Senior official from India resigns from UN post

UNITED NATIONS: A senior official from India has resigned from his position of Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the investment of the assets of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund.

Sudhir Rajkumar had been appointed to the role by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in October 2017.

No reason was given for the resignation in the statement.

He resigned from his role as the Representative of the Secretary-General for the investment of the assets of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund, effective at the close of business on March 31, a statement issued by Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Guterres has accepted Rajkumar's resignation and thanked him for his service in managing the assets of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund.

The Fund was established in 1948, by a resolution of the General Assembly, to provide retirement, death, disability and related benefits for staff upon cessation of their services with the United Nations.

The Director of the Finance Division in the Office of Programme Planning, Finance and Budget of the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, Pedro Guazo, will be appointed as the Acting Representative of the Secretary-General while the Secretary-General launches a recruitment process to find a successor to Rajkumar.

Before his UN appointment, Rajkumar had been head of the global pension advisory programme at the World Bank Treasury, a role in which he has provided advisory services to the National Pension Fund of the Republic of Korea,

Ministry of Finance of Brunei Darussalam, South Africa's Government Employees Pension Fund, KWAP - Malaysia's second largest pension fund and the Nazarbayev University Endowment in Kazakhstan – in addition to other public investment institutions globally, according to information on the UN website.

He began his career at the World Bank in Eastern Africa Operations as a Young Professional in 1988 and has worked in various regions and capacities with the World Bank and International Finance Corporation, including as Principal Investment Officer.

He holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago, a Master of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Delhi.