It was announced today that Nemir A Kirdar, President and Chief Executive Officer of Investcorp, has been appointed to the Investments Committee of the United Nations. This appointment, as one of the nine members of the Committee, was made by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and was endorsed at the 60th Plenary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
The United Nations Investments Committee meets four times a year to review investment policy and to provide advice and recommendations to the Secretary-General as fiduciary for the investments of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund. The Investments Committee comprises nine regular members, chosen from leaders of the global financial community, who are appointed by the Secretary-General and confirmed by the General Assembly. Members of the Committee are internationally known figures respected for their knowledge on, and experience in, investments.
The market value of the assets of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund is in excess of US $30 billion. The Fund provides retirement and related benefits to the UN’s international civil servants, serving over 20 UN member organizations, and has some 150,000 participants and beneficiaries. Members of the United Nations Investments Committee have a fiduciary responsibility to manage investments so as to preserve the capital of the Fund and obtain a long-term real rate of return without assuming excessive risk. They provide assessments as to the appropriateness of investment activities, including risk exposures and the subsequent performance of the Fund.
Nemir A Kirdar is President and Chief Executive Officer of Investcorp, the global investment group that he founded in 1982 and which operates out of New York, London and Bahrain specializing in investments in the US and Western Europe. The Firm offers four lines of alternative investment products: private equity, real estate investment, hedge funds and venture capital, and manages total investments in alternative assets of around $9.5 billion.
In his civic activities, Mr Kirdar is a member of the Board of Directors of Georgetown University, Washington D.C. He serves on Visiting Boards at the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and at the Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University; and on the Advisory Boards at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge. He is a Member of the Board of International Councillors at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington D.C.; a Member of the Board of Trustees, Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship, Philadelphia; and is a founding member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, Switzerland.
