Our Team in Yemen

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Major General (retired) Michael Beary of Ireland as Head of the United Nations Mission to Support the Hudaydah Agreement (UNMHA) and Chair of the Redeployment Coordination Committee on 23 December 2021.
Major General Beary brings a wealth of experience in military operations and United Nations peace operations gained over 40 years of overseas military deployments, including in Afghanistan, the Blakans, Croatia, Iraq, Somalia and Uganda. From 2016 to 2018, Major General Beary served as Head of Mission and Force Commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Prior to the appointment in Lebanon, he served as Commander of the European Union Training Mission (EUTM) in Somalia and General Officer commanding Second Brigade in the Irish Defence Forces with a wide variety of assignments, holding command and staff officer appointments, including at the unit, brigade and defence force headquarters levels. General Beary has lectured at universities in Ireland, authored publications on international peacekeeping, while also having led United Nations Boards of Inquiry in Africa.
Major General Beary holds a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Business Studies and a Master of Science in national security strategy. He is a graduate of the Command and Staff School of the Irish Defence Forces, University College Galway, the Smurfit Business School University College Dublin and the National War College at the National Defence University in Washington, D.C.

Born in Sri Lanka, Maya Ameratunga grew up in New Zealand and is a citizen of New Zealand. She has degrees in law and arts at Masters (first class honours) level.
Prior to joining UNHCR, Ms. Ameratunga was involved in refugee issues in New Zealand, first as a volunteer and NGO aid worker helping refugees and then as a lawyer in a private law firm representing asylum seekers applying for refugee status. She later served as a diplomat in the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then headed the New Zealand refugee programme in the Immigration Service.
Ms. Ameratunga joined UNHCR in 1996, serving initially in its Geneva headquarters in the Division of International Protection and the Division of Operational Support. She subsequently served in a number of postings in Central Asian states, Sierra Leone, New York, Kosovo, Afghanistan (two assignments), Sudan, Pakistan, Syria and Geneva, along with extensive emergency missions in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, East Timor, Liberia and South Sudan. Most recently, until February 2022, she served as UNHCR’s Ombudsman and Mediator in headquarters. Yemen is her third assignment as a Representative, after Afghanistan and Pakistan. During her 26 years of service with UNHCR, her main area of specialization has been in protection and solutions for refugees, internally displaced persons, and stateless populations.

Peter Hawkins assumed the position of UNICEF Representative to Yemen in November 2022. Before that, he was UNICEF’s Representative in Nigeria (May 2019 to Oct 2022) and Iraq (from Sept 2015 to April 2019) where he created a programme with a clear focus on delivering a prioritized set of results for women and children, responding to large complex emergencies, and developing a long-term evidence-based programmes.

Prior to working with UNICEF, Peter Hawkins worked with the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) as: Head of Profession for Programme Management (UK); Team Leader for Human Development in Ethiopia; and Group Head for Sub-national Governance, Conflict Reduction and Democracy, Accountability and Voice in Pakistan. Peter also worked as Deputy Head for Provincial Reconstruction Team (Helmand, Afghanistan) and Team Leader for Human Development in Nigeria.

From 1985 to 2004, Peter worked with Save the Children UK where he last held the position of Regional Director for East and Central Africa (London HQ). His other positions included Regional Director for South Asia (London HQ), Emergency Coordinator (London HQ), Country Director (Angola), Deputy Country Director (Sri Lanka), and Senior Programme Coordinator (Ethiopia).

Peter Hawkins is a British national, born in London on 4 December 1960. He holds an advanced degree in Law (LL.M.) from the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS); and a Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) in African Language (Amharic) and Law, from SOAS, University of London.

Richard Ragan joined Yemen as the Country Representative in February 2022. As a senior UN official, he’s served previously as WFP Representative in seven countries: Bangladesh, Libya, Liberia,Nepal, Tanzania, North Korea, and Zambia.
As Acting Assistant Secretary-General (ASG), he opened the Liberia Office and managed operations as part of the UN Secretary General’s Ebola Emergency Response Mission (UNMEER). Based in South Africa, he also served as WFP’s Deputy Regional Director covering the East and Southern Africa region and as the WFP Emergency Co-ordinator for the 2015 Nepal Earthquake Response. In addition to his public service career, he’s spent time in the private sector as a Senior Director with Vulcan, Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen's company.
He started his career in WFP as the Deputy Country Director in China and has also worked on complex emergencies in East Timor, Kosovo.
Mr. Ragan holds a Master’s degree in International Development/Administration from SIT, Brattleboro, VT, and a Bachelor’s degree in Business from Ole Miss, Oxford, MS.
Richard is married and has three children.

Mr. Salah Khaled is appointed as the Director of UNESCO Doha Office for Gulf States and Yemen, and UNESCO Representative to Bahrain, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, as of 1 May 2022. Mr Khaled’s career with the United Na􀆟ons began in 1993, with the Operational Unit for Development Assistance (OUDA), a UNDP and Ministry of Foreign Affairs programme in Egypt, and subsequently at the UNICEF Office in Cairo from 1995 to 2001.
He joined UNESCO in 2001 taking up several key positions in the Middle East, Asia, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa, including some post-conflict and post-disaster
countries. From 2001 to 2003, he was Chief of the Iraq Liaison and Procurement Unit based in Amman (Jordan) facilita􀆟ng the Organiza􀆟on’s opera􀆟ons in Iraq under the
Oil for Food Programme. From 2003 to 2011, as Liaison and Administrative Officer in the UNESCO Iraq Office (Amman) where he contributed to the establishment of the extrabudgetary funded porfolio for Iraq and also participated in several UN System-wide joint programming for the restructuring of the educa􀆟on system, protection of cultural heritage, peace building and conflicts resolution. In 2010, Mr Khaled provided backstopping in the Portau-Prince Office in the aftermath of the devastating Earthquake, coordinating the response of the Organization in relief programmes. In 2011, he served as Officer-in-Charge for the UNESCO Office in Islamabad (Pakistan),
and then from 2011 to 2012 he served first as Officer-in-Charge at the UNESCO Office in Juba and then in 2013 as Head of Office and UNESCO Representative to South Sudan.
Mr Khaled has also served in North Africa region from 2016 to 2018 as Regional Director a.i. of the UNESCO Office in Rabat and UNESCO representative to Morocco,
Mauritania, Algeria and Tunisia. Before joining the UNESCO Doha Office for the Gulf States and Yemen, Mr Khaled latest post was Director of the UNESCO Regional Office for Central Africa based in Yaoundé (Cameroon) and UNESCO Representative to Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and SaoTome and Principe.
A graduate of the American University in Cairo with a BA in Political Sciences and a MBA in Human Development from the Arab Academy in Alexandria, he speaks fluently
English, French, Spanish in addition to his maternal Arabic. Mr Khaled is married and has a son and a daughter.

Ms Cristina Albertin is the UNODC Regional Representative for the Middle East and North Africa. With a UN career spanning 28 years, Ms. Albertin joined UNODC in 1994, serving in Peru and Vienna before becoming UNODC Representative in Bolivia, South Asia, and Nigeria.

In 2014, Dina established the UNWomen presence in Yemen, leading UN Women’s engagement in Women Peace and Security and Humanitarian action. Dina holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration and International Management and a Bachelor's degree in Economics. She has served in several representation and senior positions with UNWomen as well as UNFPA and UNESCO.

Dr Arturo Pesigan, a national of the Philippines, assumed his role as World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in Yemen in April 2023. He has extensive managerial, technical and leadership experience based on many years in senior level roles at WHO. Dr Pesigan’s most recent post was as WHO Deputy Representative in the Indonesia Country Office where he served for 3 years.

Previously, Dr Pesigan was the Programme Area Manager of the Health Emergencies Programme of the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia in New Delhi. He was the Technical Officer at WHO Sri Lanka Office and Team Lead of the Urban Health Emergency Management Programme of WHO Kobe Centre for Health and Development. He has served at the 3 levels of the Organization – WHO headquarters, Regional Offices for South-East Asia and the Western Pacific, and country offices (Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste).

Dr Pesigan has extensive experience in health emergency management, community medicine, public health, international and global health and human resource development. He also served as Executive Director of the Community Medicine Development Foundation of the Philippines.

Dr Pesigan has held professional academic leadership roles as a Public Health Professor, Dean, and Vice Chancellor at the largest health sciences educational institution in his country — the University of the Philippines. Dr Pesigan holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Zoology, with honours, and a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the University of the Philippines. He completed community medicine and public health post-graduate training at the Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada. He also spent a year of his pre-med as a Rotary Fellow at The Johns Hopkins University. He is married and the father of 3 daughters.

Christian has more than 25 years of experience in program management, strategic leadership, and policy advice. His professional expertise and leadership path includes a broad range of development and management areas, including governance and decentralization, human rights, community driven development, social cohesion and peacebuilding, and civil society and media support. For the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), he was heading governance and local development programs in countries in transition in Asia and Eastern Europe and was also serving at the UN Volunteers headquarter in Germany. He holds a PhD in law and a postgraduate diploma in international relations. With his team in the Arab region, he is promoting and enabling volunteerism within the UN system to implement the 2030 agenda.

Ms. Enshrah Ahmed joined UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund in Yemen, as a representative in May 2023. Enshrah is British citizen who is originally from Sudan and brings with her more 20 years of experience in the development, humanitarian, human rights work, mostly at the UNFPA and UN system in the Arab region and beyond.
Prior to joining Yemen Country Office, Enshrah served as the representative of UNFPA Jordan during 2020-2023. Previously, Enshrah served as the Deputy Regional Director for UN Women (previously UNIFEM). In addition, she led various gender works as a Gender Unit Chief at the United Nation Mission in Sierra Leone, and the United Nation Mission to Lebanon. Furthermore, she held various posts in the UK including at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London.
Enshrah holds M.Sc. on Gender and Development from London School of Economics in UK. She has written both published and unpublished papers / reports on various gender issues including her recent paper: “Female Genital Mutilation and Population Movements in and outside the Arab Region”, in partnership with Coventry University in the UK and Ahfad University in Sudan.

Fayyaz brings a wealth of construction/engineering, development, and project management experience of more than 20 years in all facets and phases of the projects to his current role. In particular, he has valuable experience and knowhow in successfully implementing projects and programmes within post-conflict and emergency settings. He is a recipient of the UN Core Values award.

Mr Gadain joined FAO in 2006 as Water Coordinator for the Somalia Water and Land Information Management project (SWALIM) based in Nairobi, Kenya. From 2013 to 2016, he served as Chief Technical Advisor of the FAO SWALIM project in Nairobi. From 2016 to 2019, he was FAO Representative in Egypt.

Mr Kareem Ismail is the IMF resident representative for Iraq and Yemen. He previously worked in the IMF’s Strategy, Policy, and Review Department on emerging markets and low-income countries, and in the African department. During that time, he helped design and implement programs including in fragile states, and co-authored policy papers on IMF lending. He holds a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.

Matt began his community development career in 1985 working in rural Haiti. In 1994, he joined IOM managing large Transition and Recovery programs in Haiti, Kosovo and South Sudan. He has served as the IOM MENA Region Senior Emergency and Post Conflict Specialist for three years. Additionally, he has served as the Deputy Chief of Mission in Libya and Chief of Mission in Afghanistan before joining IOM Yemen in January 2022 where he serves as Chief of Mission a.i.

Renaud Detalle (France, 1965) has over 25 years of professional experience in the fields of human rights and development.
Renaud Detalle received the diploma and an advanced research degree from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences-Po) as well as a degree in history form the Sorbonne university, he was an exchange student at Freie Universitaet Berlin in 1988-1989.
From 1990 to 2002 he worked in Yemen where he taught at Sanaa University, before undertaking academic work at the Centre Français d'Archéologie et de Sciences Sociales (CEFASt) and as a consultant for various organizations (UN, World Bank, Save the Children, Oil companies).
Renaud Detalle works since 2002 for the United Nations and took assignments in conflict zones such as Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan and Libya as well as tours in Geneva. Renaud Detalle also served at the UN Human Rights Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa, in Beirut, from 2009 to 2015.
From February to December 2020 Renaud Detalle was Deputy Chief of the Human Rights Office of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq and took his position of Representative in Yemen of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in January 2021

Tania Meyer is the World Bank Country Manager for Yemen. Prior to this assignment, she served as Resident Representative for Jordan where she established the World Bank Jordan Country Office.

Tania Meyer joined the World Bank in 2008 and has served since then in different capacities in the Middle East and North Africa region, in the Fragility, Conflict and Violence group as Team Leader for the Korea Trust Fund for Peacebuilding and in the Office of the Special Representative of the World Bank to the UN where she covered UN-WB collaboration on post-conflict countries.

Tania Meyer also worked with international and local NGOs in Asia and Africa, including in Vietnam on school dropouts and street children, in China on rural education and in Uganda on HIV/AID programming.

A national of France, Tania Meyer holds a Masters in International Affairs and Economic Development from Columbia University and a Masters in Finance and International Business from Sciences-Po Paris. She is married and has a daughter.

Ms. Tine Staermose is the ILO’s Special Representative for Yemen. She has more than 27 years of international development experience; vast field experience running complex office operations including in many conflict and/or disaster-affected countries. She has worked in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India and Geneva.

Mr Wael Al-Ashhab, a Jordanian National, has a degree in Civil Engineering with more than 30 years of experience, including in programme management, policy development, urban planning, design and implementation of infrastructure projects. He started his career with UNICEF in 1999 and joined UN-Habitat in 2007.

Ms. Zena Ali Ahmad (Lebanon) has been appointed as UNDP Resident Representative for Yemen. Prior to this appointment, Zena was UNDP Resident Representative for Iraq (2019-2022) and the Regional Director for the Regional Office for Arab States in UN-Habitat at Egypt since 2017. She also served as UNDP Deputy Regional Hub Manager for Arab States (2016-2017), UNDP Country Director in Jordan (2012-2017), UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Syria (2008-2012), UNDP Policy Advisor in Arab States (2005-2007), and UNDP Assistant Resident Representative in Lebanon (1996-2004). Zena holds a Post Graduate/ Master’s degree in the Management of Social Change from the University of London in the UK. She also holds a Master’s degree in Rural Development and a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture from the American University of Beirut.
She speaks English, French and Arabic.