SG/A/981
BIO/3740
PKO/130
21 February 2006
Biographical Note
Secretary-General Appoints Lawrence G. Rossin of United States Principal Deputy Special Representative for UN Haiti Mission
NEW YORK, 20 February (UN Headquarters) -- United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Lawrence G. Rossin of the United States as Principal Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).
Mr. Rossin will assume his responsibilities on 2 March 2006.
Mr. Rossin has been serving as Principal Deputy Special Representative for the Secretary-General for the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) since 1 October 2004. In this position, reporting to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr. Rossin is responsible for overall programme management of a large and complex post-conflict Mission that, pursuant to Security Council resolution 1244 (1999), exercises a full range of governance responsibilities while building and empowering Kosovo institutions and facilitating the process of determining Kosovo's future political status.
Mr. Rossin retired from the United States Senior Foreign Service in September 2004. His last position was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Strategic Planning and South-west Asia on the National Security Council staff. Before that, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, was United States Ambassador to the Republic of Croatia, and was the first United States Chief of Mission in Kosovo. Earlier, he served as Director of the State Department Office of South Central European Affairs, in which capacity he was active in diplomatic efforts related to the Kosovo crisis and Dayton implementation and led the United States delegations to the 1999 Rambouillet and Paris conferences on Kosovo.
Other assignments during Mr. Rossin's United States diplomatic career included Deputy Chief of Mission in Spain and Director for Inter-American Affairs on the National Security Council staff. At the National Security Council, his key responsibility was to design and coordinate United States policy on Haiti. He participated in President Carter's successful negotiation in 1994 to end the military regime there. He was also Director, Chief of Mission Authority and Overseas Staffing in the State Department, Counsellor for Political Affairs at Embassies in The Hague and Port-au-Prince, Peru Desk Officer and Staff Assistant to two Assistant Secretaries of State for Inter-American Affairs. He held other positions in Barbados, South Africa and Mali.
Mr. Rossin received his B.A. degree in economics in 1975 from Claremont Men's College, Claremont, California, and joined the Foreign Service shortly thereafter. He attended the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Defence College in Rome (1988-1089) and completed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's "Seminar XXI" Programme in 1994 and the Aspen Institute Executive Seminar in 2001. He speaks French and Spanish and has limited command of Dutch and Croatian. He received the State Department Award for Valor, four Superior Honor Awards, the Meritorious Honor Award, and the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, as well as the Order of Duke Branimir from Croatian President Stjepan Mesic.
Married to Debra J. McGowan, he has a daughter (Claire, 21) and a son (Alec, 16). He was born on 3 November 1952.
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