Diplomat Rudolph Michael Ten-Pow, who began his career in the Foreign Service of Guyana in 1980 as desk officer for Venezuela, has announced that his tenure as Guyana’s permanent representative to the United Nations ended on July 31.
Ambassador Ten-Pow, who was accredited as the permanent representative and ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Guyana to the United Nations on Aug. 22, 2016, said “it has been a privilege and honor of a lifetime to have served as our country’s ambassador to the United Nations, these past four years.”
The diplomat, who presented his letters of credence to then, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, in a ceremony at United Nations Headquarters in New York, and later on, elected by acclamation as a vice-president of the 73rd UN General Assembly, recalls that his period of service has been challenging, but an exciting one.
“Current difficulties notwithstanding, our country brims with potential and is poised for rapid material and human development,” wrote the diplomat, adding, “It is a good time to be a Guyanese.”
Ten-Pow who was also head of the Frontiers Division, before joining the United Nations in 1986 as a translator for French and Spanish and served for several years at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile, expressed gratitude to his staff.
“For me, it has been a source of great satisfaction to have gotten to know the many Guyanese staff members of the United Nations Secretariat and in the wider diaspora in the New York area,” he said.
The diplomat who was actively involved in the Guyanese diaspora, delivering speeches, cake cutting at Independence commemoration at Brooklyn Borough Hall, jovial at Republic celebrations at the Guyana Consulate, and showing support for alumni associations, said, he will treasure fondly the memories.
“I will treasure fondly the memories of our interactions at the numerous functions hosted by the Permanent Mission at Christmas, national commemorative days, and during the visits of the of the Head of State to the United Nations for the annual General Assembly.
“My wife, Bonnie, joins me in expressing our sincere appreciation for my enthusiastic support and your unfailing attendance at these function,” he said.
Ten-Pow, served as reviser, training officer, chief of the English Translation Service and acting director of the Documentation Division of the United Nations.
During 2013-2015, he joined the World Bank in Washington DC as senior program manager for Conference Services, returning to the United Nations in 2015 as acting director of the Documentation Division and later as special adviser to the United Nations coordinator for multilingualism.
In his goodbye letter, the diplomat, who received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in French, Spanish and Portuguese from the University of Guyana with distinction, and earned Postgraduate Diplomas in Translation and Interpretation from the University of Geneva, Switzerland and a Master’s Degree in Liberal Studies with a concentration in International Relations from the City University of New York, said.
“I am confident that you will give the same support to my successor when he or she is appointed and that you will remain committed to the collective effort Guyanese both at home and in the diaspora to make our dear country one of which we can be proud.”
