Kofi Annan Biography

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Kofi Annan was Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1997 through 2006. He succeeded Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt in the post. Annan was a U.N. veteran who took his first job with the organization in 1962 and worked his way up through various posts, including Deputy Director to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (1980-83) and Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping (1995-96). Annan was the first Secretary-General chosen from the ranks of the U.N.'s staff. He was also the first black man to hold the post and the second African (after Boutros-Ghali). In 2001 Annan and the United Nations were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their ongoing work in global peace and cooperation. Annan was elected for a second five-year term in 2001, and served until the end of 2006. He was succeeded on 1 January 2007 by South Korean Ban Ki-moon.

Extra credit: Annan attended Macalaster College in St. Paul, Minnesota, graduating in 1961... He was a fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management in 1971-72, receiving a Master of Science degree... His wife Nane Annan, a lawyer and artist, is from Sweden... Previous Secretaries-General: Trygve Lie (Norway), 1946-52; Dag Hammarskjöld (Sweden), 1953-61; U Thant (Myanmar, formerly Burma), 1961-71; Kurt Waldheim (Austria), 1972-81; Javier de Perez de Cuellar (Peru), 1982-91; Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Egypt), 1992-96.

Others who have been ambassadors for or delegates to the United Nations: actress Audrey Hepburn, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson and pop singer Geri Halliwell.

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