Mr. Navid Hanif has been appointed to the post of Director, Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination, where he was Acting Director since September 2011 and also chaired the UN DESA Task Force on Peacebuilding.

In January 2010, Mr. Hanif became the Head of the newly established UN DESA Strategic Planning Unit and was also designated as the Secretary of the Executive Committee of Economic and Social Affairs effective 1 August 2010.

During 2004-2009, he served as the Chief of the Policy Coordination Branch and led the process of designing and launching new functions of ECOSOC, particularly the Annual Ministerial Review. 

In 2005, he was sent on a special one year assignment as a Principal Officer in the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General. He worked there as a member of the team for the 2005 World Summit, which adopted a number of new initiatives, including new functions for ECOSOC. 

Before joining UN DESA in 2001, Mr. Hanif served for 6 years at the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the UN where he chaired and facilitated negotiations on a number of important resolutions, which led to the convening of major UN conferences.

Mr. Hanif holds Masters in International Political Economy from Columbia University, New York and Masters in English Literature from the Government College/University, Lahore.

The following staff members were also promoted in May: 

Shaoling Chen, Statistics Assistant, Statistics Division

Andres Campbell, Staff Assistant, Statistics Division

Daniel B. Eshetie, Associate Information Systems Officer, Statistics Division

Huanyu Liu, Economic Affairs Officer, Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination

Goings

The following staff member retired in May:

Mohan Peck, Senior Sustainable Development Officer, Division for Sustainable Development