current position, Mr. Rattray was Jamaica’s Ambassador to China (2008-2013); Director of the Bilateral Relations Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade in Kingston (2005 -2008); Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Jamaica in Washington, D.C., (2001-2005); Special Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (2000-2001); and Special Adviser to the Minister for Industry and Investment (1999-2000).  Before he joined the foreign service, he served as Executive Director of the Jamaica Marketing Company in London (1990-1997) and Director of Marketing and Promotions at the Jamaica National Export Corporation in Kingston (1987-1988).

Mr. Rattray holds a Master of Arts degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in the United States, a Master of Arts in International Business from the London South Bank University and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from West Virginia Wesleyan College in the United States.  He was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters (Honoris Causa) by West Virginia Wesleyan College.

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*     This supersedes Press Release BIO/4649 of 3 October 2014.

For information media. Not an official record.