Redefining Multilateralism

Elizabeth Cousens became the United Nations Foundation’s third President and Chief Executive Officer in 2020, leading the Foundation’s next generation of work to support the United Nations.

Elizabeth has been at the forefront of global policymaking and innovation for over 20 years. She is a diplomat and thought leader who has worked on the frontlines of peace processes, played an influential role in UN policy innovations from peacebuilding to the Sustainable Development Goals, and helped build public-private partnerships to solve global challenges at scale.

Before joining the Foundation, Elizabeth served for several years at the U.S. Mission to the UN in New York. She was Principal Policy Advisor and Counselor to the Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations and later served as the U.S. Ambassador to the UN Economic and Social Council and Alternate Representative to the UN General Assembly where she led U.S. negotiations on the SDGs; served on the boards of UN agencies, funds, and programmes; and was U.S. representative to the UN Peacebuilding Commission.

Elizabeth has lived around the world, serving with UN missions in Nepal and the Middle East, and working as an analyst in conflict zones, including Bosnia and Haiti. She was previously Director of Strategy for the HD Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue which promotes and conducts mediation of armed conflict; Vice President of the International Peace Institute, where she led initiatives on global crisis management and UN reform; and Director of the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum, a research group that provides country and regional expertise to the UN on conflict and crisis situations.

Prior to becoming President and CEO, Elizabeth served as Deputy CEO where she oversaw the Foundation’s policy, advocacy, and communications work.

Elizabeth has a D.Phil. in International Relations from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, as well as a B.A. in history and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Puget Sound. She has written widely on conflict management, peace processes, state-building, and the United Nations.

She and her husband have one child.

Internationally known as “Africa’s Iron Lady,” Nobel Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a leading promoter of freedom,  peace, justice, women’s empowerment and democratic rule. As Africa’s first democratically-elected female head  of state, she led Liberia through reconciliation and recovery following the nation’s decade-long civil war, as well as  the Ebola Crisis, winning international acclaim for achieving economic, social, and political change. Recognized as  a global leader for women’s empowerment, President Sirleaf was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize for Peace in  2011. She is the recipient of The Presidential Medal of Freedom — the United States’ highest civilian award — for her  personal courage and unwavering commitment to expanding freedom and improving the lives of Africans. Her  many honors also include the Grand Croix of the Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest public distinction, and being  named one of Forbes’s “100 Most Powerful Women in the World.” 

In 2017, former President Sirleaf was the first female recipient of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African  Leadership, which celebrates excellence in African leadership. The Ibrahim Prize recognizes African leaders who,  during their time in office, have developed their countries, strengthened democracy and human rights for the  shared benefit of their people, and advanced sustainable development. 

President Sirleaf was elected President of the Republic of Liberia in 2005, two years after the nation’s bloody civil  war ended. Her historic inauguration as Africa’s first democratically elected head of state took place on January 16, 2006. Prior to the election, she had served in the transitional government, where she chaired the Governance  Reform Commission and led the country’s anti-corruption reform. She won reelection in November 2011. 

During her two terms as president, Johnson Sirleaf focused on rebuilding the country, attracting over $16 billion in  foreign direct investment. She also attracted more than $5million in private resources to rebuild schools, clinics  and markets, and fund scholarships for capacity building. She successfully negotiated $4.6 billion in external debt  forgiveness and the lifting of UN trade sanctions, which allowed Liberia to once again access international markets.  She increased the national budget from $80 million in 2006 to over $672 million in 2012, with an annual GDP growth  rate of more than 7%.

Over a twelve-month term, beginning in June 2016, President Sirleaf served as the first female Chairperson of the  Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). In May 2012, she was appointed co-chair of the United  Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. The panel  is tasked with crafting a roadmap for global recovery and sustainable development. Subsequently, in 2022, the  Secretary-General asked her to Co-Chair the High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism. The report was  completed and handed to the Secretary-General in April 2023. 

Prior to her first campaign for the presidency, Johnson Sirleaf served as assistant administrator of the United Nations  Development Programme and as director of its Regional Bureau of Africa, with the rank of assistant secretary-general  of the United Nations, a post she resigned from to contest the 1997 presidential elections. After coming in second, she  went into self-imposed exile in neighboring Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast). While in exile, she established a venture capital  vehicle for African entrepreneurs and founded Measuagoon, a Liberian community development NGO. 

President Sirleaf has been awarded honorary doctorates by more than 15 institutions, including: Tilburg University  (Netherlands), the Nigerian Defence Academy, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Harvard University,  Rutgers University, Yale University, Georgetown University, the University of Abeokuta (Nigeria), the University of  Minnesota, Furman University of South Carolina, Brown University, Indiana University, Dartmouth College, Concordia  University, Langston University, Spelman College and Marquette University. 

In addition to her Nobel Prize, President Sirleaf is the recipient of numerous honors, including: the Indira Gandhi Prize  for Peace Disarmament and Development (2012), the African Gender Award (2011), Friend of the Media Award (2010),  FUECH Grand Cross Award (2009), FAO’s CERES Medal (2008), Golden Plate Award (2008), International Women’s  Leadership Award (2008), International Crisis Group Fred Cuny Award for the Prevention of Deadly Crisis (2008);  James and Eunice K. Matthews Bridge Building Award (2008), American Academy of Achievement Golden Plate  Award (2008), National Civil Rights Museum Annual Freedom Award (2007), National Democratic Institute Harriman  Award (2007), Bishop T. Walker Humanitarian Award (2007), Gold Medal of the President of the Italian Republic  (2006), Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger (2006), National Reconciliation Award (2006),  International Woman of the Year (2006), and International Republican Institute Freedom Award (2006). 

President Sirleaf has been ranked among the top 100 most powerful women in the world (Forbes, 2012), the most  powerful woman in Africa (Forbes Africa, 2011), one of six “Women of the Year” (Glamour, 2010), among the 10 best  leaders in the world (Newsweek, 2010) and top 10 female leaders (TIME, 2010). In 2010, The Economist called her “the  best President the country has ever had.” 

U.S. educated; she holds a master’s in public administration (MPA) from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of  Government. She also earned a degree in accounting at Madison Business College in Wisconsin and received a  diploma from the University of Colorado’s Economics Institute. 

President Sirleaf has written widely on financial, development and human rights issues, and in 2008 she published  her critically acclaimed memoir, This Child Will Be Great. She is the proud mother of four sons and grandmother of 12. 

In 2022, the UN Secretary-General appointed Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to co-lead the High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism.

Stefan Löfven was Prime Minister of Sweden from 2014-2021 and Leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) from 2012-2021. He led SAP to victory at both the 2014 and 2018 general elections in Sweden. He was elected President of the Party of European Socialists on 14 October 2022, at the PES Congress With Courage For Europe.

Known for his strong commitment to democracy, European values and human rights, as Prime Minister of Sweden Stefan Löfven was the driving force behind the proclamation and signing of the European Pillar of Social Rights at the Gothenburg Social Summit for fair jobs and growth in 2017. Thanks to his leadership, this remains a defining moment for a more social, fair and sustainable Europe.

Adopted as an infant, Stefan Löfven grew up in a working-class family in the small town of Sunnersta, Sollefteå, in northern Sweden. He joined SAP as a teenager and was active in the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League. He studied social work at university and worked as a welder for a manufacturer of railcars, before becoming a trade union representative, and ultimately the President of IF Metal (2006–2012), a Swedish trade union for industrial workers and metalworkers.

Stefan Löfven is also Chair of the Board of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) as well as Chair of the Board of the Olof Palme Memorial Fund. In February 2022 he was appointed by UN Secretary General António Guterres to co-lead for the UN High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism. In Fall 2022, he took up a position as a resident fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced on 7 October 2022 the appointment of Guy Ryder of the United Kingdom as Under-Secretary-General for Policy in his Executive Office.  He will succeed Volker Türk of Austria who has been appointed as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Mr. Ryder was most recently Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva after serving two successive terms since October 2012.  He first joined the ILO in 1998 as Director of the Bureau for Workers’ Activities and from 1999, served as Director of the Office of the Director-General.

Mr. Ryder started his professional career in 1981 as an assistant at the International Department of the Trades Union Congress in London.  From 1985, he held the position of Secretary of the Industry Trade Section of the International Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Professional and Technical Employees (FIET) in Geneva.  In 1988, he became Assistant Director and – from 1993 – Director of the Geneva office of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).  In 2002, he was appointed General Secretary of the ICFTU and was elected as the first General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) when it was created in 2006.  He returned to the ILO in 2010 as Executive Director, responsible for international labour standards and fundamental principles and rights at work.

Mr. Ryder studied Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge and Latin American Studies at the University of Liverpool.  He speaks English, French and Spanish.