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World · 9 entries

Secretaries-General of the United Nations

The UN’s chief administrators since 1946 — and the race to choose the next one.

#Secretary-GeneralCountryTerm
1Trygve LieNorway1946–1952
2Dag HammarskjöldSweden1953–1961 (died in office)
3U ThantBurma (Myanmar)1961–1971
4Kurt WaldheimAustria1972–1981
5Javier Pérez de CuéllarPeru1982–1991
6Boutros Boutros-GhaliEgypt1992–1996
7Kofi AnnanGhana1997–2006
8Ban Ki-moonSouth Korea2007–2016
9António GuterresPortugal2017–31 Dec 2026

Guterres’s second term ends on 31 December 2026. As of 30 October 2026 the Security Council had held six straw polls on his successor without agreeing on a candidate; a seventh was scheduled for that day.

Sources

  1. United Nations — Former Secretaries-General
  2. PassBlue — First colour-coded straw poll, 16 October 2026
  3. The National — Seventh straw poll, 30 October 2026

Last updated 31 Oct 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.