Leadership

Nickolay Mladenov Mr. Nickolay Mladenov of Bulgaria was appointed by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as his Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and his Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the Palestinian Authority in February 2015. In this capacity, Mr. Mladenov will be the Envoy of the Secretary-General to the Quartet. Mr. Mladenov brings with him extensive experience in public service and international affairs. In his last posting, he served as Special Representative for Iraq and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI). He served as Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria from 2010 to 2013 and Minister of Defence of Bulgaria from 2009 to 2010. Previously, he was a Member of the European Parliament from 2007 to 2009 and a Member of the Parliament of Bulgaria from 2001 to 2005. Mr. Mladenov held several positions in the intergovernmental and non-governmental sectors, including at the World Bank and the European Institute in Sofia. Mr. Mladenov earned a Master of Arts in war studies at King’s College London, in the United Kingdom, and both a master’s and a bachelor’s degree in international relations at the University of National and World Economy of Sofia, in Bulgaria. He is married with one daughter. twitter: @nmladenov

Robert Piper The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Mr. Robert Piper of Australia as Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, at the level of Assistant Secretary-General. Mr. Piper will also serve as United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, effective June 2015. Mr. Piper brings over 25 years of humanitarian and development experience with the United Nations, leading efforts in peacebuilding, conflict prevention and disaster risk reduction in a number of complex situations. He has been serving as the United Nations Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel region since 2013. From 2008 to 2013, he was United Nations Resident Coordinator, Humanitarian Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative for Nepal. He played a similar role leading the United Nations system in Kosovo from 2002 to 2004. Mr. Piper has held a number of other key posts with UNDP at Headquarters and in the field, including as inaugural Director for the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund and as Deputy Director for Emergency Response. Mr. Piper has a Bachelor of Arts degree, with honours in political science, from the Australian National University. He was a Yale University World Fellow in 2004. Born in 1966, he is married and has four children. Twitter: @UN_Piper