BAN KI-MOON

Ban Ki-moon of the Republic of Korea, the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations, brings to his post 37 years of service both in government and on the global stage.

• read the Keynote Address

Career highlights

At the time of his election as Secretary-General, Mr. Ban was his country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. His long tenure with the ministry included postings in New Delhi, Washington D.C. and Vienna, and responsibility for a variety of portfolios, including Foreign Policy Advisor to the President, Chief National Security Advisor to the President, Deputy Minister for Policy Planning and Director-General of American Affairs. Throughout this service, his guiding vision was that of a peaceful Korean peninsula, playing an expanding role for peace and prosperity in the region and the wider world.

Mr. Ban has longstanding ties with the United Nations, dating back to 1975, when he worked for the Foreign Ministry’s United Nations division. That work expanded over the years, with assignments as First Secretary at the ROK’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, Director of the UN Division at the ministry’s headquarters in Seoul, and Ambassador to Vienna, during which time, in 1999, he served as Chairman of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization. In 2001-2002, as Chef-de-Cabinet during the ROK’s Presidency of the General Assembly, he facilitated the prompt adoption of the first resolution of the session, condemning the terrorist attacks of 11 September, and undertook a number of initiatives aimed at strengthening the Assembly’s functioning, thereby helping to turn a session that started out in crisis and confusion into one in which a number of important reforms were adopted.

Mr. Ban has also been actively involved in issues relating to inter-Korean relations. In 1992, as Special Advisor to the Foreign Minister, he served as Vice Chair of the South-North Joint Nuclear Control Commission following the adoption of the historic Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In September 2005, as Foreign Minister, he played a leading role in bringing about another landmark agreement aimed at promoting peace and stability on the Korean peninsula with the adoption at the Six Party Talks of the Joint Statement on resolving the North Korean nuclear issue.

Education

Mr. Ban received a bachelor's degree in international relations from Seoul National University in 1970. In1985, he earned a master's degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Prizes and awards

Lee Hee-Beom

is chairman and CEO of the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), Korea's largest and most influential trade organization. KITA's activities include supporting overseas marketing for Korean corporations, facilitating international trade cooperation, educating international trade specialists and advising the Korean government and international bodies on a wide range of trade-related matters.

Prior to taking the helm at KITA, Lee served as minister of Commerce, Energy and Industry in the cabinet of President Roh Moo-hyun. This appointment marked the apex of a 30-year career in Korea's international trade diplomacy establishment. Beginning in 1973 as a deputy director in the Ministry of Trade, Lee moved on to become the commercial attaché to the Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C. from 1988 to 1991, filling the same position at Korea's mission to the European Union in Brussels from 1994 to 1998. In these roles Lee took part in the Super 301 Negotiations, talks on renewing steel and textile arrangements with the U.S. and the Korea-EU Shipbuilding Negotiations. In 1998, Lee became standing commissioner of the Korean Trade Commission and special counsel to Kim Dae Jung's Presidential Transition Committee. After serving as chairman and CEO of Korea Productivity in 2002, Lee became the president of Seoul National University of Technology in early 2003.

Lee holds a bachelor's degree in electronics engineering and a master's in public administration from Seoul National University. He also holds an MBA (summa cum laude) from George Washington University and a Ph.D. in business management from Kyunghee University in Seoul. Lee received a Presidential Commendation in May 1984.


Bill Rhodes
Chairman, President and CEO
Citibank N.A.

Chairman, President and CEO
Citicorp Holdings Inc.

Senior Vice Chairman
Citigroup Inc.

Bill Rhodes is the senior international officer for Citigroup. He has specific responsibilities for client relationships worldwide, as well as for relationships with governments and other official institutions. He is a member of Citigroup's Operating and Management Committees.

Rhodes gained a reputation for international financial diplomacy in the 1980s because of his leadership in managing the developing world's external-debt crises. During that period, and into the 1990s, Rhodes headed the advisory committees of international banks that negotiated debt-restructuring agreements for Argentina, Brazil, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. In 1998, when the Republic of Korea experienced liquidity problems, he chaired the international bank group that negotiated the extension of short-term debt of the Korean banking system. In early 1999, at the request of the government of Brazil, he acted as worldwide coordinator to help implement the maintenance of trade and inter-bank lines by foreign commercial banks to Brazil.

In addition to sitting on many corporate boards, Rhodes is a governor and trustee of The New York-Presbyterian Hospital, a member of the Lincoln Center Consolidated Corporate Fund Leadership Committee and a vice chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Business Committee and Chairman's Committee. He is a member of the board of overseers of the Watson Institute for International Studies and chairman emeritus of the board of trustees of the Northfield Mount Hermon School.

He has received decorations and honors from various governments and institutions, including an honorary doctorate in humane letters from his alma mater, Brown University. He is a chevalier and officer of France's Legion of Honor and has received decorations from Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela and Jamaica, as well as multiple awards from not-for-profit organizations in recognition of his contributions to international banking and finance.

Rhodes joined Citibank in 1957 after graduating from Brown University.