Major General (retired) Michael Beary

UNMHA Head of Mission and Chair of the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC)

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Major General (retired) Michael Beary of Ireland as Head of the United Nations Mission to Support the Hudaydah Agreement (UNMHA) and Chair of the Redeployment Coordination Committee on 23 December 2021.

Major General Beary brings a wealth of experience in military operations, and United Nations peace operations, gained over 40 years of overseas military deployments, including in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Croatia, Iraq, Somalia and Uganda. From 2016 to 2018, Major General Beary served as Head of Mission and Force Commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Prior to the appointment in Lebanon, he served as Commander of the European Union Training Mission (EUTM) in Somalia and General Officer commanding Second Brigade in the Irish Defence Forces with a wide variety of assignments, holding command and staff officer appointments, including at the unit, brigade and defence force headquarters levels. General Beary has lectured at universities in Ireland, and authored publications on international peacekeeping, while also having led United Nations Boards of Inquiry in Africa.

Major General Beary holds a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Business Studies and a Master of Science in national security strategy. He is a graduate of the Command and Staff School of the Irish Defence Forces, University College Galway, the Smurfit Business School University College Dublin and the National War College at the National Defence University in Washington, D.C.

Major General Beary succeeds Lieutenant General (retired) Abhijit Guha of India.

Ms Vivian van de Perre

             UNMHA Deputy Head of Mission

Vivian van de Perre of the Netherlands was appointed by the Secretary-General as Deputy Head of Mission for the United Nations Mission to support the Hudaydah Agreement (UNMHA- Yemen), in July 2022.

Prior, she served as the Mission Chief of Staff for the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) in the first half of 2022, as well as from 2018 to 2020.

In 2020 and 2021 she was Director of the Field Operations Finance Division, Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance (DMSPC) for the United Nations Organization Headquarters in New York.

In addition to serving as Mission Chief of Staff for the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) in 2017, she has also held the position of Head of Office for the Special Envoy for Burundi (2016-2017), Executive Officer for the Department of Political Affairs (2013-2016), and Principal Officer in the Secretary-General’s Change Implementation Team (2012-2013).  Previously she has served as Chief of Office of the Under-Secretary-General for Management (2011-2012), Chief of Administration and Communication for the Capital Master Plan (2005-2011), Special Assistant to the Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security (2003-2005), and as Head of a budget unit in the UN Controller’s office (1998-2003).

From 1985-1998 Ms. van de Perre served in the Royal Dutch Army including during 1994-1998 as a seconded military officer in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and as an international Election Observer in Mozambique.

Ms. van de Perre holds a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, USA, a candidate master’s in business administration with the Open University of Heerlen and an undergraduate degree from the Dutch Royal Military Academy (Breda). In addition to English, she speaks Dutch, Spanish, French and German.

Ms. van de Perre succeeds Ms. Daniela Kroslak of Germany.