The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), founded in 1921, is a United States nonprofit think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs. It is headquartered in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, D.C. Its membership, which numbers 4,900, has included senior politicians, more than a dozen secretaries of state, CIA directors, bankers, lawyers, professors, and senior media figures.
Ann Margaret Veneman was the Executive Director of UNICEF from 2005 to 2010. Her appointment was announced on January 18, 2005 by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Previously, Veneman was the United States Secretary of Agriculture, the first, and as of 2018 the only, woman to hold that position. Veneman served as USDA Secretary from January 20, 2001 to January 20, 2005, leaving to become the fifth executive director of UNICEF. She served in this position from May 1, 2005. A lawyer, Veneman has practiced law in Washington, DC and California, including being a deputy public defender. She has also served in other high level positions in U.S. federal and state government, including being appointed California's Secretary of Food and Agriculture, serving from 1995 to 1999.
William Anthony Kirsopp Lake is the Executive Director of the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF), author, academic, and former American diplomat, Foreign Service Officer, and political advisor. He has been a foreign policy advisor to many Democratic U.S. presidents and presidential candidates, and served as National Security Advisor under U.S. President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997. Lake is credited as being one of the individuals who developed the policy that led to the resolution of the Bosnian War. He also held the chair of Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C.
Carol Bellamy is the Chair of the Board of the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF). Previously, she was Director of the Peace Corps, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and President and CEO of World Learning. She is also the Chair of children’s rights advocacy organization ECPAT International, working to end the sexual exploitation of children. After three terms in the New York State Senate, she was the first woman to be elected as President of the New York City Council, a position she held until her unsuccessful bid for Mayor of New York in 1985; she was the second to last person to hold this position.
Andrei Dapkiunas is a Belarusian diplomat. From 2004 he has been Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and the Permanent Representative of Belarus to the United Nations. Vice-President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, ECOSOC (2008). President of the Executive Board of the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF (2006). Member of the Executive Board of the International Association of Permanent Representatives to the United Nations. In 2011 he was briefly withdrawn from his position as ambassador to the UN following allegations of a link to one of opposition candidates in the presidential election.
Anders Arvid Lidén was the Permanent Representative of Sweden to the United Nations from 2004 to 2010. He was President of the UNICEF Executive Board in 2008.
Henrietta Holsman Fore is the CEO of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and former Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Holsman International, a manufacturing and investment company. The Holsman companies include the 68-year-old Stockton Products, a manufacturer and distributor of copper and wire products. Fore serves on the Corporate Boards of Essilor International SA, Exxon Mobil Corporation, General Mills, and Theravance Biopharma Inc..
Torild Skard is a Norwegian psychologist, politician for the Socialist Left Party, a former Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a former Chairman of UNICEF.
Zina Harman was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Alignment between 1969 and 1974 and as Chairman of UNICEF from 1964 to 1966.
Macharia Kamau is Kenya's Principal Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He previously served as Kenya's representative to the United Nations and as the former President of the UNICEF Executives Board.
Jarmo Viinanen was a Finnish ambassador to Sweden until 2016, and was President of the UNICEF Executive Board in 2013. In addition to this, Viinanen was, from 1997 until 1998, the First Secretary in the Foreign Ministry's Department of External Trade Relations. From 1998 to 2000, Viinanen was the Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Between 2000 and 2005, Viinanen served as the diplomatic adviser to Tarja Halonen, the 11th President of Finland, the Deputy Secretary General and Deputy Chief of Cabinet, as well as the Secretary-General and Chief of Cabinet to Halonen from 2005-2009. Between April 8, 2009 and 2014 Viinanen held a position as the Permanent Representative of Finland to the United Nations.
Makoto Taniguchi is a Japanese diplomat and academic, a former Ambassador of Japan to the United Nations and a former Chairman of UNICEF in 1988.
Sven Jürgenson is an Estonian diplomat. He has served as the Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York of Estonia since 2015, and also held the position from 1998 to 2000. During the term 2016 he is also President of the UNICEF Executive Board at the international level. He served as Ambassador to the United States from 2000 to 2003 and as Ambassador to France from 2010 to 2015.
Abulkalam Abdul Momen is a Bangladeshi economist and diplomat. He was Bangladesh's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York from August 2009 to October 2015. He won the 2018 Bangladeshi general election from Sylhet-1 constituency. He was appointed as the minister for foreign affairs of the Government of Bangladesh.
Oumar Daou is a distinguished Malian diplomat and political expert.
Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi is an Iranian diplomat and lawyer. He is Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Administrative and Financial Affairs of Iran. He served as Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York from 2003 to 2008. He served as President of the UNICEF Executive Board at the international level in 2005 and as Chairman of the United Nations Commission for Social Development in 2006. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Director for the Department of Treaties in 1982, and has formerly been Ambassador to Sweden (1987–1992).
Movses Abelian is an Armenian-Georgian diplomat and United Nations official. He is currently Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, responsible for General Assembly management. He has formerly been Director of the Security Council Affairs Division and Secretary of the United Nations Security Council from 2011 to 2016. He served as Armenia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York from 1998 to 2003 and as President of the UNICEF Executive Board at the international level in 2001.
Maurizio Bucci is an Italian diplomat, a former Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York of Italy and a former Chairman of UNICEF (1986–1987).
Ion Goriță is a Romanian diplomat and United Nations official. He served as Romania's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York from 1994 to 2000 and as President of the UNICEF Executive Board at the international level in 1996. Before his appointment as Permanent Representative to the U.N., he served as Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was Chairman of the Joint Inspection Unit from 2004 to 2005.
Tore Hattrem is a Norwegian diplomat and politician for the Conservative Party. In 2018 he was appointed as the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the top civil servant in the ministry. He is President of the UNICEF Executive Board during 2018.
