Stefan Schweinfest was appointed Director of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD/DESA) in July 2014. Under his leadership, the Division compiles and disseminates global statistical information, develops standards and norms for statistical activities including the integration of geospatial, statistical and other information, and supports countries' efforts to strengthen their national statistical and geospatial systems.

Stefan Schweinfest started his career joining the Statistics Division in 1989 in the area of national accounting. He subsequently worked in various other areas, such as statistical capacity building programmes, and indicator frameworks. For many years, he was also responsible for external relationships of the Division, both with member countries as well as with international partner organizations. He has been the substantive secretary of two intergovernmental bodies, the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) since 2002, and the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UNGGIM) since 2011.

Stefan Schweinfest studied Mathematical Economics at the Universities of Wuerzburg and Bonn in Germany. He holds a Diplome D'Etudes Approfondies (Masters equivalent) from the University of Paris in these fields. He also conducted postgraduate research at the London School of Economics (LSE).

In his private time, he likes to sing and has performed numerous concerts with his chorus in Carnegie Hall. He is also a passionate marathon runner and loves to hit the road all over the world.

Ms. Aishath Shahuda, is currently the Deputy Chief Statistician of the Maldives Bureau of Statistics. She has thirty years of experience in official statistics in the National Statistics Office.

Her current responsibilities lie in leadership and management of the Statistics Bureau as well as in the development and coordination of the National Statistical System of Maldives.

She served as the Chief Statistician of the National Bureau of Statistics for eight years, prior to the ratification of Maldives Statistics Act in July 2021. Prior to this she was head of Economic Statistics Section. She has knowledge and experience in planning and management of Censuses and national household surveys.

Ms. Shahuda has also been active in the international statistical community. She served as the chair of the ESCAP committee on Statistics during 2015-2016 and as board member of the Bureau prior to that. She also represented the South Asia Region at the PARIS21 board.

She has a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Wollongong, Australia.

Dr. Jaroslav Sixta studied Statistics at the University of Economics in Prague (Czech Republic). He graduated in 2003 with the final thesis “Accumulation and changes of worth in national accounts, specifics of non-produced assets”.

Dr. Sixta has been working at the Czech Statistical Office since 2002, he started in the National Accounts Department where he was responsible for non-financial assets. From 2007 to 2014, he was Head of the Input-Output Tables Unit and then he became Director of the Macroeconomic Statistics Section. In 2018, dr. Sixta became Vice-President of the Czech Statistical Office. He has provided technical assistance to many countries (mainly North Macedonia, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine).

In 2010, he received his Ph.D. and since then, he has been actively participating in the academic sphere as an Associate Professor. He is also a Lecturer of national accounts, economic statistics, and advanced statistical methods. He is an author/co-author of three scientific books and more than one hundred scientific contributions in the field of statistics covering papers and conference contributions. He is a member of the International Input-Output Association, the Czech Statistical Society, and the Czech Demographic Society.