Thursday, March 28, 2024

248 Supachai Panitchpakdi
Secretary General - United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

Supachai Panitchpakdi is the Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Prior to this, he was the Director-General of the World Trade Organization from September 1, 2002 to September 1, 2005.

In 1986 Supachai Panitchpakdi was appointed as Thailand's Deputy Minister of Finance, but when the parliament was dissolved in 1988 he left politics and became president of the Thai Military Bank. In 1992 he returned to politics and became Deputy Prime Minister until 1995, responsible for trade and economics. During the Asian financial crisis in November 1997 he returned to be Deputy Prime Minister and also became Minister of Commerce.

In March 2005 he was appointed to become the Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) following his term at the WTO, a post he took up in late 2005. Keen to reform and revitalise the organisation, he has established a Panel of Eminent Persons to oversee the start of reform of UNCTAD.