Sergei Ordzhonikidze

Sergei Ordzhonikidze (born on 14 March 1946 in Moscow) currently serves as the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva. He was first appointed to the position by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in March 2002 and was reappointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in February 2007.

Previously, Ordzhonikidze served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, a post he had held since 1999. From 1996 to 1999, he served as Director of the Department of International Organizations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Between 1991 and 1996, he was Deputy Permanent Representative of the Soviet Union and then of the Russian Federation to the Untied Nations in New York. Before that, he was Deputy Chief of the International Legal Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1983 to 1991.

He started his career in the Soviet diplomatic service in 1969 and served in the Permanent Mission of the Soviet Union to the Untied Nations in New York until 1975. From 1975 to 1978, he was Assistant to the Deputy Foreign Minister in Moscow. From 1978 to 1983, he continued to serve in his country’s permanent mission to the UN in New York.

Ordzhonikidze finished his study in the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1969 and completed his post graduate studies on international law at the Diplomatic Academy of Moscow in 1978. He is fluent in English and Spanish and knows some French.