The United Nations General Assembly elected Dr. Suresh Raj Sharma as a member of the Independent Audit Advisory Committee (IAAC) of the United Nations for a three-year term beginning 1 January 2023.
Dr. Suresh Raj Sharma is an expert on financial management, general management, strategic-management and oversight in the non-profit sector, specifically in the United Nations system organizations.
Dr. Sharma earned his Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) and Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degrees from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, USA. He is also a qualified professional accountant with membership of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA) since 1977. Prior to this, he obtained his Bachelor and Master of Commerce from Nepal Commerce College and Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu.
Dr. Sharma served the United Nations World Food Programme for 24 years in various management positions. He served as WFP Representative and Country Director in Sri Lanka. At headquarters in Rome, he served as director of the Budget Division, Director of the Finance Division, Director of Change Management, and Director of the Ethics and finally, as Inspector General and Director of the Oversight Office.
More recently, Dr. Sharma has served in the audit and oversight committees of several United Nations system organizations - as a member and Chairman of the oversight committee at UNRWA, as a member of the audit committee of WMO, and as a member, and Chairman of the oversight Committee of the UNHCR. ?Also, Dr. Sharma was the founding President of the World Food Programme Alumni Network and founding Secretary General and Chairman (2017-2021) of FIPMO (Former International Professionals of Multilateral Organizations), Nepal.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Sharma was the first professor-level Chief Finance Officer of Tribhuvan University (TU) appointed after the consolidation of the university under then then new education system. At TU, he established the fund accounting system, integrated budgeting system, prepared the financial accounts of the University on Fund Accounting basis, had financial statements audited by the Auditor General of Nepal, and appeared to respond to the Audit Report in the Public Accounts Committee of the Rastriya Panchayat (the national parliament at the time)
Dr. Sharma also taught Management Accounting to the MBA class (1980-83) at Shanker Dev Campus of Tribhuvan University. ?He is currently a PhD Thesis co-supervisor at the Centre for Post-Graduate Studies of the Infrastructure University Kuala Lumpur (IUKL).
He is married to Gita (Subedi) Pokharel and lives in Dhapakhel, Lalitpur, Nepal. He has three children and two grandchildren. ?He likes hiking and reading historical novels and biographies.