United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Jens Wandel of Denmark as Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau of Management at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
He will replace Akiko Yuge, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedication and commitment during her term.
Mr. Wandel has had many years of distinguished service within UNDP, having been Deputy Regional Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) at UNDP Bratislava since August 2008. Prior to that, he served in several management functions focusing on change initiatives, including as Director of the Centre for Business Solution, Management Adviser and Project Director of the Work Improvement Tools Project, and country-level coordinator of UNDP?s New Horizon 2001 change management exercise.
He has also held various leadership positions at the country level, including as United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Turkmenistan; UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Kyrgyzstan; and UNDP Assistant Resident Representative in Viet Nam. Mr. Wandel began his career with the Programme as a junior professional officer in Western Samoa. Prior to joining UNDP he served with the Danish international Development Agency (DANIDA) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark.
He brings a combination of substantive programming knowledge and operational expertise covering both UNDP and other United Nations agencies. Mr. Wandel has been the architect of a major business re-engineering project for UNDP and can provide strategic leadership to the Programme?s operations to support the Organization?s change agenda.
Mr. Wandel holds a Master of Arts equivalent in political science (development and public management) from the University of Aarhus in Denmark.
Born in 1962, he is married and has three children.
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