NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF NEW ZEALAND PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNOG

Don MacKay, the new Permanent Representative of New Zealand to the United Nations Office at Geneva, today presented his credentials to Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Prior to his appointment to Geneva, Mr. MacKay had been serving as Permanent Representative of New Zealand to United Nations Headquarters in New York from 2001 to 2005. He also served at New Zealand’s Mission in New York from 1977 to 1981.

Mr. MacKay was the Deputy Secretary at the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade from 1997 to 2001. He entered the Ministry in 1975 and has since occupied a number of senior positions within it, including Director of its Legal Division (1995-1996); Ambassador to Fiji and High Commissioner to Nauru and Tuvalu (1991-1995); Director of the Ministry’s Disarmament and International Security Division; and Head of its Special Arbitration Unit.

Before he joined the Ministry, Mr. MacKay was a Solicitor and Law Clerk to the Judges of the Court of Appeal and High Court in Wellington.

Mr. MacKay graduated from the Victoria University of Wellington with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1970. He completed his law professional qualifications and was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court in 1971.

Born in Waipukurau, New Zealand on 29 October 1948, Mr. MacKay is married with two children.


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