Siddharth Chatterjee

He has said he contracted polio as a child but that it was detected early and corrected, and that he passed the entrance examination for India’s National Defence Academy on his second attempt.⁠[1]

He holds a bachelor’s degree from India’s National Defence Academy.⁠[2]

He was earlier an officer in the Indian Army Special Forces.⁠[3]

In 1995 he was decorated for gallantry by the President of India.⁠[2]

He has written that he joined the UN in 1997, worked on demobilizing child soldiers in South Sudan in 2001, and was chief of staff of the UN mission in Iraq from 2007 to 2009.⁠[4]

He earned a Master in Public Policy from Princeton UniversityPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private university and Ivy League member in Princeton, New Jersey. Chartered on October 22, 1746 as the College of New Jersey, it moved to Princeton in 1756 and adopted its present name in 1896. Undergraduate education leads to A.B. and B.S.E. degrees and emphasizes small-group discussion, independent research and residential college life. Graduate education spans the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. As of October 2026, Christopher L. Eisgruber was president. Its 2026–27 operating budget was $3.407 billion, including $342 million for undergraduate aid.Open the full entry in 2011. From that year he was chief diplomat and head of strategic partnerships and resource mobilization at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, before joining UNFPA in 2014 as its representative in Kenya.⁠[5]

From August 26, 2016, he was the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Kenya, also serving as UNDP Resident Representative.⁠[6]

In February 2021 he formally took over as UN Resident Coordinator in China, leading the UN system in the country.⁠[2]

On leaving the post in February 2026 he wrote that “development endures only when it is locally owned.”⁠[4]

On March 2, 2026, he became CEO of Global Neighbours, a Vienna think tank founded by Jovanka Porsche.⁠[3]

In April 2026 he was appointed Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, at a ceremony at its School of Public Policy and Management in Beijing.⁠[7]

In June 2026 he was part of the Global Neighbours delegation at the 21st Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity in South Korea.⁠[8]

At a September 2026 panel in Vienna co-hosted by Global Neighbours and CIRSD, he argued that multilateralism needs practical innovation and public-private partnerships, pointing to Kenya’s response to maternal mortality, and said, “The future of multilateralism will not be built by governments alone.”⁠[9]

On October 18, 2026, Global Neighbours’ Tracks to the Future think train set off from Duisburg toward Xi’an, with Chatterjee among the event’s speakers.⁠[10]

The trip was scheduled to run until November 4, traveling via Istanbul, Samarkand, Almaty and Khorgos to Xi’an, with about 80 participants.⁠[11]

He also served with UN peacekeepers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with UNICEF in Somalia, Sudan and Indonesia, and as UNOPS regional director for the Middle East and Europe.⁠[3]

He has said he begins each day with a 30-minute breathing session and practices yoga, that he once completed 55 pull-ups and 100 push-ups in 3 minutes 12 seconds, and that he brought his weight down from 85 kg to 60 kg.⁠[12]

He has said he met his wife, Ban Hyun Hee, in Darfur in July 2004 and that they married soon afterwards.⁠[1]