John A. Olver

John A. Olver entered public service in 1941 as Personnel Officer with the United States Government in Washington, following completion of an MS degree in Public Administration at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University. He served three years with the United States Army after the outbreak of World War II.

At the end of the war, Mr. Olver was loaned to the newly constituted Secretariat of the United Nations to assist in establishing the Organization in New York. After a series of budgetary, personnel and management assignments, he served in Paris as head of the first branch office of the Postal Administration, and in Libya as Chief Administrative Officer of the UN Office there. In 1957, he became Chief Administrative Officer of the United Nations Emergency Force in the Gaza Strip, the first of the peacekeeping forces, and in 1960 filled a similar post in the United Nations Operation in the Congo, under Dr. Ralph Bunche.

Subsequently, Mr. Olver became responsible for management operations at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, followed by a similar post with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome. He returned to New York in 1966 as Secretary of the International Civil Service Advisory Board.

Mr. Olver joined the United Nations Development Programme in 1968 as Director of Finance and continued in various management positions until retirement from the career service in 1980, as Assistant Administrator (Assistant Secretary-General). At the request of the Administrator and with the agreement of the Government of Israel and Palestine Liberation Organization, he planned, established and managed a newly authorized UNDP Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People, which today is the largest external source of development assistance to the inhabitants of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.