Kofi Annan (born 8 April 1938 in Kumasi, Ghana) served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006, and the first to be elected from within the UN staff. In 2001 he and the United Nations were co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for Annan's founding of the Global AIDS and Health Fund, which has since recieved around $1.5 billion in donations. He also served as the UN-Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria from 23 February until 31 August 2012, a post created to help resolve the ongoing conflict there, but resigned in frustration at the UN's lack of progress to find an effective solution.

Mr. Annan joined the U.N. in 1962 where he worked for the World Health Organisation in Geneva. He then progressed to a number of senior positions at the U.N. headquarters in New York, before becoming Under-Secretary General of Peacekeeping from 1992 until 1996.