Kofi Annan is the Secretary-General of the United Nations. A national of Ghana who is fluent in English, French and several African languages, he was appointed on 17 December by the General Assembly to serve a term of office from 1 January 1997 through 31 December 2001.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Annan served for thirty years as an international public servant in the United Nations. Most recently, from 1 March 1993 until his appointment as Secretary- General -- except for the period from 1 November 1995 to March 1996, when he served as Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the former Yugoslavia.
Mr. Annan served as Under-Secretary-General for Peace-keeping Operations, and for a year before that, as Assistant Secretary-General for Peace-keeping Operations. In these positions, he helped to formulate new approaches to the complex uncertainties of a post-cold-war world.
The Secretary-General's managerial portfolio is similarly extensive, and Mr. Annan has been deeply involved in the full range of questions now at the forefront of efforts to reform and streamline the Organization. His United Nations postings in the management area include Assistant Secretary-General for Programme Planning, Budget and Finance and Controller (1990-1992); Assistant Secretary-General in the Office of Human Resources Management and Security Coordinator for the United Nations system (1987-1990); Director of Budget in the Office of Financial Services (1984- 1987).
Mr. Annan studied at the University of Science and Technology at Kumasi, Ghana, and completed his undergraduate work in economics at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota (1961). From 1961 to 1962, he undertook graduate studies in economics at the Institut universitaire des hautes études internationales in Geneva. As a 1971-1972 Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he received a Master of Science degree in Management.