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Senior Management Team

Chris Kirkcaldy

Director, Division of Administrative Services

Chris Kirkcaldy is the Director, Division of Administrative Services (DAS) at the United Nations Office at Nairobi, the UN Headquarters in Africa.  
Reporting directly to the Director-General of UNON, Mr. Kirkcaldy oversees the Division of Administrative Services (DAS) which is responsible for the provision of human, financial, physical and IT services. DAS delivers services to UNEP, UN-Habitat, the Resident Coordination System and other global, regional and local UN system clients, spanning humanitarian, peacekeeping and development programmes. Chris Kirkcaldy provides guidance to UNEP and UN-Habitat management teams and plays a role in the formulation and implementation of UN reforms.

Equipped with over 25 years of experience in the United Nations Secretariat in Nairobi, New York, Geneva and Vienna, Mr. Kirkcaldy has held an array of cross-cutting positions in a number of UN Secretariat entities, specializing in programme administration, budget and financial management. 
 
Chris Kirkcaldy holds a MSc. (Econs) in Social Policy and Planning from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BA in Politics and Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 
 

Francisco Vasquez

Chief, Division of Conference Services (a.i.)

Francisco Vasquez joined the Division of Conference Services (DCS) in UNON in 2007 as a Conference Affairs officer. He became Chief of the Planning and Coordination Section in 2018 and recently was selected as Chief of the Division ad interim. Prior to joining DCS, he worked with UN-Habitat in Nairobi as the Head of Publications, Design & Events Unit, the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management (DGACM) in New York as Production Control Officer and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi as a Graphics Officer back in 1991 being this his first United Nations appointment. Outside the United Nations, he consulted for in visual identity design and publications design and production.

Mr. Vasquez holds a degree in Journalism and Communications from the Universidad Externado de Colombia.
 

Peter Marshall

Principal Security Adviser, Kenya & Eritrea and Chief, Security and Safety Service UNON

Mr. Peter Marshall has been the Principal Security Adviser and Chief, Security and Safety Service at UNON since 2005. He has had a long career as a senior leader within the United Nations Security Management System and has extensive experience in leading large teams, providing security for large facilities and operating in complex and challenging environments. 

Mr. Marshall joined the UN Security in New York in 1987. He has spent an extensive amount of time in field missions, starting with the peacekeeping mission in Iraq before being transferred to Cambodia, Mozambique and Kenya. In 1994, he served as an electoral observer for the first democratic election in South Africa and was also an observer for elections in Liberia in 1997. 

In 1998, he became Chief, Security & Safety Service at the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Thailand. Three years later, he was assigned to the peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) as Chief of Security. At that time, UNAMSIL was the largest peacekeeping mission with some 24,000 staff. He remained there until 2003, before assuming the functions of Chief Security Adviser and Chief, Security & Safety Service for Ethiopia. In 2005, Peter Marshall was transferred to Nairobi. He was also asked to serve temporarily as Chief of Security with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. 

Mr. Marshall has been deployed to several crisis environments in Africa, most notably, Abuja, Nigeria after the bombing of the UN building; the Ogaden region of Ethiopia to assist with hostage negotiations; and Mogadishu, Somalia to provide crisis management during the attack on the UN compound in 2013. 

Mr. Marshall has been trained as a hostage/crisis negotiator at the advanced level by the Metropolitan Police and is a qualified Investigator, Close Protection Officer. He is also a fire fighter and a landmine, UXO and IED safety instructor. He holds a BA in Political Science and Economics (with a minor in African Studies) from Kean University. He is a national of Jamaica. 

Sandra Macharia

Director, UNIS Nairobi

Sandra Macharia has been the Director, UN Information Service (UNIS) in Nairobi, covering Kenya, the Seychelles and Uganda since July 2023. The UNIS is part of a network of UN Information Centres spanning the globe, which are part of the UN Department of Global Communications (DGC).

Ms. Macharia has over 20 years of experience in strategic and crisis communications, as well as policy and programme development.  Prior to her current role, she served as Chief of the Africa Section and Editor-in-Chief of Africa Renewal in the United Nations Department of Global Communications.  In addition, she previously held several positions with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) including Deputy Communications Director ad interim, Regional Communications Adviser for Africa, Special Assistant to Assistant Secretaries-General, and Communications Officer, serving in different locations including New York, Addis Ababa and Nairobi.

Prior to the United Nations, she worked as a producer, reporter and news anchor for news outlets including Reuters, BBC World Service, Nation TV/Nation Media Group and Kenya Television Network.

Ms. Macharia holds a master’s degree in media, peace and conflict studies from the Universidad para la Paz, as well as a bachelor’s degree in journalism, film and broadcasting, and a postgraduate diploma in broadcasting from Cardiff University.

Nancee Oku Bright

Chief of Staff, Office of the Director-General

Nancee Oku Bright joined the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) in January 2021 as Chief of Staff, a.i. in the Office of the Director-General, coming directly from MONUSCO, the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where, for three years, she was the Mission's Chief of Staff. Prior to MONUSCO, Ms. Bright worked at the UN Secretariat in New York as Chief of Staff in the Office of the Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict from 2010. In 2017, Ms. Bright was appointed by the Secretary-General to his High-level Task Force on the UN Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.

Ms. Bright has worked as Principal Officer in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and in a number of capacities in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), including as Chief of the Africa Section, and as OCHA’s Chief of Advocacy and Public Information. She was also Chief of Staff of the UN peacekeeping Mission for Chad and the Central African Republic, where she led the start-up phase of the Mission, in which capacity she oversaw the coherent integration of the Mission across all sectors. 

She served earlier in the DRC as Chief of the Humanitarian Affairs Section in MONUC from 2002 to 2004. In this capacity, she negotiated for humanitarian access with rebel groups and government authorities and helped to expand humanitarian presence in the DRC by ensuring that UN Agencies and NGOs could benefit from MONUC’s air and riverine resources. She initiated the first-ever joint UN-NGO-Government humanitarian medical barge in the DRC, supporting impoverished communities along the Congo and Ubangi rivers, and, during the 2003 war in Ituri, led the establishment of a civilian-run emergency hospital in war-torn Bunia, with colleagues from OCHA, UNICEF, and ECHO.  She also served as MONUC’s official Representative on the UN Country Team for two years, prior to MONUC becoming an integrated peacekeeping mission.

Ms. Bright holds a BA from Wesleyan University, an MA from Georgetown University, as well as Masters’ and Doctoral degrees from Oxford University. Ms. Bright hails from Liberia and is married with one child.