Resident Representative

Mr. Lenni Montiel

Mr. Lenni Montiel (Venezuela) has been appointed as UNDP Resident Representative for Tajikistan as of 1 January 2022.

Prior to this appointment, Mr. Montiel served as UNDP Deputy Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean (2017-2021). Before that, he served at the UN Secretariat as Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development in UNDESA (2015-2017), where he also served as Sherpa of the Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to the G20. Mr. Montiel was Director for Economic, Social and Development Affairs at the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon (2012-2014). During that period, he was directly involved in the work on the Rio + 20, the Post-2015 Development Agenda, the Agenda 2030 as well as in the reform of the UN development system approved by the General Assembly in 2017. He was UN RC and UNDP RR in Turkmenistan (2009-2012). Mr. Montiel contributed to the UNDP Bureau of Policy Development as Senior Policy Adviser and the Team Leader of the Global Community of Practice on Local Governance, Urban Management and Decentralization (2006-2009) and as the Democratic Governance Group Director a.i. (2008). Accordingly, he provided technical support to UNDP Country Offices and Governments in all the regions and lead large teams of governance specialists in all five UNDP Regional Centres around the globe. Mr. Montiel was Chief Technical Advisor (2000-2005) in UNDP Projects supporting local governance and legislative bodies in Vietnam, as well as local governments, public sector reform and integrity in Ukraine.

Prior to joining UNDP, Mr. Montiel occupied various positions in the Venezuelan Government, serving as General Manager of the Social Investment Fund of Venezuela (1991-1992), Director of Social Policy at the National Planning Office of The President of Venezuela (1989-1990), Director of Planning at the Ministry of Family Affairs (1987-1989) and Training Programme Coordinator at the Venezuelan Planning Institute (1985-1987). He also worked as Counselor to the Executive Director for Venezuela and Panama at the Board of Executive Directors in the Inter-American Development Bank (1992-1993) in Washington DC, USA.

Mr. Montiel holds a PhD in Public Policy from the University of Birmingham, UK (1998); and a MA in Legislative Studies from the University of Hull, UK (2005). He got an MSc combined with his First degree in Economics at the USSR, in the Belorussian State Institute of National Economy (1985). He graduated with distinction.

He speaks Spanish, Russian and English.