Mr. Ricupero was appointed as UNCTAD's fifth Secretary-General in September 1995. Previously, in the course of a long Brazilian government career, he was Deputy Head of the Presidential Staff in 1985, before being promoted to Special Adviser to the President in 1986. In 1993, he was made Minister of Environment and Amazonian affairs by President Itamar Franco, before becoming Minister of Finance in 1994, where he supervised the launching of the current Brazilian economic stabilisation programme.
His diplomatic posts included Director of the Department of North, Central and South America, Ministry of Foreign Relations (1981-1985); Ambassador, Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva (1987-1991); Ambassador to the United States of America (1991-1993); Ambassador of Brazil to Italy (1995). His positions in GATT from 1989-91 included: Chairman and Spokesman of the GATT Informal Group of Developing Countries, Chairman of the GATT Committee on Trade and Development, Chairman of the GATT Council of Representatives and Chairman of the GATT Contracting Parties.
Other international positions included: Head of the Brazilian delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Geneva, Head of the Brazilian delegation to the Conference on Disarmament; Chairman of the Finances Committee at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 1992; and Governor for Brazil at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank.
Mr. Ricupero was Professor of Theory of International Relations, University of Brasilia from 1979 to 1995; and Professor of History of Brazilian Diplomatic Relations, at the Rio Branco Institute from 1980 to 1995. He is also the author of several books and essays on international relations, problems of economic development, and international trade and diplomatic history.
Rubens Ricupero was born in 1937 in São Paulo, Brazil. He received a Bachelor in Law from the University of São Paulo in 1959. He is married to Marisa Parolari. They have four children. Mr. Ricupero speaks Portuguese, English, French, Spanish and Italian, and reads German.