United Nations Statistical Commission

Mr. Shigeru Kawasaki has been a member of the Statistics Commission of the Japanese Government since 2013. He has been Professor at Nihon University, College of Economics in Tokyo since 2012.

He has 36 years' experience in civil service since 1975, most of which was dedicated to official statistics. He holds a Bachelor of Technology from University of Tokyo. During his career in civil service, he was engaged in various fields of statistics, such as the population census, sample household surveys, price indices, and statistical data dissemination, and made significant achievement in each field. In 2007, he was appointed as Director General of the Statistics Bureau, and retired from civil service in 2011.

He has played active roles in international statistics. From 1978 till 1981, he served the UN Statistical Division in the International Comparison Project, precursor of the International Comparison Program (ICP). In 2001, he served the UN Statistical Commission as chairperson. In 2013, he was elected as the President of the International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS), having served for a two-year term. He has also been active in international statistical cooperation.

He is currently President of the Japan Statistical Society, having been elected in 2019.

Anil Arora was appointed Chief Statistician of Canada in September 2016.

Mr. Arora has led significant transformational initiatives throughout his career, with experience and partnerships spanning all three levels of government, the private sector and international organizations, including the UN and the OECD. He has led projects on high-profile policy issues, legislative and regulatory reform, and overseen large national programs.

In 1988, Mr. Arora joined Statistics Canada where he served in several positions, including regional operations, corporate services and the redesign of the dissemination function. In 2000, he became Director of Census Management Office and subsequently the Director General responsible for all aspects of the 2006 Census. In this role, Mr. Arora led the most comprehensive redesign of the Program, including the introduction of an online questionnaire. Following the successful delivery of the 2006 Census he became the Assistant Chief Statistician of Social, Health and Labour Statistics from 2008 to 2010.

In 2009, Mr. Arora received the prestigious APEX Leadership Award in recognition of his exceptional leadership skills and management excellence.

In 2010, Mr. Arora joined Natural Resources Canada as Assistant Deputy Minister of the Minerals and Metals Sector, and in 2013 was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister of Science and Policy Integration. He moved to Health Canada in 2014, becoming Assistant Deputy Minister of Health Products and Food Branch and leading a complex organization overseeing regulation of food, drug and health products for Canada. He also served as chair of the International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities.

Mr. Arora attended the University of Alberta, where he earned a Bachelor of Science, followed by further education in computing science and management, including a graduate certificate in Advanced Public Sector Management at the University of Ottawa, and the Advanced Leadership Program at the Canada School of Public Service.

Gabriella Vukovich was appointed President of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office in 2010, and serves as Chief Statistician of Hungary since 2017.

She was elected Vice-President of the ISI Executive Committee for the period 2019-2021. She was also elected Co-chair of the UN High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda in 2015.

Previously, she was a consultant in Social Statistics and Demography. Between 1998 and 2004 she was Vice-President of the HCSO, and prior to that she was director of the Census Department.

From 2012 to 2013, she was elected Chair of the United Nations Statistical Commission. In 2014, she was the Acting Chair of the UNSC.She worked as a demographer at the Population Activities Unit of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva and as a Population and Development specialist at the Population Division of the United Nations in New York.

She holds a doctorate degree from the Faculty of Law at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, an Honorary Professor title from the National University of Public Service and from the University of Miskolc, as well as an Honorary Doctor title from the University of Miskolc.

Gabriella also served as a member of the Programme Committee for the first and second United Nations World Data Forum.

Since January 2016, Julio A. Santaella is the President of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography of México. From 2001 to 2015, served at the Bank of Mexico as the Executive Coordinator of the Mexican Petroleum Fund, Manager of Information and Analysis, Director of the Central Bank Operations Support, Researcher for the General Direction of Economic Research, as well as for the Central Bank Governing Board. From 1992 to 1997 he served as an economist of the Research Department and the European Department of the International Monetary Fund.

In the academic field, he has been a researcher and teacher at the Technologic Autonomous Institute of Mexico (ITAM, 1985-1986, 1997-2003), Coordinator of the Applied Economics Center, Chairman of the Economics Department and Deputy Director of the Economic Research and Analysis Center.

He received his Bachelor's Degree in Economics from the ITAM, and holds a Master's degree and PhD. in Economics from the University of California (UCLA).

Born in the village of Warima in northern Sierra Leone, Osman Alimamy Sankoh received his Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Njala University in Sierra Leone and another Bachelor's degree in Statistics from the Technical University of Dortmund in Germany. He further holds a Master's degree in Statistics and Spatial Planning and a Doctor of Science degree in Applied Statistics from the Technical University of Dortmund.

Mr. Sankoh joined Stats SL in April 2018 as the Statistician General and CEO. Before that, from 2002-March 2018, he served the INDEPTH Network of demographic and health surveillance systems in Africa, Asia and the Pacific as Communications and External Relations Manager, Deputy Executive Director and from 2007-2018 as Executive Director. Earlier, from 1999-2002 he worked as a biostatistician in the Institute of Public Health at the University of Heidelberg Medical School in Germany.

Mr. Sankoh is a member of the Advisory Boards/Committees of several international academic journals including The Lancet Global Health and Global Health Action and his 100+ peer-reviewed scientific publications have appeared in a range of international journals, including The Lancet, Lancet Global Health, Nature, Science, British Medical Journal, Global Health Action, PLOS MED and the International Journal of Epidemiology. His works on creative writing include Hybrid Eyes - Reflections of an African in Europe and Beautiful Colours - Reflections on the Problem of Racism, both of which are published also in German.

Mr. Sankoh is a visiting professor and a Mercatur Fellow in the Heidelberg Institute for Public Health at the University of Heidelberg Medical School and holds an honorary associate professorship in the School of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

In 1987 Mr. Sankoh was awarded the University of Sierra Leone Prize for Academic Excellence. In 1996 he was awarded the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Prize for Academic Excellence and Exceptional Social Engagements by a Foreign Student. His most recent awards since returning to Sierra Leone are the Diaspora Focus National Development Award 2019 for estimable contribution to national development and the African Consulting Group award 2019 for outstanding public ledership.