Friends of the Commission
Helen Clark
Friend of the Commission
Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme,
United Nations
Ms Clark became the Administrator of the UNDP on 17 April 2009, and is the first woman to lead the organization. She is also the Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee consisting of the heads of all UN funds, programmes and departments working on development issues. Prior to her appointment with UNDP, she served for three successive terms as Prime Minister of New Zealand, from 1999-2008. Throughout her tenure as Prime minister, Ms Clark and her government prioritized reconciliation and the settlement of historical grievances with New Zealand’s indigenous people and the development of an inclusive multicultural and multi-faith society. As Prime Minister, she was a member of the Council of Women World Leaders. Prior to her tenure as Prime Minister, Ms Clark developed an extensive parliamentary and ministerial career, including her appointments as Minister of Conservation and Housing, and of Health and Labour.
B. Lynn Pascoe
Friend of the Commission
Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs,
United Nations
Mr Pascoe assumed the post of Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs on 1 March 2007. Before joining the United Nations, he was most recently the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Indonesia, from October 2004 to February 2007. He previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs as the State Department in Washington, D.C., following postings as U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia and U.S. Special Negotiator for Regional Conflicts in the former Soviet Union. In 1996, he was Director of the American Institute in Taiwan. He also served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the East Asian and Pacific Bureau of the State Department, Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Department of State, and Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State. In an almost forty-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, Mr Pascoe also held positions on the Soviet and China desks and has been posted to Moscow, Hong Kong and Bangkok, as well as to Beijing twice and to Kuala Lumpur.
