User:Gr8humans

Ross Stewart Mountain (Born in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1944) is the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mountain was appointed by the Secretary General to serve in Congo on November 18, 2004. He also has the functions of Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in the Congo, Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the country's Humanitarian Coordinator as well as being the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General as one of the top three officials in the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in the DRC, MONUC, the largest UN mission in the world. He was responsible for managing the largest and most challenging presidential election operation ever undertaken by the United Nations in 2007 in Congo, which brought Joseph Kabila to power.

Prior to this assignment in Congo, Mr. Mountain replaced Sergio Vieira De Mello, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, at the time serving as a Special Representative of the Secretary General in Iraq. Mr. de Mello was killed in Baghdad by a terrorist attack on the UN Headquarters on August 19 2003. Ross Mountain was appointed by Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary General at the time, as Special Representative for the Secretary General ad interim on December 10, 2003. During this period, he also served as United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Iraq.

From August 1998 to December 2003, Mr. Mountain served as Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator and Director of the Geneva Office of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). In this capacity, he served as Chair of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Working Group and served as the Secretary-General’s special representative on a number of humanitarian missions, including during the East Timor crisis (1999), the floods in Mozambique (2000) and the humanitarian crisis in Liberia (2003)http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-11-34-UN.cfm?moddate=2003-09-11.

In October 2002, Ross Mountain led an inter-agency technical assessment mission to the West Bank and Gaza to prepare a humanitarian plan of action. In 2003, Mr. Mountain headed the OCHA Crisis Task Team for Iraq, in which capacity he visited that country in July 2003 to review the humanitarian programme.

Prior to his appointment to OCHA, Ross Mountain served as United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Lebanon from 1995 to 1998. In 1996, he coordinated the United Nations response to the "Grapes of Wrath" Israeli military intervention and the ensuing humanitarian situation that ensued. His other United Nations assignments included United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator in Haiti (1994-1995), United Nations Resident Coordinator for the Eastern Caribbean (1993-1994), United Nations Special Coordinator for Emergency Relief Operations in Liberia (1991-1993), UNDP Resident Representative a.i. in Afghanistan (1988-1991), and UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in the South Pacific (1985-1988). He earlier worked in Geneva as Chief of the Information Section in the UNDP. His first United Nations assignment was in 1973 as Inter-Agency Liaison Officer in the Division of Social Affairs in Geneva. He founded the United Nations' Non Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) in Geneva in 1975.

Ross Mountain graduated from the Victoria University in Wellington with a Bachelors in Economics. He was awarded the University's Distinguished Alumni award in October 2007.

Mr. Mountain was President of the New Zealand Union of Students' Associations (NZUSA) in 1966 and 1967.

Ross Mountain is married to Brigitte Khair. Together they have three daughters, Sasha, Andrea and Monya. Gr8humans (talk) 15:17, 7 July 2009 (UTC)