United Nations

NEW YORK, 21 December (UN Headquarters) -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Michael Sheehan of the United States as Assistant Secretary-General for Logistics, Management and Mine Action Service in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, effective 2 January 2001.

Mr. Sheehan has served as Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Counter Terrorism in the United States Department of State since December 1998.

Previously, Mr. Sheehan was Deputy United States Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs where he worked on United Nations reform and peacekeeping policy in the former Yugoslavia. From 1995 to 1997, he also served in the White House on the National Security Council staff. He was Director of International Organizations and Peacekeeping.

Mr. Sheehan was Special Advisor to the Special Representatives of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Somalia and Haiti.

He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army in June 1997 to join the United States State Department.

A graduate of the United States Military Academy in 1977, Mr. Sheehan has Masters degrees from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service (1988) and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas (1992).

Born in February 1955, Mr. Sheehan is married and has one child.