UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Tuesday announced the appointment of Jens Wandel of Denmark as special adviser to the secretary-general on reforms.

Guterres has decided to establish a reform coordination structure under the joint leadership of deputy secretary-general and the chef de cabinet.

"The transition team will be headed by the special adviser on reforms to ensure the overall coordination of the three reform streams -- sustainable development, peace and security, and management," said a UN spokesperson Tuesday.

Wandel has had many years of service within UNDP. He served as assistant administrator (assistant secretary-general), director of bureau of management from 2012 to 2017.

He has also served in several management functions focusing on change initiatives, including as director, centre for business solution, as management adviser and project director for the work improvement tools project and as a country-level coordinator of UNDP's New Horizon 2001 change management exercise.

He has also held various leadership positions at the country level, including as UN resident coordinator and UNDP resident representative, Turkmenistan; UNDP deputy resident representative, Kyrgyzstan; and UNDP assistant resident representative, Vietnam.

Wandel brings a combination of substantive programming knowledge and operational expertise covering both UNDP and UN agencies. He has been the architect of a major business re-engineering project for UNDP, and can provide strategic leadership to UNDP's operations to support the organization's change agenda.

Wandel holds a master of arts equivalent in political science, University of Aarhus, Denmark.

Born in 1962, he is married and has three children.