UN Headquarters Building in New York UN Chief Appoints UK Diplomat Tom Fletcher as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs UN
Secretary-General António Guterres today announced the appointment of UK diplomat Tom Fletcher as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator. Fletcher will replace Martin Griffiths, also of UK descent.
Joyce Msuya will continue to serve as Acting Under-Secretary-General until the new Under-Secretary-General takes up her duties.
Fletcher, who has been Warden of Hertford College, Oxford since 2020 and Vice-Chair of the Conference of Oxford University Colleges since 2022, has extensive experience of leadership, organisational transformation and diplomacy at the highest levels.
He was previously Director of Global Strategy at the Global Business Coalition for Education (2015-2019) and led work on refugee education in former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s cabinet. He was also the UK Ambassador to Lebanon (2011–15), a foreign and development policy adviser to three UK prime ministers (2007–11), and a mediator on Northern Ireland.
Prior to that, Fletcher held a variety of positions at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, working closely with the United Nations during his diplomatic career in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
Fletcher holds an MA in Modern History (Oxford, 1998) and was a visiting professor at New York University (2015–2020) and the Emirates Diplomatic Academy (2016–2019). In addition to his native English, Fletcher is fluent in French and also knows Arabic and Swahili.
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