On 24 April 2000, the Secretary-General announced the appointment of Mr. Dileep Nair ( Singapore ) Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, succeeding Mr. Karl Paschke ( Germany ). The post is for a non-renewable five-year term.

Prior to his appointment to the United Nations, Mr. Nair was Managing Director of the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS), the largest South-East Asian bank and one of Asia 's largest. He was instrumental in creating a processing and servicing hub for the DBS Group's operations, covering a wide range of customer and back office services. He also served asthe Chairman of the Bank's Operational Risk Committee and Chairman of DBS Card Centre Pte.

Mr. Nair came to DBS in 1998, when it acquired the Post Office Savings Bank of Singapore , the national savings bank, where he had been serving from 1997as Chief Executive Officer. During his tenure there, Mr. Nair oversaw the expansion of the Bank's financial services and spearheaded banking automation, and Internet banking.

Before his career in banking, Mr. Nair served his country's Administrative Service for some 20 years. From 1989 to 1997 he was Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, in charge of manpower, finance and information technology. There he introduced new manpower policies, promoted financial and budgeting initiatives, and computerized various administrative and operational systems. From 1986 to 1989 he served as Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Working under the Minister, he helped develop and implement key economic policies and was involved in the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations, as well as in various economic fora of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Mr. Nair joined the elite Administrative Service in 1979, first serving in the Ministry of Finance, where he rose to the rank of Director in charge of expenditure control. While posted to the Ministry, he obtained a Master's degree in Public Administration at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

He started his working career in 1974 at Singapore 's Housing and Development Board, the statutory board responsible for public housing, running what was then South East Asia 's most automated and biggest brick factory.

Mr. Nair has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from McGill University , Montreal , Canada , which he attended from 1969 to 1973 on a Colombo Plan scholarship.

Mr. Nair has been very active in social and community work. Before coming to the UN, he was Vice President of Singapore Indian Development Association, a self-help group working to raise the educational standards of Indian Singaporeans. He was a member of the Hindu Advisory Board, a statutory body that advises the government on matters concerning Hinduism. He also sat on the Board of Governors of Raffles Institution, Singapore 's premier high school and his alma mater, and was the Patron of his constituency's Community Centre Management Committee.