Geoffroy Poiré

Geoffroy Poiré works for the WHO Cambodia Country Office as a Programme Officer. He served in several duty stations before joining the office and brought a wealth of experience and knowledge to the position. The administrative part of his job includes the standard elements: the planning, funding and resourcing of the country health programmes using the in-house systems and resources around WHO’s strict administrative rules, which allow for monitoring and reporting at various levels in the organization. But the job is more than that, and there are also the surprise elements that he has learnt to take in his stride, like the glitches that upset regular implementation efforts and cause staff from various teams to seek his advice; an unforeseen conflict that creates a security situation; a sudden climate or outbreak event; or an unexpected government requirement that threatens to derail the usual implementation plan. This is where Geoffroy’s 12 years in administration with WHO and several years in HR planning allow him to break down the problem and find a solution.

Geoffroy was born in France to a family of educators. After school, with a preconception that multilateral and government organizations were not for the likes of him, he found a more realistic interest in the human resource part of his degree in business administration. Then, while looking for a related internship, Geoffroy went on a weekend mushroom picking excursion with some acquaintances. Unexpectedly, that led to an offer for an unusual internship in a coffee production and export company in India. “I was way outside my comfort zone but said yes anyway. I moved to a new country, adapted to a new culture and learnt so much from it,” he says. This would just be the first of the many countries that Geoffroy went on to live and work in.

He describes his career as one adventure after another, all stemming from coincidences and his willingness to go beyond his own boundaries. He also opted for civil service during his national military posting and worked on an outreach project for the French consulate in California, which led to a job offer from a law firm. This looked good on the CV of a relatively young person. Access to a job in the United Nations came shortly after via the Junior Professional Officer programme and he wound up in New York working in human resources on planning and monitoring. During this time he also completed a master’s degree in political science, and together these experiences led to contracts with the United Nations Peacekeeping operations. Although he was in quite a junior position, Geoffroy was working with resource organization for ramping missions up and down. This work would be key in his later roles in WHO. Again, he lucked out when his supervisor transferred and he was put in an acting role, where he gained important exposure to the management roles above him and confidence in his own capacity.

Since his role in UN Peace Keeping exposed Geoffroy to so many desperate situations of conflict, displaced people and natural disasters, he now knew that he would stay in humanitarian work for as long as he felt he could contribute. For more stability, he applied for a fixed term role as a Human Resources Officer in WHO and spent the next 15 years building an impressive portfolio working in WHO Headquarters and supporting the operationalization of WHO’s new support centre in Malaysia. Then, with another jump outside his comfort zone, he moved to a position in the WHO Laos Country Office, this time as an Administrative Officer. In his new role he used both his HR knowledge and his experience from the UN for the financial operational work. “As before, when I was put in the acting position, I brought experience with me but had a lot to learn and just took the risk. It was really worth it because it also led to more opportunities,” he explains.