Secretary-General Appoints Stefan Priesner of Austria United Nations Resident Coordinator in Iran

On 16 August, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Stefan Priesner of Austria as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Iran, with the host Government’s approval.

Mr. Priesner has extensive experience in international development and management, including providing policy advice to Governments and overseeing the formulation and delivery of complex, multi-disciplinary development programmes.  At the United Nations, he was most recently the Resident Coordinator for Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Singapore, a role he held previously while also serving as Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) at the same duty station.

Previously, Mr. Priesner was the Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Uzbekistan.  That assignment followed his service in other senior roles at the agency, including Country Director in Bangladesh, Deputy Resident Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Deputy Chief of the Subregional Resource Facility for South and West Asia in Nepal, and Head of the Governance Unit in Bhutan.  Before joining the United Nations, Mr. Priesner worked in the private sector.

He holds a master’s degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University in the United States, as well as a master’s degree in law from the University of Vienna, in Austria.

Mr. Priesner is married and has two children.