American Business Group, ABG

Speaker for May Lunch

Francesco Bastagli

Deputy Special Representative, Civil Administration (UNMIK)

Before joining UNMIK in August 2002, Francesco Bastagli was United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Iran for three years.

Mr. Bastagli started his international career in 1974 at UN Headquarters. He worked first in administration where he became Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary-General for Personnel Services. At the fall of the Somoza Government in 1979 he was selected to open the UNHCR office in Nicaragua and manage a program for about 800,000 refugees and displaced persons.

In the early eighties, Mr. Bastagli moved to the Secretariat of the Conference International Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy. He later joined the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. As Chief of the Executive Office, Mr. Bastagli was instrumental to the adjustment of UNRWA operations to emergencies affecting Palestinians such as the aftermath of the Camps War in Lebanon and the Intifada in the Israeli-occupied Territories.

In 1991, Mr. Bastagli transferred to the United Nations International Drug Control Program where he was responsible for tasks ranging from technical cooperation and research to external relations. He launched and supervised the UN programme against money laundering and the 1997 publication of the first World Drug Report. In the later part of his assignment, Mr. Bastagli was also in charge of the Center for International Crime Prevention.

Mr. Bastagli holds a degree in Law from the State University of Milan. He also studied at the University of Georgia, USA. He is married and has two children.

Source: United Nations