United Nations Secretary-General's Special Representative for business & human rights Leadership Group Biographies Kofi Annan of Ghana, the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, served from 1997 to 2006 and was the first to emerge from the ranks of United Nations staff. One of Mr. Annan's main priorities as Secretary-General was a comprehensive programme of reform aimed at revitalizing the United Nations and making the international system more effective. He was a constant advocate for human rights, the rule of law, the Millennium Development Goals and Africa, and sought to bring the Organization closer to the global public by forging ties with civil society, the private sector and other partners. At Mr. Annan's initiative, UN peacekeeping was strengthened in ways that enabled the United Nations to cope with a rapid rise in the number of operations and personnel. It was also at Mr. Annan's urging that, in 2005, Member States established two new intergovernmental bodies: the Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights Council. Mr. Annan likewise played a central role in the creation of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the adoption of the UN's first-ever counter-terrorism strategy, and the acceptance by Member States of the “responsibility to protect” people from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. His “Global Compact” initiative, launched in 1999, has become the world's largest effort to promote corporate social responsibility. Mr. Annan undertook wide-ranging diplomatic initiatives. In 1998, he helped to ease the transition to civilian rule in Nigeria. Also that year, he visited Iraq in an effort to resolve an impasse between that country and the Security Council over compliance with resolutions involving weapons inspections and other matters -- an effort that helped to avoid an outbreak of hostilities, which was imminent at that time. In 1999, he was deeply involved in the process by which Timor-Leste gained independence from Indonesia . He was responsible for certifying Israel 's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, and in 2006, his efforts contributed to securing a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hizbollah. Also in 2006, he mediated a settlement of the dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria over the Bakassi peninsula through implementation of the judgement of the International Court of Justice. His efforts to strengthen the Organization's management, coherence and accountability involved major investments in training and technology, the introduction of a new whistleblower policy and financial disclosure requirements, and steps aimed at improving coordination at the country level. Mr. Annan joined the UN system in 1962 as an administrative and budget officer with the World Health Organization in Geneva. He later served with the Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa , the UN Emergency Force (UNEF II) in Ismailia , the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva , and in various senior posts in New York dealing with human resources, budget, finance and staff security. Immediately before becoming Secretary-General, he was Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping. Mr. Annan also served as Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the former Yugoslavia (1995-1996), and facilitated the repatriation from Iraq of more than 900 international staff and other non-Iraqi nationals (1990). Mr. Annan studied at the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, and completed his undergraduate work in economics at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1961. In 1961-1962, he undertook graduate studies at the Institute of International Affairs in Geneva, and in 1972 earned a Master of Science degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. Mr. Annan was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize for Peace, jointly with the Organization. He has also received numerous honorary degrees and many other national and international prizes, medals and honours. Mr. Annan was born in Kumasi, Ghana, on 8 April 1938, and is fluent in English, French and several African languages. He and his wife, Nane, between them have three children. Souhayr Belhassen is President of the Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH). As a journalist and writer, Souhayr Belhassen has always wished to "give a voice to the voiceless", whether via her professional activities or in her commitment to human rights. A former political science student (in Tunis and then Paris) and a correspondent for Reuters and Jeune Afrique, in 1978 she was the first to highlight the existence of a strong Islamist component in Tunisian society, in the columns of the Jeune Afrique weekly. But her great achievement was her leadership of the campaign by the Ligue Tunisienne de Défense des Droits de l’Homme (LTDH) to save 18 young Tunisians from the gallows after they had been found guilty of taking part in the bread riots of 28 January 1984. With Sophie Bessis, she is co-author of Bourguiba, a benchmark biography of the former Tunisian premier. Sales of her work were banned in Tunisia while Bourguiba was in power. Her next book, Femmes du Maghreb (also co-written with Sophie Bessis), describes the challenge of women's issues in the countries of the region, including her own. In 1993, Souhayr Belhassen issued a petition in support of Algerian women, in which she denounced the Tunisian regime's culpable silence with regard to its neighbour's situation, and the alibi that the Tunisians' relatively privileged situation prevented them from taking action. Following this petition, and despite the fact that it had been signed by only around 100 people, she was expelled from Tunisia; her exile was to last five years. Back in Tunis, she founded the weekly cultural magazine 7sur7, which proved to have a short life. In 1998, after Souhayr Belhassen reported on a programme by the French public TV channel, France 2, that had displeased the Tunisian authorities, the latter took steps to block the external financing of 7sur7, which then went bankrupt. In the course of her work as an activist, Souhayr has on several occasions been attacked by plain-clothes police officers and, like many Tunisian human rights defenders, she has been subject to constant surveillance (phone-tapping, shadowing, interception of mail, etc). At the age of 65, this indefatigable defender of fundamental rights in her country has also committed herself on many other fronts internationally, starting with women's rights. In this arena, she co-ordinates the FIDH's women's rights action group. Souhayr Belhassen has taken an increasingly active role in the Ligue Tunisienne des Droits de l’Homme (LTDH), the oldest human rights organisation in the Arab world. The organisation has to cope with constant intimidation by the authorities (legal harassment, beatings, threats, etc). She became the organisation's vice president in November 2000, then joined the FIDH's international office at the Quito congress in 2004. She became president of the FIDH in April 2007, at the Lisbon congress. She then decided to centre her mandate around two major themes: women's rights and international migration. During her mandate, Souhayr Belhassen has carried out many missions to support human rights defenders (Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cambodia, etc). Belhassen resides in Tunis and Paris; speaks French and Arabic; and is Doctor Honoris Causa of the Université Catholique de Louvain (2008). John Browne was born in 1948, he joined BP in 1966 and in 1984 he became Group Treasurer and Chief Executive of BP Finance International. In 1989, he became Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of BP Exploration based in London. In September 1991, he joined the Board of The British Petroleum Company p.l.c. as a Managing Director. He was appointed Group Chief Executive on June 10, 1995. Following the merger of BP and Amoco, he became Group Chief Executive of the combined group from December 31, 1998 to 1 May 2007. He is Managing Director and Managing Partner (Europe) of Riverstone Holdings LLC. He is President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was appointed a Trustee of the Tate Gallery on 1 August 2007. He was Chairman of the Advisory Board of Apax Partners LLC from 2006 - 2007. He was a non-executive director of Goldman Sachs from 1999 to 2007, a non-executive director of Intel Corporation from 1997 – 2006, a Trustee of The British Museum from 1995-2005, a member of the Supervisory Board of DaimlerChrysler AG from 1998 – 2001 and a non-executive director of SmithKline Beecham from 1996-1999. He is a graduate of Cambridge University (M.A) and Stanford University (M.S Business). He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science and holds numerous fellowships and honorary degrees. He was awarded the Prince Philip Medal of the Royal Academy of Engineering (1999), the Gold Medal of the Institute of Management (2001) and the Ernest Arbuckle Award, Stanford University (2001) He was voted Most Admired CEO by Management Today from 1999 – 2002. He was knighted in 1998 and named a life peer, The Lord Browne of Madingley, in 2001. Maria Livanos Cattaui is a member of the Board of Directors of Petroplus Holdings AG, Switzerland. She was Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce from 1996 to 2005. She has championed the role of world business in the global economy. She has been instrumental in establishing a global partnership between business and the United Nations, leading to greater business input into UN economic activities. Mrs Cattaui worked with the World Economic Forum in Geneva from 1977 to 1996, where she became Managing Director, responsible for the celebrated Annual Meeting in Davos, building the public awareness it enjoys today.