United Nations

The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict. At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; there are now 193. The headquarters of the United Nations is in Manhattan, New York City, and experiences extraterritoriality. Further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states. Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security, promoting human rights, fostering social and economic development, protecting the environment, and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine, natural disaster, and armed conflict.

During the Second World War, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated talks on a successor agency to the League of Nations, and the United Nations Charter was drafted at a conference in April–June 1945; this charter took effect 24 October 1945, and the UN began operation. The UN's mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in major actions in Korea and the Congo, as well as approving the creation of the state of Israel in 1947. The organization's membership grew significantly following widespread decolonization in the 1960s, and by the 1970s its budget for economic and social development programmes far outstripped its spending on peacekeeping. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military and peacekeeping missions across the world with varying degrees of success.

Secretary (title)

Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. The term is derived from the Latin word secernere, "to distinguish" or "to set apart", the passive participle (secretum) meaning "having been set apart", with the eventual connotation of something private or confidential, as with the English word secret. A secretarius was a person, therefore, overseeing business confidentially, usually for a powerful individual (a king, pope, etc.).

The official title of the leader of most Communist and Socialist political parties is the "General Secretary of the Central Committee" or "First Secretary of the Central Committee". When a Communist party is in power, the General Secretary is usually the country's de facto leader (though sometimes this leader also holds state-level positions to monopolize power, such as a presidency or premiership in order to constitute de jure leadership of the state), such as China and Cuba.

Executive director

An executive director is a chief executive officer (CEO) or managing director of an organization, company, or corporation. The title is widely used in North American non-profit organizations, though many United States nonprofits have adopted the title president or CEO.

Confusion can arise because the words executive and director occur both in this title and in titles of various members of some organizations' boards of directors. The precise meanings of these terms are discussed in the board of directors article.

Role

The role of the executive director is to design, develop and implement strategic plans for the organization in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner. The executive director is also responsible for the day-to-day operation of the organization, which includes managing committees and staff as well as developing business plans in collaboration with the board. In essence, the board grants the executive director the authority to run the organization. The executive director is accountable to the chairman of the board of directors and reports to the board on a regular basis – quarterly, semiannually, or annually. The board may offer suggestions and ideas about how to improve the organization, but the executive director decides whether or not, and how, to implement these ideas.

United

United can refer to:

Businesses

Sports

English football

Other football

Cristina Gallach

Cristina Gallach (born 1960) is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information. Prior to this appointment of 4 December 2014 by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Ms. Gallach was with the Council of the European Union as Head of the Public Relations Unit.

Biographical Information

Cristina Gallach has a wealth of experience in the field of communications. She has held several high-level positions and has worked as a spokesperson for the Spanish Government, the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Prior to this she worked as a journalist for several news agencies including El Periodico, Avui and TVE Barcelona. Ms. Gallach is a graduate of Columbia University in New York where she obtained a Master's degree in International Affairs, and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona where she obtained an undergraduate degree in Journalism.

References

External links

gallach Cristina Gallach at People.com