New York – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed David M. Malone of Canada as Rector of the United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo, following consultations with the Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Irina Bokova.

Mr. Malone will be the sixth Rector of the University, which is an international network of scholars that serves as a think tank for the UN system.

He will take up his post on 1 March 2013, succeeding Konrad Osterwalder, a Swiss physicist who has served as UNU Rector since 2007.

Mr. Malone is “strongly committed to research excellence and to forging closer collaborations with UN system organisations and with other research institutes, governments, civil society and private sector actors around the world,” stated the announcement of his appointment.

Currently, Mr. Malone is President of Canada’s International Development Research Centre, a funding agency supporting policy-relevant research in the developing world.

He has previously served in a number of diplomatic postings for the Canadian government.

Since the launch of its academic work in September 1975, UNU has grown to become a global research and teaching organization with 15 institutes and programmes in 13 countries worldwide.
DD