ANN ARBOR—Catherine A. Bertini, a former United Nations World Food Program (WFP) executive director who is teaching for a semester at the University of Michigan, has been named undersecretary general for management by Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations. She starts Jan. 1, 2003. Bertini, 52, will be responsible for drawing up the U.N. budget and managing many other tasks. Her appointment was announced Tuesday. “It’s a great honor and privilege to be able to help Secretary General Kofi Annan meet his objectives for the United Nations,” she said. One of Bertini’s primary goals is implementing Annan’s reform proposal, “Strengthening of the United Nations: An agenda for further change.”

Bertini, who led the largest humanitarian agency in the world from 1992 to 2002, was invited to teach this semester in the Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence program through the Ford School of Public Policy.