Senior Officials

Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman

Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Tayé-Brook Zerihoun

Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Miroslav Jenča

Directors of HQ Divisions

Senior Officials in the Field

At Headquarters

Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman

Jeffrey Feltman of the United States assumed the post of Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs on 2 July 2012. He was appointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

As Under-Secretary-General and head of the Department of Political Affairs, Mr. Feltman advises the Secretary-General on peace and security issues globally, while overseeing "good offices" initiatives and field-based political missions carrying out peacemaking, preventive diplomacy and peace-building activities in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Central and Southeast Asia. He also oversees the United Nations electoral assistance provided to dozens of its member states each year.

Before joining the United Nations, Mr. Feltman served for nearly thirty years in the United States Foreign Service, focused especially on the Middle East and North Africa. His last position was as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, from which he retired at the rank of Career Minister. Mr. Feltman served previously as United States Ambassador to the Republic of Lebanon, and held earlier diplomatic postings in Baghdad, Erbil, Jerusalem, Tunis, Tel Aviv, Budapest, and Port-au-Prince, as well as with responsibility for coordinating US assistance to countries of Eastern and Central Europe.

Mr. Feltman speaks Arabic, French and Hungarian. He received his Bachelor’s degree in History and Fine Arts from Ball State University and his Master's degree in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Born in 1959, Mr. Feltman is married.

Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Tayé-Brook Zerihoun

Tayé-Brook Zerihoun of Ethiopia was appointed Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs on 28 April 2010 by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Mr. Zerihoun replaced Mr. Haile Menkerios, who now serves as Special Representative to the African Union and Head of the United Nations Office to the African Union (UNOAU).

Mr. Zerihoun brings to this position a wealth of experience and administrative skills from his various assignments with the United Nations since March 1981. He has worked on special political questions in New York, in different capacities and areas like decolonization, trusteeship, conflict prevention and resolution, peacemaking, peacebuilding and peacekeeping. Between 1995 and 2003, he served initially as Deputy and then Director of the Africa I Division in the Department of Political Affairs, with responsibility for the countries of the Horn of Africa, Great Lakes and Southern Africa regions, as well as regional organizations including the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

From 2008 to 2010, Mr. Zerihoun served as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Cyprus and Head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP). He was the Acting Special Representative of the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS) from 2006 to 2007, where he also served as the Secretary-General’s Principal Deputy Representative since August 2004 and Chief United Nations Mediator for the Darfur Peace Talks in support of the efforts of Special Envoy Jan Eliasson.

Mr. Zerihoun completed both his undergraduate and graduate studies in New York, and holds a master of philosophy degree in comparative politics from Columbia University.

Mr. Zerihoun was born on 13 December 1942. He is married and has four children.

Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Miroslav Jenča

Miroslav Jenča of Slovakia assumed Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs on 1 May 2015, having been appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Mr. Jenča succeeds Jens Toyberg-Frandzen of Denmark who was appointed Assistant Secretary-General ad interim for Political Affairs in November2014.

As Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Mr. Jenča will be responsible, inter alia, for overseeing the divisions in the Department of Political Affairs dealing with the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East and West Asia, as well as the Decolonization Unit and the Division for Palestinian Rights.

Mr. Jenča has served as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, since 2008. He was previously Director of the Office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Slovakia, as well as Ambassador and Head of Mission to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Centre in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He served as Ambassador and Representative of Slovakia to the Political and Security Committee of the European Union and Ambassador of Slovakia to Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia, including positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia and diplomatic missions in Ireland and Mexico.

Mr. Jenča holds a Doctor of Law degree from Comenius University in Bratislava. He studied foreign trade at the University of Economics in Bratislava, diplomacy and international relations at Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and diplomacy at Stanford University.

Born in 1965, he is married and has two children.

Directors of HQ Divisions

Office of the Under-Secretary-General: Chief of Office: Kyoko Shiotani

Africa I Division (Egypt, the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes, Eastern and South Africa): Director: João Honwana

Africa II Division (West, Central and Northern Africa): Director: Abdel Fatau Musah

Americas Division: Director: Martha Doggett

Europe Division: Director: Levent Bilman

Asia and Pacific Division: Director: Subinay Nandy

Middle East and West Asia Division: Director: Antonella Caruso

Electoral Assistance Division: Director: Craig Jenness

Division for Palestinian Rights: Director: Elio Tamburi

Policy and Mediation Division: Officer in Charge: Teresa Whitfield

Security Council Affairs Division: Director a. i.: Hasmik Egian

Decolonization Unit: Chief: Josiane Ambiehl

Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF) Office: Director: Jehangir Khan

Senior Officials in the Field

Below is a list of Special and Personal Representatives, Envoys and Advisers of the Secretary-General that fall under the responsibility of the Department of Political Affairs. A full list of senior officials in the field visit can be accessed here.