Deputy Special Coordinator Maxwell Gaylard

The Secretary-General appointed Mr. Maxwell Gaylard as the Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, and the United Nations coordinator for humanitarian and development activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in March 2008.

Mr. Gaylard has been acting as Deputy Special Coordinator since November 2007. He previously served as Director of the United Nations Mine Action Service, and before that spent significant periods of time as a senior United Nations humanitarian and coordination official in Somalia, Sudan and northern Iraq. In these capacities, he served in some of the most challenging field stations for the United Nations and gained relevant expertise in coordinating the United Nations country team's response to pressing humanitarian and developmental needs.

An Australian national, Mr. Gaylard began his career with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and also served with the Commonwealth Secretariat before he joined the United Nations. Mr. Gaylard was born in 1946 in Nambour, Queensland, where he received his primary and secondary schooling, and is a graduate of the University of Queensland and the Australian National University. Mr. Gaylard also served with the Australian military forces from 1968 to 1970.