Directors from the Commonwealth Secretariat

Directors from the Commonwealth Secretariat

Amitav Banerji

Director and Head, Office of the Secretary-General

Amitav Banerji has been Director and Head of the Secretary-General’s Office since June 2000. In that capacity he offers policy advice to the Chief Executive on the entire range of issues which confront the Commonwealth. He also ensures that the Office provides the Secretary-General the support he needs to carry out his varied functions. Amitav joined the Commonwealth Secretariat in 1990. Prior to his current assignment he was Special Adviser in the Political Affairs Division, where he was responsible for the Commonwealth’s Democracy and Good Governance Programme, as well as organising the biennial Heads of Government Meetings. He is a career diplomat from India and is fluent in six languages. He served the Indian Government in a number of positions at home and abroad. He was Private Secretary to the Indian Foreign Minister between 1979 and 1982. His diplomatic assignments have included Spain, Pakistan, Malaysia and the Indian Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.

Eduardo del Buey

Director, Communications and Public Affairs Division

Eduardo del Buey, a diplomat from Canada, was appointed the Director of the Communications and Public Affairs Division and the organisation’s Spokesperson on 2 April 2007. Mr del Buey leads the Division whose main task is to promote greater global awareness of the work and the value of the Commonwealth and the Secretariat. Mr del Buey served as Director of External Relations and Public Information at the Organisation of American States (OAS) between 1999 and 2004. He was also adviser to the OAS Secretary General on strategic communications and Canadian issues. He left the OAS to join the Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL) in Ottawa as Executive Director before his latest appointment. Under his leadership the OAS launched its monthly publication known as Americas Forum, started webcasting major meetings and helped raise the profile of the organization in U.S. media.Mr del Buey is a career diplomat, having joined the Canadian Foreign Service in 1974. He served in Canadian embassies in Tehran, Caracas, Lima, Guatemala, Madrid and Mexico City and is a specialist in political analysis and public diplomacy.

Marion Cowden

Director, Corporate Services Division

Marion Cowden joined the Commonwealth Secretariat as Director of Corporate Services in June 2003. Her focus has been to embed high standards of professionalism throughout the division, which has the task of providing support functions - financial management, human resource management, information technology services, facilities management, conference support and printing - to the rest of the Secretariat.Marion is a chartered accountant who brings many years of experience to this role in managing support services and finances for a range of government organisations in New Zealand and Australia. As a former public sector auditor with responsibilities for the audits of two Pacific Island Governments, she is focused on probity, knowledgeable on the effective use of public resources and has a strong understanding of the realities of financial management in developing countries.

Indrajit Coomaraswamy

Director, Economic Affairs Division

Indrajit Coomaraswamy has been Director of the Economic Affairs Division in the Commonwealth Secretariat since 2001.Previously, he worked for the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. During this period he was also seconded to the Ministry of Finance and Planning. Indrajit has an undergraduate degree from Cambridge University and a doctorate from University of Sussex, UK.

Jacqueline Wilson

Director, Governance and Institutional Development Division

Jacqueline Wilson is Director of the Governance and Institutional Development Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat. She is responsible for assisting Commonwealth member countries build capacity and strengthen public institutions through advice, training and expertise. She is a career public servant who has worked in Trinidad and Tobago's public service from the start of her career. In 1999, she became a Permanent Secretary and was responsible for establishing the Ministry of Public Administration and Information. During that time she led the development of both a Public Service Reform Strategy and an ICT strategy. Jacqueline also focused on steering Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean into the information age. Sheserved as Chair of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union for several years and in the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration. She has also lectured and presented papers on Human Resource Management, Diversity Management, Leadership, Public Management and ICT at national, regional and international levels.

Betty Mould-Iddrisu

Director, Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division

Betty Mould-Iddrisu has been Director of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division since November 2003. She comes from the Ghanaian Ministry of Justice with vast experience in administering various facets of intellectual property law, international law, human rights and gender in Ghana and Africa.The implementation of wide ranging mandates in the legal arena from the Commonwealth's Heads of State, Law Ministers and Attorneys General is overseen by her. She also gives advice to countries implementing international legal obligations and on various international law and constitutional issues which promote the Rule of Law in member states. Betty manages a team of lawyers, consultants and researchers who work to provide cutting edge Commonwealth legal responses in areas of common law, international law and criminal law. Additionally, her team assists in building capacity in both the administration of justice and in the legal field around the Commonwealth.She acts as in house legal advisor to the Secretary-General and the Secretariat and represents the Secretariat at Tribunals and Courts.

Matthew Neuhaus

Director, Political Affairs Division

Matthew Neuhaus has been Director of the Political Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat since 2002. He is the chief political adviser to the Secretary-General and is responsible for managing the Commonwealth’s political activity and the division supporting this work. From 2001 to 2002 he was Senior Adviser, International Division of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in Australia, and played a key role in policy advice for the 2002 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Coolum, Australia.Matthew also served as Australian High Commissioner to Nigeria and was accredited to Ghana, Sierra Leone and the Gambia. He was Director of the Staffing Policy and Practices Section and subsequently Director of the United Nations and Commonwealth Section at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Other roles include First Secretary, later Counsellor, at the Australian Mission to the United Nations in New York and Second Secretary at the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby. Matthew has Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Law degrees from the University of Sydney and a Master of Philosophy degree in International Relations from the University of Cambridge.

José Maurel

Director, Special Advisory Services Division

José Maurel was appointed Director of the Special Advisory Services Division (SASD) in September 2007. He is responsible for the effective delivery of SASD’s technical assistance and capacity building activities in areas such as debt management; trade facilitation; enterprise development; natural resources development and maritime boundaries negotiations. José is a career economist specialising in development finance. After his undergraduate studies, he returned home to Mauritius where he worked as an Economist in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development between 1981 and 1987. He began his international career in 1988 when he was appointed Debt Management Adviser at the Central Bank of Belize. After a short stint as a freelance consultant, José joined the Commonwealth Secretariat in 1991 and has greatly contributed to the focus and content of our capacity building programme in debt management. José holds a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from Harvard University (USA) and a joint honors degree in Economics and Politics from the University of Keele (UK).

teve Cutts

Director, Strategic Planning and Evaluation Division

Steve Cutts joined the Commonwealth Secretariat as Director of the Strategic Planning and Evaluation Division in August 2008. In this capacity, he has overall responsibility for the Secretariat’s planning, evaluation and civil society liaison activities, as well as for servicing all the Secretariat’s Governing Bodies, providing policy advice on the future role of the Commonwealth, and supporting the “Respect and Understanding” initiative. Following earlier careers in insurance, teaching and the UK Civil Service, Steve spent 11 years at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), as an export credits negotiator and policy analyst, as the Executive Assistant to two Deputy Secretaries-General and as the Director and Head of the Office of the Secretary-General. Immediately prior to joining the Commonwealth Secretariat, Steve worked as the Executive Director of the Africa Initiative at INSEAD Business School.

Steve holds a First Class Honours Degree in English Literature and American Studies

Fatiha Serour

Director and Head of Youth Affairs

She is a socio-economist with over 20 years experience in senior positions within the UN Family organisations; non-governmental sector; and academia as a lecturer, and researcher, on rural development in Africa, at the universities of Aberdeen, Oxford and Oran.Her areas of specialisation include: research and social policy analysis, strategic planning and development; capacity-building, training in gender analysis for programme identification, participatory methodologies; rehabilitation and emergency response; NGO development and collaboration; project and programme monitoring and management; gender mainstreaming; adolescent reproductive and sexual health; community health; HIV/AIDS; and Information, Education, Communication (IEC).Her work has taken her to over 40 countries of the world. She is fluent in English, French, Arabic, and has a working knowledge of Spanish, Russian and Italian.Dr Serour holds a BA in Sociology & Modern Languages; MA in International Relations; and a PhD in Political Economy: Comparative Development Strategies in Africa.

References

*Source: [http://www.thecommonwealth.org]
*These details are from the Commonwealth Secretariat’s website - [http://www.thecommonwealth.org] . The Secretariat is happy for this information to be posted on wikipedia.