Guy Ryder appointed UN undersecretary-general for policy

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday announced the appointment of Guy Ryder of Britain as undersecretary-general for policy in the Executive Office at the UN Headquarters in New York.

Ryder, most recently director-general of the Geneva-based International Labour Organization (ILO), succeeds Volker Turk of Austria, who was newly appointed as UN high commissioner for human rights.

Ryder, born in Liverpool in 1956, served two successive terms as ILO director-general 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.

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.