Secretary-General António Guterres, following consultations with the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), wrote to the President of the General Assembly requesting the General Assembly to confirm Alexander De Croo of Belgium as the new Administrator of UNDP for a term of four years.
The General Assembly confirmed the nomination on 17 November 2025.
Mr. De Croo succeeds Achim Steiner of Germany to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his leadership and commitment to the Organization.
The Secretary-General also wishes to extend his appreciation to Haoliang Xu, Associate Administrator of UNDP, who is serving as Acting Administrator until Mr. De Croo assumes his position.
Mr. De Croo has dedicated much of his career to public service advancing global solidarity, combining political leadership, development cooperation, and innovation.
As former Prime Minister of Belgium (2020-2025) and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development Cooperation, Digital Agenda, Telecom and Post (2014-2020), he worked closely with multilateral institutions to steer structural change for people in some of the world’s most vulnerable regions, having consistently supported UNDP as a key partner.
As a Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance (2019-2020), Mr. De Croo has experienced firsthand the need to reform how development is financed and delivered. He also served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Pensions (2012-2014); Party President and Senator (2009-2012).
Before entering public service, Mr. De Croo worked in the private sector as strategy consultant and entrepreneur (1999-2009).
Mr. De Croo holds an MBA (Business Administration), Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Chicago (2002-2004), US, and an MSC (Business Engineer), University of Brussels (VUB) (1993-1998), Belgium.
In addition to his native Dutch, he is fluent in French and English.
