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Ambassador Gerhard Pfanzelter, a prominent Austrian diplomat, has taken up his duties as Secretary General of the Central European Initiative in January 2010.

From 1999 to 2008 he was Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations.
In 2000 he served as Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, and in 2002 he became Vice-President of the 57th United Nations General Assembly. During the first half of 2006 he chaired the European Union in New York during Austria's Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Dr. Gerhard Pfanzelter has successfully led Austria's campaign for a non-permanent seat in the Security Council for the period 2009-2010.   Previously, from 1983 to 1989, Gerhard Pfanzelter had served as Austria's Ambassador to Senegal, Gambia, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Guinea and Mauritania. He then was appointed Ambassador to Syria for a four-year term, ending in 1993, when he became Head of the Department for International Organizations in the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs.   Ambassador Pfanzelter started his diplomatic career in Rome. He has a law degree obtained at the University of Innsbruck and an M.A. in International Relations from the School of Advanced International Studies in Washington D.C. Gerhard Pfanzelter is married and has three children.