Richard J. Cook

Chief, Party for Habitat for Humanity International in the Middle East

Richard is from the United Kingdom.

Richard Cook is a former senior United Nations civil servant, and served for twenty-seven years in Austria, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan, and the USA. For fifteen of those years, he was Director of UNRWA Operations/Affairs in the West Bank, Lebanon and Jordan, responsible for government and donor relations, and management of UNRWA operations, including education, health, social services, and microfinance to Palestine Refugees. His last posting with the United Nations was as Director of the UNRWA Representative Office in New York, responsible for liaison with the UN Secretariat, the General Assembly, the Security Council, donor missions, and the governments of the United States and Canada. 

Before joining the United Nations, Richard practised as a Chartered Surveyor in both the public and private construction sectors in the United Kingdom, the Middle East and Asia. In addition to his professional qualifications – Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators – he has a Master of Laws in Commercial Law from the University of Northumbria in Newcastle and a Post-graduate Diploma in Arbitration from the University College of Estate Management. He also studied Creative Writing as an undergraduate at the University of Oxford and now focuses on writing in several genres, including fiction, non-fiction, drama, and poetry.

After retiring from the United Nations, Richard returned to private practice with Dar Al-Handasah (Shair & Partners) in Beirut, one of the leading construction design and management companies in the world, specialising in project and contract management, and construction law. More recently, he returned to humanitarian affairs with Habitat for Humanity as Chief of Party for the Middle East to establish its Middle East programme. He retired in 2019 and now concentrates on his writing.