Ms. Cecilia F. Wreh - McGill, CAO
Ms. Cecilia McGill has joined UNTSO in July 2007 as the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO). She joins the Mission with a wealth of experience in the field of Administration having served the United Nations for over thirteen years and eight years for the State Government of Maryland in the Department of Budget and Management, USA. Ms. McGill assumed her post in UNTSO after officiating as the Officer-in-Charge of the Administration Division in UNAMA, Afghanistan. Ms. McGill was the Chief, Administration, Finance and Logistics for UNOP’s, New York in 2005 prior to her assignment in Afghanistan as the Chief of Administrative Services in 2006. She has also served as Internal Auditor with UMCOR and, with joint assessment missions with USAID in Eastern Europe, New York, Washington D.C. She began her career with the United Nations in UNWFP, Rwanda as Finance & Administrative Officer in 1994 and moved to Ethiopia in 1997. She also worked in WFP, HQ in Rome as Head of Country Offices Returns Accounts (CORS) for over 75 field offices. Ms. McGill also has an in-depth knowledge of the Middle East having served as the Chief, Budget & Finance for ESCWA, Lebanon in 2003-2005 and Head of Finance Department for UNRWA, Gaza and Jordan respectively from 2000 to 2003.
Ms. McGill’s educational attainment includes Masters in Business Administration in Finance in 1988 from Morgan State University, Baltimore-USA, Bachelors of Science in Accounting in 1987 from Saint Augustine’s College, Raleigh-USA and Bachelors of Arts in Public Administration in 1985 from the University of Liberia, Monrovia. Her professional activities include being a member of American Management Association, National Association of Business Administrators, Certified Management Accountants and Institute of Management Accountants in USA. She has attended training in Results Based Budgeting and Programme Performance Assessment in Results Based Management conducted by OPPBA and OIOS respectively in UNHQ; re-engineering Finance and Budgeting Performance in the 21st Century and processing systems in Financial Management and Best Practices in San Francisco, USA.
Ms. McGill has two children, Jangar Davida McGill who is currently the Director at Johns Hopkins Hospital with the Global Services Group, Medicine International, Maryland; and David F. McGill, a Business Analyst at the American Energy Services, Arlington Virginia. She also has two adopted children, Thomas and Lisa who will be joining her in her current assignment in UNTSO, Jerusalem.
Ahmed
Amin Dabo, Senior Legal Advisor
Mr.
Ahmed Amine Dabo, the Senior Legal Adviser from Senegal joined UNTSO in November
2003. Mr. Dabo has done a Masters in Law, specializing in judicial studies
and holds a degree as a Judge. He has served as the Legal Advisor in numerous
missions including UNTMIH, UNMIBH, UNMIK and UNIKOM before his assignment
to UNTSO. Prior to joining the UN, Mr. Dabo had spent 16 years in Senegal
serving as Judge at the civil and criminal chambers of the Supreme Court,
Labor Department of the Court of Appeal, and the Financial Chamber of the
Supreme Court. He has also held political and administrative positions
of Chef de Cabinet in the Ministry of Interior and Office of the Speaker
of the National Assembly.
Francesco
Manca, Senior Advisor
Francesco
Manca joined UNTSO as the Senior Advisor with a responsibility for the Middle
East in November 2003. Prior to his assignment in UNTSO, he served as the
Chief of the electoral component in the UN mission of Sierra Leone. He has
also been in charge of the Situation Centre in 2000 – 2001 in the Department of
Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), at the UN Headquarters in New York. In a span
of almost two decades within the UN, he has been assigned to various projects
at both; Headquarters and in the field in areas such as economic development,
electoral assistance, human rights, peacemaking and peacekeeping. He
has participated in several UN missions with political assignments and managerial
responsibilities in Central America, the Balkans, Tajikistan and East Timor.
Furthermore, he has delivered several lectures and speeches on related topics
to several academic and professional forums in Europe, North and Latin America
and Africa.
Colonel D. (Darwin) J.Gould CD, Deputy Chief of Staff
Colonel D.J. Gould joined the Canadian Forces in 1982 with Batchelor’s of Science in Civil Engineering that he obtained in 1977 at Concordia University, Montreal. Promoted to Captain in 1985 he was employed in various positions within the Base Construction Engineering Squadrons of Montreal, and Lahr, Germany. While in Germany Capt Gould deployed to the Persian Gulf War in support of the Canadian Forces contribution of a CF-18 Tactical Fighter Squadron. He was stationed at Doha, Qatar as the Canadian Contingent Engineering Officer.
Promoted to the rank of Major in 1992, he was assigned command of a newly formed deployable 4 Airfield Engineering Squadron (4 AES) at Canadian Forces Base Cold Lake in Alberta. As 4 AES’ first Commanding Officer, he was deployed to Miami, FL, providing construction support post Hurricane Andrew in 1992, to Port-au-Prince, Haiti in support of UNMIH nation-building operations in 1993, and to Croatia in support of UNPROFOR.
From 1994 to 1997 Major Gould was posted as the Base Construction Engineer at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Bagotville (Fighter Base). After a 2-year tour at National Defence Headquarters (NDHQ) in Ottawa, he was selected to attend the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College in Toronto in 1999. Promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 2001, he returned to NDHQ as a staff officer with the Director Military Engineering and in 2004 was selected to command the ground support function as the Wing Logistics and Engineering Officer at 8 Wing Trenton, Canada’s airhead for all military operations overseas. In 2006, he returned to Ottawa to join the newly created Strategic Joint Staff where government direction is transformed into military order.
Major
General Ian Gordon, Head
of Mission and COS
Major General Ian Gordon has joined UNTSO in December 2006. He was the Deputy Chief of the Army in Australia prior to his assignment in UNTSO. MajGen. Gordon graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon in 1973, completed the Army Command and Staff College course at Queenscliff in 1985 and in 1996 attended the Australian College of Defence and Strategic Studies. He has held several key appointments from being the Director of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals from 1993 to 1995, Commandant of the Army Command and Staff College in 1998, Director General Personnel – Army in 2001 and Commander, Training Command – Army in 2002.
He was made a Member of the Order of Australia after he commanded the 1st Signals Regiment in Brisbane and the first Australian Contingent with the UN Mission for a referendum in Western Sahara, MINURSO in 1991. He has also served the UN as Deputy Force Commander, United Nations Transitional Authority in East Timor (UNTAET) in 2001-2. He was elevated to Officer of the Order of Australia on the 26th January 2006 for his distinguished service to the Australian Defence Force in senior command and staff appointments.
