Major General Arthur David Gawn

Head of Mission and Chief of Staff

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Major General Arthur David Gawn of New Zealand as Head of Mission and Chief of Staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO). 

Major General Gawn succeeds Major General Michael Finn of Ireland, who will complete his assignment on 31 July 2015. The Secretary-General is grateful to Major General Finn for his dedicated leadership of UNTSO over the past two years. 

Major General Gawn brings to the position extensive command experience and knowledge of peacekeeping attained through service at the national and international levels. He Major General Gawn is currently the Chief of Army of New Zealand, a position he has held since 2013. He also held a number of senior positions, including Commander Joint Forces New Zealand, Deputy Chief of Army, Land Component Commander and Commander Third Land Force Group. His peacekeeping experience includes command of Kiwi Company NZFOR in the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia in 1994 and the Third New Zealand Battalion Group in the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor in 2000. 

Major General Gawn holds a master’s degree in strategic studies from Deakin University in Melbourne, having also attended the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies in Canberra, Australia. He is a graduate of the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and the School of Advanced Warfighting at Quantico, in Virginia. 

Born in 1958, Major General Gawn is married and has three children.