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Banbury

Anthony

Anthony "Tony" Banbury joined the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) as President and Chief Executive Officer on November 1, 2018. Prior to joining IFES, Tony had an extensive career working for the UN and the United States government.

Banbury worked for the UN for 20 years in a variety of roles both at UN headquarters in New York and in the field. From 2009 through 2016, Banbury served as Assistant Secretary-General for Field Support; in this role, he was responsible for providing operational support to more than 30 UN peacekeeping and political missions around the world with a combined annual budget of more than $8 billion and with more than 170,000 deployed personnel. While working at UN headquarters, Banbury was given a number of special assignments by the Secretary-General, including designing and leading the UN’s first-ever emergency health mission in response to the 2014 West Africa Ebola crisis, designing and establishing the Joint Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons-UN Mission to remove chemical weapons from Syria in 2013, leading the effort to stop widespread killings and prevent genocide in the Central African Republic in 2014, and leading the operational response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the worst humanitarian disaster in the western hemisphere in modern history.

Banbury previously served as Asia Regional Director for the UN World Food Programme from 2003 to 2009, where he oversaw operations in 14 countries, including Afghanistan and North Korea, and led the organization’s operational response to the Indian Ocean tsunami and Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. Banbury started his UN career in 1988 as a Human Rights Officer in Cambodian refugee camps in Thailand and later served in various humanitarian, political affairs, and human rights positions in Asia, the Balkans during the war in the former Yugoslavia, and UN headquarters.

Prior to his most senior roles with the UN, Banbury worked in the United States government as Director and then Senior Director for Democracy, Human Rights, and International Operations at the National Security Council (2000-2003) and Senior Policy Advisor in the Balkans Task Force at the Department of Defense (1998-2000).

Banbury holds a master’s degree in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, a graduate degree in international relations from the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Études Internationales at the University of Geneva, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Tufts University.

Banbury is a member of the Board of Directors of the Centre for Public Impact and received a Distinguished Service Award from the President of the United States for service on 9/11, a Bronze Palm to the Exceptional Civilian Service Award from the Secretary of Defense, an Exceptional Civilian Service Award from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and a Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from Tufts University.

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The American Academy of Diplomacy (AAD) is an independent, non-profit association of former senior US ambassadors and high-level government officials whose mission is to strengthen American diplomacy. AAD represents a unique wealth of talent and experience in the practice of American foreign policy, with over 370 members.

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