The United Nations on Thursday appointed Guyanese Catherine Pollard, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management.
According to a press release Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon named Pollard to replace Jan Beagle who has been appointed Deputy Director-General at its Geneva office. “The Secretary-General is very pleased to appoint from within the ranks of the international civil service an experienced leader with management expertise and commitment to change,” the release said.
The appointment is a cornerstone of his commitment to strengthen the organisation in the key area of human resource management the release said. Its central objective is to build a multifunctional, mobile and professional workforce and to free the staff from unnecessary bureaucratic constraints in the pursuit of their duties.
Pollard brings to the office her “demonstrated capacity to forge collaborative partnerships with different groups of stakeholders in order to get the job done,” the UN said. Currently chief of staff in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Pollard has a proven track record in financial, human resource and general administrative management. “In each of her assignments at senior levels she has helped to effect real improvements in management practices, moving away from the status quo,” it added. Most recently Pollard has been directly responsible for implementing the ongoing restructuring in the departments of Peacekeeping Operations and of Field Support.
Her career in the UN includes assignments in financial and human resource management of the UN volunteers programme, the UN Protection Force in Croatia and at the UNDP.
Born in Georgetown in 1960, Pollard holds a master’s degree in accounting from the University of the West Indies’ Mona Campus.
