United Nations

NEW YORK, 2 May (UN Headquarters) -- The Secretary-General has decided to appoint Danuta Hubner as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, effective 1 July.  She will succeed Yves Berthelot, who has indicated his wish to retire from the position.  The Secretary-General wishes to acknowledge Mr. Berthelot’s distinguished contributions during his tenure.

 Since November 1998, Ms. Hubner, a national of Poland, has been Deputy Executive Secretary of the Commission.  Prior to that, from November 1997, she was Minister, Head of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland.

 From October 1996 through November 1997, Ms. Hubner was the State Secretary for European Integration.  She conducted the negotiations for Poland’s membership in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which Poland joined in November 1996.

 From 1994 to 1996, she held the office of Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Industry and Trade, where she was responsible for European integration and small and medium-sized enterprises.  As Under-Secretary she authored the first governmental policy programme for small and medium-sized industries, as well as an industrial policy programme “International Competitiveness of the Polish Industry.”  In 1994, she participated in elaborating a government programme “Strategy for Poland,” authoring the chapter on the international competitiveness of the Polish economy.

 For many years she has been Deputy Editor-in Chief of the Economist bi-monthly and Editor-in-Chief of the National Economy monthly.  She is a member of the Scientific Board of the Economic Sciences Institute at the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Development and Strategic Studies Institute and the Statistics Council.  She was three times elected to the Executive Committee of the European Association of Development Institutes in Geneva.

 Ms. Hubner was the Deputy Director of the Developing Countries Economy Institute in the Warsaw School of Economics (1981-1988) and Deputy Director for scientific affairs in the Development and Strategic Studies Institute (1991-1994).

 Ms. Hubner graduated from the Foreign Trade Faculty of the Warsaw School of Economics in 1971.  In 1974, she received her Ph.D., followed by a post-doctoral degree in international trade relations in 1980.  She continued her research as a Fulbright scholar at the University of California, Berkeley (1988-1990).  She was given the title Professor of Economics in 1992.