ABDESSALAM OULD AHMED
Director, FAO Liaison Office with the United Nations in Geneva
Tel:  +41 22 917 36 83
Fax: +41 22 917 00 65
aouldahmed@unog.ch
Mr Ould Ahmed, a national of Mauritania, holds a B.A. in Economics from the Faculty of Law and Economic Sciences, Tunis, a D.E.A. in Development Economics from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, France and an International Degree in Public Administration from the National School of Administration (ENA), Paris, France. Mr Ould Ahmed started his professional career in 1985 in the Ministry of Economy and Finance Mauritania. From 1988 to 1996, he held several high level administrative functions in his country, including Director of Planning and Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister. In 1997, he was appointed Minister of Fisheries, before taking up in 1998, the responsibility of establishing a new institution in charge of Poverty Reduction, Human Rights and Integration. From 1998 to 2001, he coordinated the formulation of the first Mauritanian PRSP that he presented to the Board of several international organisations, including the World Bank, the IMF and IFAD. Between 2001 and 2003, he worked as an international consultant on development matters for several international organizations. Mr Ould Ahmed joined FAO in 2003. He served successively as FAO Representative in Lebanon and in Togo, before joining the FAO Regional Office in Cairo in 2008 as Deputy Regional Representative for the Near East and FAO Representative in Egypt. Mr Ould Ahmed has served as Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the United Nations in Geneva, since January 2011.

SANDRA AVILES
Senior Liaison Officer
Humanitarian Affairs and Programme Development
Tel : +41 22 917 36 35
saviles@unog.ch
Sandra Aviles has worked with FAO since 1997 with progressive responsibility in policy analysis, in the development of agriculture investment programs and aid effectiveness. In addition to her work at FAO Headquarters as Senior Adviser on Resources Mobilization and Aide Effectiveness and as Executive Officer for the FAO Liaison Office in Washington, D.C., she has had assignments with other international organizations including IFAD, ILO and the World Bank. Since joining the FAO Office in Geneva in 2008, Ms Aviles acts as focal point and representative for matters related to FAO’s humanitarian work, in interagency (IASC) meetings, member state briefings, working groups on humanitarian issues and with the GHD (Good Humanitarian Donorship) donors. In the course of her current work, Ms Aviles led an eleven member inter-agency intercluster coordination mission to Colombia as part of the support to the humanitarian country team in implementing the reforms initiated in 2006. Ms Aviles has a Bachelor of Arts, International Relations and Economics from the American University in Paris and has pursued Graduate Studies in International Affairs, specializing in economic development and finance at the School of International Affairs, Columbia University, New York. She recently completed a Master degree in Policy and Negotiations at the Graduate Institute of International Relations and Development Studies in Geneva.

DANIEL LONGHURST
Humanitarian Affairs Officer (Consultant)
Tel:  +41 22 917 20 53
dlonghurst@unog.ch
Daniel Longhurst joined the FAO Office in Geneva in September 2010, having previously studied and worked in the United Kingdom. He has a B.Sc. in International Relations, a M.A. in Social and Political Thought, and previously worked for three years as a fundraising and marketing officer for Comic Relief, an international United Kingdom-based charity. As Humanitarian Officer for the office, his role includes representing and advocating for FAO at donor, inter-agency and public facing fora, resource mobilization, and providing academic research.

SILVANO SOFIA
Public Information and External Relations Officer (Consultant)
Tel:  +41 22 917 27 70
ssofia@unog.ch
Silvano Sofia joined the office in 2010 and deals with external relations issues after serving for the UN WFP Office in Geneva working on similar activities. His role includes promoting awareness of FAO's work and activities amongst Geneva-based international organizations, civil society representatives, the media and the academic sphere, as well as the Geneva/Swiss public. Silvano also works on inter-agency collaboration and participates in multilateral meetings involving UN, NGOs and governments' representatives. Prior to that, he worked for the Communication unit of Lombard Odier, a Swiss private bank, and for the Mission of Switzerland to the UN as a humanitarian affairs intern. Silvano is finalizing an Executive M.A. at the Graduate Institute of Public Administration (IDHEAP) and holds a M.A. from the Graduate Institute of International Relations and Development Studies in Geneva.

 
PATRICIA GORIN
Climate Change and Environment Officer (Consultant)
Tel: +41 22 917 36 81
pgorin@unog.ch
Patricia Gorin recently joined the FAO Geneva Office having previously worked at FAO headquarters for the Technical Cooperation Department in the Investment Centre Division as a Climate Change and Environment Officer and as Programme Officer. Among several tasks, she collaborated with the Global Mechanism of the UN Convention to combat desertification as the TCI focal point to achieve capacity building and sector work related to climate change mitigation and adaptation in agriculture, forestry and land use sectors; and participated in the FAO Ex-Ante Carbon-balance tool team's work. Prior to that, Ms. Gorin also worked for WMO dealing with similar activities, and with UNEP/GRID on the GAR. Her role in the FAO Geneva Office is to increase the understanding and visibility of FAO's mandate on climate change and related environmental and disaster risk management/reduction work, as well as increasing collaboration with HQs services working on the subject. She holds a M.A. in Geography from the University of Geneva and specialized in Environmental issues in the University of Concordia in Montreal. Afterwards, she pursued a Certificate in Geographic Information System.

ANGELA HIGNEY
Administrative Assistant
Tel:  +41 22 917 36 83
Fax: +41 22 917 00 65
ahigney@unog.ch
Angela Higney studied Business & Administration at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, followed by a postgraduate course in European languages and office management in London. She worked in the private sector in Glasgow as well as in Oslo, Edinburgh, London and Paris before coming to Geneva to work 16 years with IFRC with also two field assignments as a delegate in Armenia and in Azerbaijan. As a Desk Officer for Asia & Pacific, she traveled extensively in Southeast Asia working with National Societies to strengthen their operational capacity in disaster relief and development. Her last 5 years at IFRC were spent as an HR Officer recruiting and looking after the welfare of field delegates. She began working at the FAO Office in September 2001.

MARGARET OMUMBWA
Secretary
Tel:  +41 22 917 36 83
Fax: +41 22 917 00 65
momumbwa@unog.ch
Margaret Omumbwa joined the FAO Office in February 2011 from the WFP Liaison Office in Geneva. Her work experience with WFP covering issues closely related to FAO is undoubtedly an asset and of added value to our team. She handles administrative and secretarial services.

TIMBER SECTION, UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE / FAO

 
DOMINIQUE REEB
Deputy Chief
Tel: +41 22 917 14 03
dominique.reeb@fao.org
Dominique Reeb joined the office in February 2012 as Deputy Chief of the joint UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber section. He is holding a M. Sc. Degree in Forestry from the University of British Columbia, Canada, and has over 25 years work experience. He started in career in Germany working on the development and testing of the methodology of the first federal forest inventory. He then moved to development work and spent 14 years in West Africa mostly as team leader of a GIZ community forestry project. In 2000 he joined FAO headquarters as a Forestry Officer, then as Senior Forestry Officer in charge of participatory forestry.  His work in Rome was mainly dealing with aspects of participatory processes for forest administration, participatory processes in the nfp framework, role of forestry in poverty alleviation, training in participatory approaches, conflict management, community-based forest fire management, community-based enterprise development, forest tenure, backstopping and supervisory missions of Technical Cooperation Projects and field programmes/projects in Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America. From 2007 till end of 2008 he was posted in the FAO Sub-regional Office for Central Asia in Ankara, Turkey, as Senior Forestry Officer. His work in Central Asia focused on nfp development, forest policy and legislation and forest tenure. From 2008 to January 2012 he was posted in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, as Chief Technical Adviser of the FAO project “Capacity Building and Institutional Development for Participatory Natural Resources Management and Conservation in Forest Areas of Mongolia”.

ARNAUD BRIZAY
Forest Policy Officer
Tel: +41 22 917 28 70
arnaud.brizay@fao.org
Arnaud Brizay was seconded to the ECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section in Geneva by the French Ministry of Agriculture. After completing his study in Agronomy in Paris, he specialized in Forestry in Nancy. Arnaud began his career in Ireland as an Agricultural Advisor for the French Embassy in Dublin. He was then appointed Chief of the Environment Department in a local authority in the North of France, where he was responsible for implementing forestry, hunting and fishing regulations, as well as for water policy and rural planning. Subsequently Attaché for Veterinary and Food Safety Affairs at the French Embassy in Berlin, he returned to the French Ministry of Agriculture to deal with the EU French Presidency in the Forest and Timber Directorate, where he became chief of the Section for Economic Development. Within the Forestry and Timber Section, Arnaud is in charge of the Forest Policy sector.

EVE CHARLES
Research Assistant
Tel:  +41 22 917 39 22
Fax: +41 22 917 00 65
eve.charles@unece.org
Eve Charles joined the Forestry and Timber Section in 2008. Prior to this, she worked as a Project Manager for several NGOs, focusing on areas of risk governance, climate change and forest management. Eve studied in the UK and holds a Masters Degree in English and has experience teaching English. Eve has also studied International Environmental Law and is currently completing her thesis. Eve is the Forestry and Timber Section’s focal point for communications and outreach activities. She is Secretary of the UNECE/FAO Forest Communicators Network. She also carries out research and writes on topics relating to the forest sector in the green economy and sustainable forest management in the UNECE region. She is a member of the UNECE/FAO/forest Europe Advisory Group on State of Europe’s Forest 2011.

 
ELINA WARSTA
Associate Professional Officer
Tel: + 41 22 917 28 72
elina.warsta@fao.org
Elina Warsta joined the office in November 2011 as an Associate Professional Officer (funded by Finland) to be part of the joint UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber section. She will focus on Forest Resources Assessment and Forest Policy issues, and will give general support for the section related to different activities. Prior to FAO, Elina worked as a researcher and a teaching assistant at the Forest Products Technology Department at Aalto University in Finland. Her research focused on lignin analysis with Raman spectroscopy, and in teaching she was developing new courses for bioresource technology. She holds a MSc in Forest Products Technology, and finished her Master’s thesis in Finnish Forest Research Institute related to climate change effects on forest trees. Elina is continuing her research (targeting to PhD) as a supervisor, and has finished her post graduate courses in Forest Products Chemistry and Plant Biology.