1. Mary Chinery-Hesse was the first female Deputy Director-General of the International Labour Organization Mary Chinery-Hesse was the first woman to attain the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations in the history of the international organisation.
Mary Chinery-Hesse's mother was Marjorie Lady Mould of Jamestown, Accra.
Mary Chinery-Hesse had her secondary education at the Wesley Girls' Senior High School in Cape Coast.
Mary Chinery-Hesse holds a BA in Sociology and Economics and a Doctor of Laws from the University of Ghana, and she did postgraduate training in Development Economics at Trinity College Dublin.
Mary Chinery-Hesse joined the UN in 1981, where she held the appointment of the first African woman Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System and Resident Representative of UNDP to many countries, including Sierra Leone, Tanzania, the Seychelles, and Uganda.
Mary Chinery-Hesse headed the Consultative Committee on Programme and Operational Questions of the United Nations from 1993 to 1998, the Commonwealth Expert Group of Eminent Persons on Structural Adjustment and Women, and was instrumental in the published report, Engendering Adjustment.
Mary Chinery-Hesse belonged to the Council of African Advisers of the World Bank between 1992 and 1998.
Mary Chinery-Hesse was a member of the Eminent Persons' Advisory Panel of the African Union and served on the Zedillo Commission, more formally known as the Distinguished High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on Financing for Development.
Mary Chinery-Hesse served as an advisor to John Kufour, the former President of Ghana.
Mary Chinery-Hesse was the vice chairman of the National Development Planning Commission.
Mary Chinery-Hesse has served on several boards, including those at the Centre for Policy Analysis and the Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Mary Chinery-Hesse was appointed Chancellor of the University of Ghana succeeding Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General.
Mary Chinery-Hesse assumed this position on 1 August 2018 and served for the first 5-year term.
Mary Chinery-Hesse was reappointed in July 2023 and is currently serving a second term which commenced on 1 August 2023 and would conclude 31 July 2028.
Mary Chinery-Hesse serves as the Chair of the Goodwill Ambassadors of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre and is the Chair of the Board of the Centre for Regional Integration in Africa.
Mary Chinery-Hesse was commissioned by the erstwhile Government of former President John Kufour to determine the end-of-service benefits and emoluments of Article 71 officer holders.
Mary Chinery-Hesse was married to Lebrecht James Chinery-Hesse, a Ghanaian lawyer and former principal state attorney who had done international stints in Sierra Leone, Zambia, and Uganda and was awarded the Grand Medal by the Ghanaian government.
Mary Chinery-Hesse received the highest national award in Ghana the Order of the Star of Ghana under John Kufour's administration.
Mary Chinery-Hesse was awarded the Gusi Peace Prize for International Diplomacy and Humanitarianism in Manila, Philippines, on 24 November 2010.
In 1991, the University of Ghana bestowed an Honorary Doctor of Law degree upon Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, making her the first female graduate of the University of Ghana to receive this prestigious honor.
Mary Chinery-Hesse launched the Council on Foreign Relations-Ghana Memoirs Project Fund.
The appointment of Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse is valid from 1 August 2023, through 31 July 2028.