Our Team in Kosovo

Anna Rostocka is the Chief of the IOM mission in Pristina, Kosovo. She joined IOM back in 2002. Prior to her current assignment, she headed the IOM Country Office in Poland. She has extensive experience and knowledge in migration issues and IOM policies, programmes and operations. She holds a Master's Degree from the University of Warsaw.

Blerim Azizi is the United Nations Volunteer (UNV) Coordinator in Kosovo. He joined the United Nations Volunteer Programme (UNV) in 2007 and he’s been serving for UN since over 15 years. Before joining UN, he has worked for different International and Civil Society Organizations.
During his professional career Blerim has promoted volunteerism for peace and sustainable development, with a particular focus on youth and community empowerment, and environment and health protection. Blerim holds a degree in Psychology, with certifications in General Management, Project Management and Volunteer Programme Development and Management.

Brendan Keirnan has held the role of Head of Office for the United Nations Office Project Services (UNOPS), in Pristina, Kosovo from 2016. He joined UNOPS in 2009 and has worked on development projects in several countries across four continents including humanitarian response with the UN system. Brendan Is a Chartered Civil Engineer by profession, spending the first 20 years of his career in the UK and International engineering and project management positions. Brendan is a UK citizen with his home in Scotland which he shares with his family and is a keen sportsman and enjoys the outdoors.

Erol Arduç is a human rights lawyer and joined UNHCR in 2002 in Van, Turkey. He continued his journey in the protection of refugees worldwide to Darfur, Kenya, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hungary, UNHCR HQ Switzerland, Ukraine, Greece and is since 2018, the Chief of Mission of UNHCR Office in Kosovo. Before joining UNHCR, Erol was engaged with Amnesty International, as a lawyer with the German Parliament (Bundestag), and Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation in Tanzania. He has also worked as a lecturer, at the Yeditepe University in Istanbul, Turkey. He is still engaged as a lecturer with the International Institute of Humanitarian Law - San Remo, Italy. Erol holds an MA in Public International and European Law (emphasis: Human Rights, Politics and Philosophy) from the Rheinische-Friedrich-Wilhems University in Bonn, Germany. Erol was born in Turkey and raised in Germany, and speaks Turkish, German, English, and French.

Jens Larsen has a 27-year international career with various organizations as a civilian diplomat and as a military and security expert. Since June 2017, he is UNDSS Security Advisor and UNMIK Chief Security Officer in Kosovo. For 17 years he held senior security positions with UNDSS Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Afghanistan, India, Bhutan, Turkey, and UNICEF HQ in NY; and before that with UNTSO in Syria, Israel, Egypt and Lebanon, UNTAET in East Timor, and UNOMIG in Georgia. Prior to that he was Deputy Head of the OSCE Missions to Estonia and to Ukraine. He has worked, studied and travelled in more than 140 countries. Born in Denmark, he holds a BA in world history and an MA in political science and international relations from University of Copenhagen, is a certified OSCE Conventional Forces Europe (CFE) weapons control inspector and three-way interpreter (Danish-English-Russian), and also speaks Polish, French, Swedish, Norwegian and German.

Mr. Bouyjou is Chief Human Rights at UNMIK and Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Kosovo since March 2019. Mr. Bouyjou has worked for the past 22 years for the UN, the OSCE and the EU in the field of human rights, political affairs and Good Governance both in headquarters and in the field. He has notably been assigned to South East Asia, Central Asia and former USSR, and Europe. Mr. Bouyjou previously worked in Kosovo in 1999 and 2000. Mr. Bouyjou holds a Masters Degree in international law from Sorbonne university in Paris and one in Political Science from the University of Hull, UK. He is French, and was born in 1972.

Maria Suokko (Finland) was appointed UNDP Resident Representative for Kosovo and assumed her duties in June 2019. Prior to this, Ms. Suokko was Senior Adviser in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Finland in Helsinki, 2017-2019. She also served as Head of Cooperation for the MFA of Finland in Myanmar (2014-2017) and Senior Adviser in the Finnish MFA (2012-2014). Her experience with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) includes Programme Specialist at the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific (2006-2010), Assistant Resident Representative (Team Leader for Environment & Energy) in China (2001-2005), Environmental Programme Manager in Cambodia (2000-2001), and Programme Officer in Thailand (1998-2000).
She holds a Master’s Degree in Social Sciences (Economics/Public Finance) from the University of Helsinki. She speaks Finnish, Swedish, English, as well as some German and French.

Markus Pilgrim is Director of the ILO Office for Central and Eastern Europe. The office provides advisory services to 18 ILO member countries promoting more and better jobs for all women and men. The office is located in Budapest and concentrates on Western Balkans, Moldova, and Ukraine. Before taking over the ILO office in Budapest, Pilgrim worked as Head of the Small and Medium Enterprises unit (SME) at ILO headquarters in Geneva. Prior to joining ILO, Markus worked as Manager of the Youth Employment Network (a partnership of UN, ILO, and World Bank) and as regional program manager for International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank Group, based in Cairo, Egypt. He also spent 8 years as Managing Director of the Foundation for Economic Development and Vocational Training (SEQUA), a joint development agency of the German chambers and business associations. Markus Pilgrim holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Göttingen University, Germany.

Mr. Massimiliano Paolucci is Country Manager for Kosovo and North Macedonia. He is an Italian national. Mr. Paolucci was the World Bank Group Special Representative to the European Institutions, NATO, Belgium and Luxembourg. He served as Head of the World Bank Group Office for Southern Europe based in Rome, Italy. He also served in Brazil, several Caribbean countries, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. In 1999, Mr. Paolucci served with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, McKinsey – Brussels Office, and the Statistical and Economics Department of the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Genoa, Italy. He holds a M. A. in International Relations and Economics from the John Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (Bologna/Washington, D.C.) and a summa cum laude (top tier) Master’s equivalent degree in International Political Science. In addition to Italian, he is fluent in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.

Ms. Nona Zicherman was appointed as the Head of Office for UNICEF Kosovo in October 2021. Previously she served in Turkey, first as Emergency Coordinator and then as Deputy Representative, from 2015-2021. Ms. Zicherman was also UNICEF’s Chief of Emergency and Transition in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and worked as an Emergency Specialist in the East and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO). Before joining UNICEF she was based in Nairobi as the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for East and Central Africa for Oxfam Great Britain.
An international development professional with twenty years of experience largely in fragile and post-conflict settings, Ms. Zicherman has worked with the United Nations, international non-governmental organizations and the private sector throughout Africa and Asia. A dual national of the United States and France, she holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Columbia University.

Mr Oleksandr Martynenko has gained extensive experience in global public health, working on health systems strengthening, multilateral partnerships for health and development, Agenda 2030 and SDGs. Prior to joining WHO office in Pristina, Oleksandr worked at WHO headquarters on country strategic intelligence for the Director-General and WHO executive management, UN system reform and strengthening of WHO leadership at the country level. Preceding his work in Geneva, Oleksandr led WHO team in Ukraine that supported health authorities on health systems transformation towards UHC, including reform of public health and health financing, integrated people-centered quality health services and human resources for health. Before starting his career at WHO, Oleksandr worked in NGO sector, managing portfolios on partnerships with the EU and private sector as well as capacity building for civil society. Oleksandr holds MA degree in International Public Policy and Global Health from Osaka University, Japan.

Omar Siddique is an urban development expert with over 17 years’ experience in managing sustainable urban development technical assistance programmes across a range of multilateral institutions. Omar’s programmatic expertise is chiefly in slum upgrading and affordable housing strategies, urban poverty assessment, municipal financing instruments, city-wide service delivery profiling, solid waste management, urban climate change mitigation and adaptation planning, participatory planning for informal livelihoods promotion and institutional strengthening programmes for improved urban governance.
Before joining the UN system, Omar worked in microfinance at the Grameen Bank in Dhaka, Bangladesh, as special assistant to Nobel laurate and founder, Dr. Muhammad Yunus.

Dr. Mujko-Nimani is a national of Kosovo with 20 years of experience working with the United Nations Population Fund. Before the current assignment, Visare worked as a Programme Specialist at the UNFPA Kosovo office. She also conducted program support missions in various field locations such as in Ukraine, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Moldova, and UNFPA Europe and Central Asia Regional Office. Dr. Mujko-Nimani carries an MD in Medicine from the Prishtina Medical University and a Master’s Degree in Health Management. She has published and contributed to over 15 publications on medicine, public health, population, and international development. Dr. Mujko-Nimani is fluent in English, Albanian, and Serbian and intermediate in Turkish.

A national of the Russian Federation, Vladimir holds an M.Sc. in International Relations from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. His diplomatic and professional career has included assignments in Beijing (1982-83) and Washington D.C. (1983-86 and 1992-96). In 1998, Rakhmanin was appointed spokesperson for the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Director of the Information and Press Department. From 2000 to 2002 he was Chief of Protocol for the President of the Russian Federation, and from 2002 to 2006 served as Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Dublin, Ireland. In the years prior to joining FAO, he was Deputy Secretary General of the Energy Charter Secretariat in Brussels.

Vlora Tuzi Nushi is the UN Women Head of Office in Kosovo. She has been working for UN Women/UNIFEM for the past 16 years. During this time, Vlora has been a driving force behind UN Women's initiatives and successes. She has been influential in transforming conversations on some of the most important issues affecting the lives of women and girls in Kosovo. She is committed to protecting women’s rights and further enhancing women’s empowerment. She sees herself as a passionate activist and gender equality advocate fully engaged to intercept and help make gender equality the new normal for all communities in Kosovo through innovative approaches towards realizing this aim! Vlora was born in Kosovo where she also completed her masters studies in Pharmacy. She speaks English, Albanian, and Serbo-Croatian.