Knut Olof Hjalmar Akesson Hammarskjold

Knut Olof Hjalmar Akesson Hammarskjold, a Swedish and international diplomat, is Chair and CEO of the Atwater Institute in Montreal. He is Chair of the Independent Commission for the Reform of UNESCO and Ambassador of Special Missions for the Director General of UNESCO. In addition, he is in charge of Special Missions for UNCTAD. He is nephew of the late Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold.

During much of his career, Ambassador Hammarskjold worked on coordination of international civil aviation policy and multilateral air service agreements. In the 1980s, he served as International Affairs Counsel to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Previous to that, he was for many years Director-General and Chair of the Executive Committee of IATA.

During the 1960s, he served as Deputy Secretary-General of the European Free Trade Association. He was Deputy Head of the Swedish Delegation to the OECD in Paris. In addition, he was head of the Department for Foreign Relations of the Swedish Civil Aeronautics Board. He is at present chairman of two newspaper groups in Sweden, and a number of international organizations, and has received numerous awards and honours for his outstanding leadership. Ambassador Hammarskjold has published many articles on political, economic and aviation topics. He is currently a Director of Friends of the United Nations.