Kofi Atta Annan (1938 – 2018) was a United Nations staff member, diplomat and the seventh Secretary-General to the United Nations serving from 1997 to 2006. The Nobel Peace Prize was award to him and the United Nations as co-recipients in 2001. He joined the United Nations in 1962 after studying Macalester College in Canada. He worked in many areas of the United Nations departments until reaching the ultimate office of Secretary-General in 1996. In 2007, he founded the Kofi Annan Foundation and continued to lead changes in the international arena and is regarded as an accomplished negotiator to alleviate conflict. 

Kofi Annan selected the artist for this portrait. John Keane, was born in Hertfordshire, England in 1954 and studied at Wellington College and Camberwell School of Art. The artist’s work has focused on pressing political issues and was brought to prominence in 1991 when he became an official British war artist during the Gulf War. 

The portrait of Kofi Annan hangs in the Secretariat Building, first-floor lobby, of the United Nations headquarters in New York.