Saad Houry

Saad Houry currently serves as Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). He was appointed to the position by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in December 2007.

Houry holds a Master of Science in neurobiology from the University of London and a Bachelor of Science in biology from the American University in Beirut. He is fluent in Arabic, English and French.

In his early career, he worked at the American University of Beirut.

In 1978, he joined UNICEF. He was the agency’s Chief of Staff and Deputy Regional Director in the Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa (in Jordan). He went on assignments in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon. He also served as a consultant to the World Bank and to the Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development Organizations to establish its Programme Division in 1983.

He became Director of UNICEF’s Division of Policy and Planning in 2003. He is a native of Lebanon and also carries Canadian citizenship.