Structure of the Secretariat

Paul Egerton, Director, Cabinet Office of the Secretary-General

The Cabinet Office of the Secretary-General lends support to the Secretary-General, Deputy Secretary-General, Assistant Secretary-General and the Secretariat to deliver on the goals and objectives of the Organization.

Reporting directly to the Cabinet Office:

• Executive Management Support Unit
• External Relations and Protocol Office, Officer: Sarah Natalie Burke
• Strategic Communications Office, Senior Officer: Brigitte Perrin
• Monitoring, Evaluation, Risk and Performance Unit, Head: Assia Alexieva
• Controller's Office, Controller ad interim: Tomiji Mizutani
• United Nations Affairs Office, WMO Representative and Coordinator to the United Nations and other international organizations in North America (New York): Laura Paterson
• European Union Affairs Office, Head: Christophe Jacob
• Climate Risk Early Warning Systems (CREWS) Initiative, Head: John Harding

Maja Carrieri, Director, Governance Services Department

The Governance Services Department ​provides a gamut of services to the WMO Secretariat and its Members. 

Brigitta Exterkate is the Deputy Director of Governance Services and the Director, Legal Counsel and Administration, which provides the following services:

• Legal advice and support
• Procurement and contract management
• Human Resources Section, Chief: Johannes Kratzheller
• Finance and Budget Section, Chief: Brian Cover

Anthony Duncker is the Director of Linguistic, Conference and Common Services, which provides the following services:

• Linguistic Support and Production, Chief: Roman Nazarov
• Conference and Common Services, Chief: Elhousseine Gouaini
• ​Facilities Manager: Khaled Bel Melih

Through its Central Service Platform, the Governance Services Department ensures consolidated administrative and operational services for all the Secretariat departments and their activities.

Find out more on the Conference Centre, Employment, Procurement

Tatsuya Kimura, Director, Public-Private Engagement Office

The Public-Private Engagement (PPE) Office promotes greater collaboration among stakeholders in the public, private and academic sectors as well as civil society entities towards providing better services to governments, diverse economic sectors and the general public.

The Open Consultative Platform, launched by WMO in 2019, aims to stimulate and fortify dialogue in the weather, climate and water enterprise in order to address common issues. The Platform provides a forum for inclusive, constructive and mutually-beneficial consultation.

Alok Ojha, Director, Internal Oversight Office

The Internal Oversight Office (IOO) provides an independent, objective verification of financial, administrative and operational activities of WMO.

The WMO Ethics Office confidentially investigates reports of fraud, corruption and abuse in the Organization.

Cecile Divino is the Ethics Officer for WMO and ITU.

Jürg Luterbacher, WMO Chief Scientist and Director, Science and Innovation Department

The Science and Innovation Department (SI) is responsible for effective and efficient promotion of advances in target areas of research. It provides leadership in research activities towards advancing scientific knowledge of the Earth System, enhancing the science-for-service value chain through improved predictive capabilities and in advancing policy-relevant science.

The Science and Innovation Department includes

• World Climate Research Division, Head: Michael Sparrow
• World Weather Research Division, Head: Estelle De Coning
• Atmospheric Environment Research Division, Head: Oksana Tarasova

Johan Stander, Director, Services Department

The Services Department includes the Climate Services, Disaster Risk Reduction and Public Services and the Sector Services Branch.

The Sector Services Branch includes:

• Services for Aviation Division, Head: Gregory Brock
• Marine Services Division, Head: Sarah Grimes

Cyrille Honoré is the Deputy Director of the Services Department and the Director of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Public Services Branch, which includes:

• Hydrological and Water Resources Services Division, Head: Hwirin Kim

Christopher Hewitt is the Director of the Climate Services Branch:

• Climate Monitoring and Policy Services Division, Head: Omar Baddour
• Regional Climate Prediction Services Division, Head: Wilfran Moufouma Okia
• Applied Climate Services Division (Agriculture, Energy, Health), Head: Robert Stefanski
• Technical Coordinator Project Technical Coordination and GFCS Support Unit: Jean-Baptiste Migraine

​Across these areas, the department also supports the development and operationalization of common attributes for product and service delivery, quality management standards and competencies, emerging services and applications, and regional and global partnerships in support of all of the above areas.

Johannes Cullmann, Director, Cross-Cutting Coordination Water and Cryosphere

Water resource management is essential to sustainable development and climate change adaptation, and requires monitoring water, snow and ice and global, regional and national coordination of related activities. Hydrology and Cryosphere Coordination ensures that WMO can deliver against the targets set in the WMO Strategic Operating Plan and comply with the eight WMO water ambitions. 

Cross-Cutting Coordination - Water and Cryosphere is responsible for:

• Supporting the WMO Hydrological Assembly and the Hydrological Coordination Panel
• Coordinating WMO contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Six (SDG6) on Water, including through the Coalition for SDG6 implementation
• Coordination development of an action plan for the eight WMO water ambitions
• Leading the development of the WMO Hydrological Status and Outlook System (HydroSOS) which aims to enable all WMO Members to support development of a global system that helps national, regional and global adaptation planning related to water
• Coordinating activities related to the cryosphere, including the development of a key cryosphere indicator that supports regional and global adaptation planning.
• Supporting WMO Regional Associations in integrating hydrology at regional and national levels.

Maxx Dilley, Director Climate Services Department and Cross-cutting Coordinator for Climate

Climate encompasses the work of multiple WMO departments and constituent and other bodies as well as that of national, regional and global centres and many WMO partners. Coordination among these to support WMO and its Members to deliver high-quality and relevant policy- and decision-supporting services is the responsibility of the Deputy Director of the Services Department (DD/S), who directs the overall climate activities within WMO.  The Cross-cutting Coordinator for Climate is also the Director of the Services Department Climate Services Branch.

Climate coordination within the WMO Secretariat is achieved through several mechanisms, including:

• a Climate Board, chaired by the Secretary-General – comprising the WMO Board of Directors, other WMO Directors and all the WMO cross-cutting area Coordinators
• a Steering Committee on Climate Activities – that convenes representatives from various departments to address specific tasks
•  Project Management Board, chaired by the Assistant Secretary-General – which oversees preparation and implementation of the WMO portfolio of extra-budgetary projects

Coordination on climate-related work among constituent bodies and partners is achieved through a Climate Coordination Panel (CCP) that reports to the WMO Executive Council. The CCP includes representatives from WMO regional associations, technical commissions and WMO, and co-sponsored, programmes. CCP functions include coordinating WMO inputs to high-level United Nations climate-related policy processes, such as those of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as WMO contributions to supporting Members in implementing the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS).

Sarah Grimes, Cross-cutting Coordinator for Ocean

Covering more than 70% of the earth, the ocean is a major component of the Earth system, and  inextricably linked to the  global climate. Ocean-atmosphere interaction is critical to understanding climate and weather, and indeed is a major driver in seasonal variability, and extreme weather events.

Cross Cutting Ocean Coordination covers:

• Strategic development of ocean activities at WMO for the benefit of Members in accordance with the WMO Strategic and Operational Plan, annual objectives and performance indicators.
• Strengthening existing and developing new partnerships of strategic relevance to the ocean activities in support of the WMO Strategic Long-Term Goals, and its international commitments to regulations, agreements and frameworks (e.g. SOLAS, Sendai Framework and Paris Agreement)
• Strengthening the communication and general understanding, within the wider Secretariat and to WMO Members, of ocean issues and the work of WMO in responding to these issues
• Advocating internationally the important work of WMO in the ocean realm, especially the benefits to addressing global issues and the support it provides to WMO Members and regions (eg. early warnings to vulnerable communities and understanding climate change impacts)

Anthony Rea is the Director, Infrastructure Department

The Director of the Infrastructure Department directly manages the Earth Systems Branch, incorporating:

• Earth System Prediction, Head: Yuki Honda
• the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Secretariat

Lars Peter Riishøjgaard is the Deputy Director of the Infrastructure Department.

Albert Fischer is the Director of the WMO Integrated Observing System (WIGOS) Branch which includes:

• Measurement and Observing Networks Division, Head: Etienne Charpentier
• Space Systems and Utilization Division, Head: Kenneth Holmlund
• Earth System Monitoring, Head: Dominique Berod

Peiliang Shi is the Director of the WMO Information System (WIS) Branch, the single coordinated global infrastructure responsible for telecommunications and data management functions, which includes:

• Data & Information Management, Head: Enrico Fucile
• Corporate IT Systems
• Enterprise Systems

Markus Repnik is the Director of the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF) Secretariat, reporting to the Director of the Infrastructure Department.

Another important role of the Department is to support WMO systems for the benefit of Members and to provide internal capability and support for information technology.

Filipe Lucio, Director, Member Services and Development Department

The Member Services and Development Department assists National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in developing and least developed countries through projects, technology and knowledge transfer, education and training, and development partnerships. It coordinates the WMO Regional Associations meetings in which Members define the priorities for each regional and plan the implementation of WMO recommendations, based on their capacities. 

The Regional Strategy Office:

• Regional Strategic Division, Head: Jean-Paul Gaudechoux
• Project Management and Implementation Division

Yinka Adebayo is the Deputy Director of Member Services & Development and the Director of the Education and Training Office

Mary Power is the Director for Resource Mobilization

Markus Repnik is the Director of the Office for Development Partnerships

Member Services has several regional and sub-regional offices:

• Regional Office for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Director: Amos Makarau
  • Representative Office for North, West and Central Africa in Abuja, Nigeria, Bernard Gomez
  • Representative Office for  Eastern and Southern Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, Mark Majodina
• ​Regional Office for Asia and the South-West Pacific in Singapore, Head:  Ben Churchill
  • Representative Office the South West Pacific in Apia, Samoa, Henry Taiki
  • Representative for Arab in Manama, Bahrain, Hesham Ghany
• Regional Office for the Americas in Asuncion, Paraguay, Director: Julian Benitez
  • Representative Office for North and Central America and the Caribbean in Costa Rica, Rodney Martinez 
• Regional Office for Europe in Geneva, Head: Milan Dacic