Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed investment professional Usha Rao-Monari as an Under Secretary General and the associate administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The announcement in February said that Rao-Monari has over 30 years of investment experience in infrastructure and is a senior adviser with investment company Blackstone’s Infrastructure Group.

The UNDP is the main UN organisation to promote the UN’s development agenda with international cooperation. With a budget of about $3 billion, it works in around 170 countries and territories on eradicating poverty and reducing inequalities. Rao-Monari, a Delhi University graduate with a master’s degree from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management, Mumbai, has been the CEO of Global Water Development Partners. She also was the director of the Sustainable Business Advisory Group at the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation. She also holds a master’s degree in International Affairs and Finance from Columbia University.

Rao-Monari joins several Indians working in the top echelons of the UN. They include Atul Khare, the Under Secretary General for operational support; and Assistant Secretary General Chandramouli Ramanathan, who is also the controller, Anita Bhatia, who is also the Deputy Executive Director of UN-Women, and Satya S. Tripathi, who is also the head of the New York office of the United Nations Environment Programme.

—By Arul Louis