Dr. Sergei Kambalov retired from the United Nations on December 31, 2010. His last position was the Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development. Sergei joined the United Nations in 1989 as a member of the author team of the World Economic and Social Survey. In 1997-2009 he worked in the Office of ECOSOC Support and Coordination of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs where in 2005-2009 he was Chief of ECOSOC and Inter-organizational Cooperation Branch. Prior to joining the UN in 1989, he was a First Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, and before that he worked in academic research on international economic relations in the Institute of the USA and Canada Studies (1973-1977) and the Diplomatic Academy (1977-1987). He has several academic publications, including a book on economic sanctions as a tool of foreign policy. Born in Riga, he grew up in Novosibirsk. He has graduated magna cum laude from the Department of Economics of the Moscow State University and has a PhD in International Economics from the Diplomatic Academy, Moscow. Sergei is a patented inventor. He and his wife Elena live in Middlebury, Connecticut. They have four children and nine grandchildren..