Jamaican Michelle Gyles-McDonnough appointed to lead UN Development Coordination Office

UNITED NATIONS, New York. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Jamaican Michelle Gyles-McDonnough as Assistant Secretary-General for Development Coordination, heading the United Nations Development Coordination Office (UNDCO).

She succeeds Oscar Fernandez-Taranco of Argentina.

A UN statement said Gyles-McDonnough brings more than three decades of leadership experience in sustainable development, international trade and international relations, policy advocacy and organisational transformation.

The statement said she had led complex portfolios spanning economic, social, environmental and governance issues, and was "recognized for driving institutional change", including championing digital transformation and building partnerships with governments and UN entities.

Caribbean experience

Gyles-McDonnough has been Executive Director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) since 2025. Before that she was director of the Sustainable Development Unit in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General in New York from 2017 to 2025.

Her earlier UN roles include UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam from 2013 to 2016, and the same posts for Barbados and the OECS from 2008 to 2013.

She was also Programme Adviser in the UNDP Executive Office and Operations Support Group (2006 to 2008), UNDP Caribbean Regional Adviser (2005) and chief of the UNDP sub-regional policy advisory facility for the Caribbean (1999 to 2004). From 2004 to 2005 she coordinated the Grenada Recovery Programme, after hurricane damage estimated at more than 200 per cent of the country's GDP.

Earlier career

Before joining the UN, she practised international trade law and served as Legal Adviser at the Embassy of Jamaica in Washington DC. She was also an adviser on international trade matters to the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States, and a teaching assistant at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

She holds a Juris Doctor from Columbia University School of Law, with honours in international and foreign law, a Master's in Public Administration from the Kennedy School and an Executive Education Diploma from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Her undergraduate degree, in economics with a minor in French, is from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.