Ambassador Thomas Stelzer of Austria elected as Chairperson of Preparatory Commission

H.E. Ambassador Thomas Stelzer, Permanent Representative of Austria to the CTBTO Preparatory Commission since 2001, is chairing the Commission for the second six months of 2003. Ambassador Stelzer, of the North America and Western Europe geographical region, was elected by the Commission during its Twentieth Session in June 2003. Ambassador Stelzer studied in the Faculty of Law of the University of Vienna, Austria. He also attended the School for Advanced International Studies in Johns Hopkins University, where he attained a Diploma in International Relations. He holds an M.A. in Latin American Studies from Stanford University. Ambassador Stelzer joined the Austrian Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1988. He served in the Division for European Integration, the Division for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Division for International Organizations. From 1990 to 1995, Ambassador Stelzer served as Minister Counselor in the Austrian Mission to the United Nations in New York. He was Vice-Chairman of the First Committee from 1994 to 1995, and a member of the United Nations Secretary-General?s Expert Group on Verification from 1994 to 1996. He worked as Deputy Director of the Austrian Cultural Institute in New York from 1995 to 1997. In 1997, Ambassador Stelzer joined the Provisional Technical Secretariat of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission as Special Assistant to the Executive Secretary. In 2001 he took up his current post as Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations in Vienna, the IAEA, UNIDO and the CTBTO Preparatory Commission. Ambassador Stelzer is President of Klangforum Wien, a leading ensemble for contemporary classical music, and a member of the Austrian Association for Foreign Policy and International Relations. He speaks German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. Vice-Chairpersons of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission for the same period are Algeria (Africa), Slovakia (Eastern Europe), Venezuela (Latin America and the Caribbean), Turkey (North America and Western Europe) and Thailand (South-East Asia, the Pacific and the Far East).

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