United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Franz Baumann of Germany as Assistant Secretary-General, Department for General Assembly and Conference Management. Mr. Baumann will replace Yohannes Mengesha. The Secretary-General is grateful for the valuable services Mr. Mengesha rendered to the Department and the United Nations. Mr. Baumann brings to this position extensive experience in management within the United Nations and a deep understanding of the issues facing the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management. In his career with the Organization, he has been a strong advocate for reform, the introduction of new and improved management and technological solutions to achieve better the objectives of the Organization. As Executive Officer from 1996 to 2002, Mr. Baumann helped to shape some of the early reforms which have come into effect throughout the Department.
Mr. Baumann worked for the European Parliament in Luxemburg, the European Commission in Brussels and the electronics company Siemens in Munich before beginning his United Nations career in 1980 as a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)/United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) junior professional officer in Nigeria. In 1985, he joined the Secretariat and served at New York Headquarters in the Department of Management as Administrative Officer; in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations as Executive Officer; in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General as Senior Officer; and in the Department for General Assembly Affairs and Conference Management as Executive Officer.
In 1993, he was Chief Administrative Officer of the joint United Nations/Organization of American States Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Haiti (MICIVIH). In 2002, Mr. Baumann transferred to Vienna as Director for Management of the United Nations Office at Vienna (UNOV) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). In 2004, he was appointed Deputy Director-General of UNOV, and in November 2006 Acting Deputy Executive Director of UNODC. In 2007 he had the additional responsibility of heading the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA).
Mr. Baumann holds degrees in public administration from the University of Konstanz and a Ph.D. in political science from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
Born in Schramberg, Germany, in 1953, he is married and has a daughter.
F.U.N was born when a friend asked how he can help the United Nations? "What does the UN need most" he asked? Friends are what the UN needs most, was our answer, and it just happens to spell F.U.N. 
