Councillor Biographies
Count Hans-Christof von Sponeck, Former UN Assistant Secretary General; Professor at Marburg University
Count Hans-Christof von Sponeck is a former UN Assistant Secretary General. He joined the UN Development Program in 1968 and worked in Ghana, Turkey, Botswana, Pakistan and India, before becoming Director of European Affairs in Geneva. He was appointed the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq in October 1998. His responsibilities included direction of all UN operations in the country, managing the Oil-for-Food program, and verifying Iraqi compliance with that program. Count Sponeck resigned from this position in February 2000 in protest of international policy towards Iraq. Since then he has travelled extensively to brief governments, parliaments and peace groups about resolving the Iraq crisis and UN reforms. He studied modern European history at the Universities of Tubingen and Bonn in, did research at the East-West Centre in Honolulu and holds degrees from the Louisiana State University and Washington University in Physical Anthropology and Demography. He teaches at the University of Marburg and serves in a range of NGO boards in Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany and Italy.
