UNIS/BIO/848
1 July 2008
Secretary-General Appoints Maher Nasser as Director of United Nations Information Service in Vienna
VIENNA, 1 July (UN Information Service) -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is pleased to announce the appointment of Maher Nasser as the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Vienna. Mr. Nasser succeeds Ms. Nasra Hassan, who retired from the service of the United Nations on 30 April 2008. Mr. Nasser was the Director of the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Cairo, a position he has held since 1 January 2006. He took up his duties on 1 July.
As the Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Cairo, Mr. Nasser led the work of the United Nations Communications Group in Egypt and provided support and advice to eight United Nations Information Centres in the Middle East and North Africa. To increase the delivery capacity of the United Nations information network, Mr. Nasser established and provided leadership to the United Nations Communications Group for the Arab Region to create greater coherence and impact for the United Nations communications work in the region.
Before taking up his current post with UNIC Cairo, Mr. Nasser was the Chief of the New York Liaison Office for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from 2001. He also worked for UNRWA, based first in Vienna, from 1994 until 1996, and then at its Amman headquarters where he was in charge of donor liaison, representation and media relations. From 1992 to 1994, Mr. Nasser worked as an Associate Information Officer for the United Nations Drug Control Programme in Vienna. Mr. Nasser also served as UNRWA's Public Information Officer and Spokesperson in Gaza and in Jerusalem from 1987 to 1991. Prior to joining the United Nations, he worked for the Arab Thought Forum, a non-governmental organization based in Jerusalem.
In October 1991, Mr. Nasser attended the Madrid Middle East Peace Conference and several sessions of subsequent bilateral negotiations in Washington, D.C., as the personal assistant to the head of the Palestinian negotiating team, Dr. Haidar Abdul Shafi.
Mr. Nasser has a degree from Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, and a postgraduate diploma in business administration from the University of Warwick, in the United Kingdom. He is married with three children.
* *** *
