Kofi Annan was born April 8, 1938 in Kumasi, Ghana. His middle name, Atta, means, “twin,” and he shared it with his twin sister Efua. (Efua died in 1991). Annan’s parents were Victoria and Henry Reginald Annan.

Annan comes from a family of chiefs from the Asante and Fante ethnic groups. His father was an export manager for the Lever Brothers cocoa company.

Kofi graduated from Mfantsipim School in Cape Coast, Ghana, an elite Methodist boarding school. He graduated in 1957, the year Ghana gained its independence from Britain.

After high school, Annan studied economics at Kumasi College of Science and Technology in Ghana. He received a Ford grant that allowed him to earn his undergraduate degree at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. He did graduate work at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland and earned a MS from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Kofi Annan has been married twice. His first wife was Titi Alakija from Nigeria, and they have two children, Kojo and Ama. He is currently married to Nane Maria Annan from Sweden. She is a lawyer and artist, and has one child, Nina, from a previous marriage.

Annan has spent nearly his entire career with the United Nations. He started work with the World Health Organization (an agency of the United Nations) in 1962. He left the agency between 1974 and 1976, when he was the Director of Tourism in Ghana. In 1976 he returned to the United Nations, and has remained there since.

Between 1976 and 1997, Kofi Annan held the following positions with the United Nations:

• Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management and Security Coordinator
• Assistant Secretary-General for Programme Planning, Budget and Finance and Controller
• Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations
• Under-Secretary-General
• Special Representative of the Secretary General to Yugoslavia

In 1997, he was confirmed as Secretary General of the United Nations, the first person from a black African nation to hold that position. He was confirmed to a 2nd term in 2002, and will complete his service December 31, 2006.

Kofi Annan has not avoided controversy during his career. While he was in charge of peacekeeping operations, he was criticized for not intervening more aggressively in Rawanda. In 2004, he was criticized for his handling of a debacle involving sexual harassment charges against UN officials Ruud Lubbers and Werner Blatter.

Again in 2004, there was a scandal involving his son, Kojo, and the food-for-oil program. (Kofi ordered an inquiry, and he was exonerated of any malfeasance.) He has also been sharply critical of the US and the Iraqi war.

In 2001, Annan and the United Nations were awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. He is recognized for world leadership in several areas:

• He has strengthened the UN by forging partnerships with various organizations throughout the world.
• He has been the leader the UN response to conflict and violence in many areas of the world.
• He issued a “Call to Action” to stop the AIDS/HIV pandemic, and established the Global AIDS and Health Fund. Annan says that the pandemic is his personal and professional priority.
• He called for a Global Compact to encourage businesses to respect environmental, employment and human rights standards.

Annan continues to work for reform in the United Nations. He favors expanding the Security Council and restructuring the Secretariat. In the 21st century, Annan believes the United Nations must work to:

• End poverty and inequality
• Improve education
• End HIV-AIDS
• Protect the environment
• Protect people from violence

Kofi Annan will be succeeded as Secretary General of the UN by Ban Ki Moon of the Republic of Korea.