Rebeca Grynspan, economist and former Vice-President of Costa Rica, was named Secretary-General of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in September 2021. She is the first woman to hold this position in the institution’s 60-year history.

Prior to her appointment, she was the Secretary-General of the Ibero-American Conference, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, as well as Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.

She was elected Vice-President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998 and held the positions of Minister of Housing, Minister Coordinator of Economic and Social Affairs and Deputy Finance Minister.

A renowned advocate of human development, she has helped to focus the world’s attention on the reduction of inequality and poverty, gender equality and multilateralism. She currently coordinates the task team of the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance created by the United Nations Secretary-General and on whose behalf she leads negotiations to reintegrate food and fertilizers from Ukraine and the Russian Federation to global markets.