Izumi Nakamitsu

Izumi Nakamitsu was appointed Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Assistant Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in November 2014. She leads UNDP's Crisis Response Unit.

Ms Nakamitsu has more than 30 years of experience in foreign affairs, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, democratization and elections, including with the UN, an intergovernmental organization and in academia.

Her most recent prior experience was with the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations; as Director of the Asia and the Middle East Division and as Director of the Division of Policy, Evaluation and Training.

Between 2005 and 2008, Ms Nakamitsu was Professor of International Relations at Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo; a member of the Foreign Exchange Council of the Japanese Foreign Minister; and a visiting senior advisor on peacebuilding at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

She was also Chef de Cabinet and Director of Planning and Coordination at the Stockholm-based intergovernmental organization, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) between 1998 and 2004.

Earlier in her career, Ms Nakamitsu served on the UN Reform Team of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan; in the Office of the UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Policy and Operations; and in UNHCR field operations in the former Yugoslavia, Turkey and northern Iraq.

Ms. Nakamitsu is a Japanese national. She holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. and a Bachelor of Laws from Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.