Mr. Mekki Abbas was born in Sudan. He was the first Under- Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) from 1959 to 1961. 

Prior to that, he was Managing Director of the Gezira Scheme, a million-acre development project operated on behalf of the government of the Sudan, from 1955 to 1958. In earlier years he had been active in his country’s constitutional development and in the educational field.

Mr. Robert Gardiner is a national of Ghana. He was the Under- Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) from 1961 to 1975. 

Mr. Robert Gardiner began his career at the Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he taught economics from 1943 to 1946. After lecturing, he joined the United-Nations Secretariat in 1946 and served for two and a half years as area specialist on research and analysis of information from trust territories, at the UN Trusteeship Department in New-York.

Professor Adebayo Adedeji is from Nigeria. He was the Under- Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) from 1975 to 1991.  As an African leader and an unrepentant believer in African integration and development who has had a singularly distinguished academic, political and diplomatic career in service to Africa.

Mr. Issa Ben Yacine Diallo is a national of Guinea-Conakry. He was the Under- Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) from 1991 to 1992. 

Mr. Issa Diallo is a political economist and a career diplomat. Before joining the ECA, Mr. Diallo was the Special Assistant to the Secretary-General, Perez de Cuellar, since 1986. He had joined the Executive Office of the Secretary General in 1982, as Principal Officer, and served as Director in the same office from 1985 to 1986.

Mr. Layashi Yaker is from Algeria. He was the Under- Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) from 1992 to 1995. 

Mr. Kingsley Y. Amoako is a national of Ghana. He was the Under- Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) from 1995 to 2005.

Dr. Amoako began his career in 1974 at the World Bank, becoming the Bank’s Director for Education and Social Policy from 1992 to 1995 before joining ECA.

Mr. Abdoulie Janneh is from the Gambia. He was the Under- Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) from 2005 to 2012. 

Dr. Carlos Lopes was appointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as the eighth Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, at the level of UN Under Secretary-General, in September 2012. Dr. Lopes previously served as Executive Director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in Geneva and Director of the UN System Staff College in Turin at the level of Assistant Secretary-General from March 2007 to August 2012.

Dr. Vera Songwe is from Cameroon. She was appointed by Secretary-General António Guterres as the ninth Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) at the level of UN Under-Secretary-General on 17 April 2017. Upon her appointment, she became the first woman to have served in this role.