UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday appointed Italian diplomat Filippo Grandi as the next head of the U.N. refugee agency, a position that Denmark's former Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt had been openly lobbying for.
Grandi, who will take over the main organization on the front lines of the biggest global refugee and migration crisis since World War Two, has held a number of senior U.N. posts. Grandi already has years of experience at the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the agency he will lead.