United Nations Secretary-General

The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six main parts of the United Nations.

Secretary-General of the United Nations Other official names أمين عام الأمم المتحدة  (Arabic) 联合国秘书长  (Chinese) Secrétaire Général des Nations Unies  (French) Secretario General de las Naciones Unidas  (Spanish) Генеральный секретарь ООН  (Russian)
Emblem of the United Nations
Flag of the United Nations
Incumbent António Guterres since 1 January 2017 (2017-01-01)
United Nations Secretariat
Style	His Excellency
Type	Chief administrative officer
Abbreviation	UNSECGEN
Member of	Secretariat General Assembly
Residence	Sutton Place, New York City
Seat	United Nations Headquarters, New York City (international territory)
Nominator	Security Council
Appointer	General Assembly
Term length	Five years, renewable (traditionally limited to two terms)
Constituting instrument	United Nations Charter
Precursor	Secretary-General of the League of Nations
Formation	24 October 1945
First holder	Gladwyn Jebb as acting Secretary-General Trygve Lie as first Secretary-General
Deputy	Deputy Secretary-General
Salary	$ 227,253 per annum (2024)
Website	un.org/sg

Background

The role of the secretary-general and of the secretariat is listed by Chapter XV (Articles 97 to 101) of the United Nations Charter. However, the office's qualifications, how they are picked and tenure are open to debate.^[1]

List of secretaries-general

No.	Portrait	Name (born–died)	Term of office			Country	UN Regional Group
			Took office	Left office	Time in office
Acting		Gladwyn Jebb (1900–1996)[2]	24 October 1945	2 February 1946	101 days	United Kingdom	Western European and Others
1		Trygve Lie (1896–1968)[3]	2 February 1946	10 November 1952	6 years, 282 days	Norway	Western European and Others
2		Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961)[4]	10 April 1953	18 September 1961 †	8 years, 312 days	Sweden	Western European and Others
Acting		U Thant (1909–1974)[5]	3 November 1961	30 November 1962	1 year, 27 days	Burma	Asia-Pacific
3			30 November 1962	31 December 1971	9 years, 31 days
4		Kurt Waldheim (1918–2007)[6]	1 January 1972	31 December 1981	10 years	Austria	Western European and Others
5		Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (1920–2020)[7]	1 January 1982	31 December 1991	10 years	Peru	Latin American and Caribbean
6		Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1922–2016)[8]	1 January 1992	31 December 1996	5 years	Egypt	African
7		Kofi Annan (1938–2018)[9]	1 January 1997	31 December 2006	10 years	Ghana	African
8		Ban Ki-moon (b. 1944)[10]	1 January 2007	31 December 2016	10 years	South Korea	Asia-Pacific
9		António Guterres (b. 1949)[11]	1 January 2017	Incumbent	8 years, 356 days	Portugal	Western European and Others