SG/A/643

AHMAD FAWZI APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF UN INFORMATION CENTRE IN LONDON

29 July 1997


Press Release
SG/A/643
BIO/3084


AHMAD FAWZI APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF UN INFORMATION CENTRE IN LONDON

19970729 Biographical Note Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Ahmad Fawzi as Director of the United Nations Information Centre in London. Mr. Fawzi, who will assume his duties on 1 August, succeeds Alexander Borg Olivier, who has headed the Centre since March 1995.

Mr. Fawzi served as Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General from 1992 through 1996. Before joining the United Nations, he worked for many years in broadcast journalism, as a news editor, reporter and regional news operations manager. From 1991 to 1992, he was the News Operations Manager for the Americas for Visnews -- now Reuters Television.

Also with Reuters Television, Mr. Fawzi served as Regional News Manager for Eastern Europe, based in Prague, from 1989 to 1991 -- a time of tumultuous political change in that region. Concurrently with his assignment in Prague, he coordinated coverage of the Gulf war, managing the war desk in Riyadh, as well as the production centre in Dahran, Saudi Arabia.

In 1989, Mr. Fawzi was Reuters Television Bureau Chief for the Middle East, based in Cairo. Prior to that, he worked in London as news Editor and Assignments Editor for Reuters Television. From 1974 to 1984, he was Press Secretary, and later, Chef de Cabinet, of the wife of the President of Egypt, Jehan Sadat. He was also Editor and Anchor for the nightly news on Egyptian Television.

Born in Cairo on 28 March 1948, Mr. Fawzi has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature and Language from Cairo University. He pursued post- graduate studies at the Newhouse School of Communications of Syracuse University, New York.

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For information media. Not an official record.