Japanese diplomat Kiyotaka Akasaka of Japan began his tenure Monday as the new chief of the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI).
Mr. Akasaka succeeds Shashi Tharoor of India as the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information.
The new Under-Secretary-General comes to the UN from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, where he served as Deputy Secretary-General since August 2003.
Mr. Akasaka served as Japan’s Ambassador to the UN between 2000 and 2001, and was Deputy Director-General in the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Multilateral Cooperation Department from 1997 to 2000.
He has also held posts at the Secretariat of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), precursor of the UN World Trade Organisation (WTO), and at the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
