In short, Shashi Tharoor is:
- a visionary leader who has shown the ability to inspire staff and achieve reform;
- an experienced hands-on manager with a proven track record of delivering results;
- a professional with a unique background spanning refugee, humanitarian, peace-keeping and political endeavors, as well as first-hand experience of the complexities of managing budgets and human resources in a charged political environment;
- committed to democratic values and traditions and a passionate human-rights advocate who has nonetheless retained credibility across the membership of the Organization as a reliable and fair-minded team player and “safe pair of hands”;
- a “son of the South” who enjoys good relations with the G-77 countries and the trust and confidence of delegations from the developed world;
- a bilingual professional who works in both the UN Secretariat’s working languages, English and French;
- a thinker and writer who brings unusual intellectual heft to the job;
- an internationalist who has not served any one country’s foreign policy interests but has dedicated himself to the collective interest of all countries in the United Nations;
- an eloquent articulator of the ideals and principles of the United Nations, both as an inspiring speaker to a variety of audiences and a highly effective writer in the world’s leading newspapers and journals; and
- at 50, one who has the energy and dynamism of a much younger man and the wisdom and experience that comes of extensive United Nations service.