United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced yesterday the appointment of Lenni Montiel of Venezuela as Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. He succeeds Shamshad Akhtar of Pakistan.

The Secretary-General and the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs are grateful for her commitment and dedicated service to the Organization.

Mr. Montiel brings with him wide-ranging experience and expertise on various issues on the development agenda of the United Nations. He is currently Director of Economic, Social and Development Affairs in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General.

From 2009 to 2011, he was United Nations Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Turkmenistan. Prior to that, Mr. Montiel held various positions at UNDP, New York and worked as UNDP Senior Technical Adviser in Vietnam and Ukraine.

Born in 1960, Mr. Montiel holds a PhD in public policy from the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom) and a Master of Science in economics from the Belarusian Institute of National Economics.

Source: Press release of the UN Department of Public Information