IOM Press Briefing Note - 1 september 2009 (alleen in het engels beschikbaar)
SWITZERLAND - New IOM Deputy Director General Takes Office - IOM's new Deputy Director General Laura Thompson takes up office today.
Thompson was elected on 29 June 2009 by a two-thirds majority vote of the IOM Council, which brought together the Organization's Member States. She takes over from Ndioro Ndiaye who completed a two-term mandate at the end of August.
On her first day in her new role, Laura Thompson will meet with IOM Director General William Lacy Swing and the Organization's senior management team.
The new Deputy Director General brings to IOM a wealth of international experience, most recently as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva.
Over the course of her diplomatic career, she has represented Costa Rica to UNESCO, the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva.
In this capacity, Ambassador Thompson chaired several bodies on migration and refugee related matters, including the Executive Committee and the Council of the International Organization of Migration and the Executive Committee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Previously, she held various posts as Legal Counsel to diverse international organizations in Geneva, including the United Nations Compensation Commission.
Laura Thompson has also contributed as a fellow professor or a panellist in several seminars and roundtables on a wide variety of subjects ranging from migration, human rights, education, environment, to disarmament and compliance with international treaties, throughout the regions of the world.
She obtained a Masters degree in international relations, with a specialization in international law, from the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales of Geneva and holds a degree in law from the University of Costa Rica.
In addition to Spanish, her mother tongue, Thompson is fluent in English, French and Greek, and has basic knowledge of Italian and Portuguese.
For further information, please contact Jean Philippe Chauzy, IOM Geneva, Tel: + 41 22 717 9361/+41 79 285 4366, email: jpchauzy@iom.int or Jemini Pandya, Tel: + 41 22 717 9486/+ 41 79 217 3374, email: jpandya@iom.int
