Brief Biographical Overview

Kofi Annan was the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, serving two fiveyear terms from January 1, 1997 to December 31, 2006. Born in Kumasi, Ghana in 1938, he was the first Secretary-General to be appointed from the ranks of the UN staff where he had served for over thirty years. He began his work with the UN in 1962 when he joined the World Health Organization in Geneva as a young administrator. Kofi’s first recognition for his abilities came when someone from the Ford Foundation, who was recruiting for a leadership program for students to study at a university in the United States, approached Kofi at a student meeting and asked him to apply. Kofi was then a student at the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. He won the fellowship and attended Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, completing his undergraduate work in economics in 1961. After completing his BA, he was offered a grant from the Carnegie Corporation to study for one year at the Institut Universitaire des Hautes Etudes International in Geneva. To complete his education, Kofi later returned to the United States as a Sloan Fellow and received a Master of Science degree in management in 1972 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). For most of his early UN career, Kofi Annan served in administrative positions in accounting, personnel, and other posts.

UN Secretaries-General have traditionally served two five-year terms, but the United States objected to a second term for Annan's predecessor, Boutros-Ghali. The Africa Group at the UN had insisted on an African as Secretary-General when Boutros-Ghali, from northern Africa’s Egypt, was elected. However, when he was not accorded the traditional second term, the Africans insisted that another African, preferably now from Sub-Saharan Africa, should be chosen. Kofi Annan, by that time, had become known to the major powers as talented and trustworthy, and his candidacy emerged with the most positive votes and no vetoes in the Security Council which must approve the nomination before it goes to a full-member vote in the General Assembly. Annan had enough support from the major powers during his first term to be elected early, some five to six months earlier than usual, to a second term. After completing his second term as UN Secretary-General, Annan has continued to be involved in international issues, highlighted by his role in mediating a successful resolution to the conflict that arose in Kenya after its presidential election in 2007/2008 and in 2012 his selection by the UN and the Arab League as special envoy for Syria. He also established the Kofi Annan Foundation housed in Geneva and served as the Chair of the Group of Elders until he passed away on August 18, 2018.