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Feb 9: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon appoints Ambassador Thomas Stelzer as Assistant Secretary-Ge |
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Vienna, 9 February 2008 - Today, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of Ambassador Thomas Stelzer as Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Co-ordination and Inter-Agency Affairs. Consequently, an Austrian diplomat will bear major responsibility for economic and social development within the framework of the United Nations. At the same time Thomas Stelzer will coordinate the UN Chief Executive Board (CEB), in which the UN Secretary-General coordinates the work of all specialised agencies of the United Nations such as WTO, UNDP and WHO with their respective heads.
Ambassador Thomas Stelzer has been Austria’s permanent representative to the Vienna-based international organisations such as UNODC, IAEA, UNIDO and CTBTO since 2001. Former posts included Chief of Office of the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) and Austria’s representative at the New York-based UN Committee for International Security and Disarmament. He was also responsible for the operational area of development cooperation.
As Austria’s permanent representative to the Vienna-based UN organisations Ambassador Stelzer’s duties included the chairmanship of the UNIDO Administrative Council and the Preparatory Commission for the CTBTO. He also organised and headed the two symposia on terrorism held in Vienna which made the Vienna UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) a worldwide centre for the prevention of terrorism. As a co-negotiator of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and vice-chairman of the latest UNCAC state conference, Thomas Stelzer made a decisive contribution to strengthening the official UN seat in Vienna as an international competence centre for security issues.
Thomas Stelzer has a doctoral degree in law and acquired an MA in Latin American studies at Stanford University in the U.S. as well as a degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University in Bologna.
Thomas Stelzer is married to the Portuguese diplomat Vanda Sequeira-Stelzer and has three daughters and a son.
Ambassador Stelzer has been President of Klangforum Wien, a leading ensemble for contemporary classical music, since 1999.
Contact:
Federal Ministry for European
and international Affairs
Press Department
Tel.: ++43 (0) 50 1150-3262, 4549, 4550
Fax: ++43 (0) 50 1159-213
abti3(at)bmeia.gv.at
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