Leadership
Filippo Grandi - UNRWA Commissioner-General
Filippo Grandi was appointed Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees on 20 January 2010 after having served as UNRWA’s Deputy Commissioner-General since October 2005.
Mr Grandi, an Italian national born in 1957, has been engaged in refugee and humanitarian work for the past 26 years, 22 of which have been with the United Nations. Prior to joining UNRWA, he distinguished himself in a variety of headquarters and field functions encompassing refugee assistance, protection, emergency management, donor relations and humanitarian and political affairs.
From May 2004, Grandi was Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General responsible for political affairs at the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), where he took responsibility for the electoral process, for the disarmament, demobilisation and integration programme, and for human rights issues, in particular the verification of the exercise of political rights relating to presidential and parliamentary elections.
Prior to that, Grandi was Chief of Mission of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Afghanistan, a position he held for almost three years. From 1997 to 2001, he served in the Executive Office of UNHCR in Geneva, as Special Assistant of the High Commissioner and then Chief of Staff.
Grandi joined UNHCR in 1988. For three years he worked in refugee programmes in Sudan, and was then involved in the humanitarian emergency response in Syria, Turkey and Iraq during and after the first Gulf War. Subsequently, as an Emergency Officer, he led emergency operations in Kenya, Benin, Ghana, Liberia, the Great Lakes of Central Africa (including the Burundi refugee crisis in 1993 and the Goma operation in the summer of 1994), Yemen and Afghanistan, among others. After a two-year headquarters assignment dealing with some of UNHCR’s main donors, especially the European Commission, Grandi was Field Coordinator for UN humanitarian activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo during its 1996 – 1997 civil war.
His early experience prior to joining the UN included work with non-governmental organisations carrying out refugee programmes in Thailand and Italy.
Grandi graduated from the State University of Milan with a degree in modern history and from the Gregorian University in Rome with a BA in philosophy.
In his inaugural letter to UNRWA staff, Grandi observed that “...the post of Commissioner-General is not a personal honour bestowed on one individual, but a mission to be carried out with and for Palestine refugees”. He paid tribute to the uniquely concrete and tangible character of UNRWA’s mission, noting that this is “what makes us relevant, allowing our work to make a real difference to the lives of those who continue, after six decades, to be wronged by injustice.”
Margot Ellis – UNRWA Deputy Commissioner-General
Ms Margot Ellis was appointed Deputy Commissioner-General for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on 20 January 2010.
Ms Ellis, a national of the United States of America, brings a wealth of senior management experience in both the international development and private sector arenas.
Since July 2008, Ms Ellis served as the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Acting Assistant Administrator for the Asia Bureau. In this function she oversaw USAID’s programmes in 24 countries, spanning from Kazakhstan and Afghanistan to Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.
Prior to that, Ms Ellis was USAID’s Mission Director in Uganda, a position she held for three years. From 2003 to 2005, Ms Ellis was the Deputy Director for USAID’s Mission to the West Bank and Gaza and from 1999 to 2003, the Mission’s Director of its Private Enterprise Office and Higher Education Team.
Ms Ellis joined USAID in 1987 and subsequently worked as a Programme Officer in Zimbabwe and as the Deputy Director and Director of USAID’s Private Sector Division in South Africa.
Earlier in her career, Ms Ellis worked for ten years in increasingly responsible positions in the private sector. During this period, Ms. Ellis worked for leading corporations such as Ford Motors, General Motors, J.P. Morgan Chase, and the American Management Association.
Ms Ellis graduated from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business with an MBA in Finance and from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Public Policy.
