Profile of Kofi Annan

— -- When Kofi Annan was a college student in Minnesota, he vowed never to wear earmuffs.

It seems they offended the elegant Annan's sense of style. But the native of Ghana changed his mind after a midwinter outing nearly froze his ears off.

"Never walk into an environment and assume that you understand it better than the people who live there," he said in a 1994 speech.

It's an attitude that has helped Annan to become perhaps the most important and powerful secretary-general the United Nations has ever had. Almost immediately after he was named to the post in 1997, he has was thrown into dealing with the refugee situation in Central Africa.

In the years that followed, he been an important broker in several other diplomatic crises, among them:

The 1998 attempt to gain Iraq's compliance with U.N. Security Council regulations,

Talks to resolve the stalemate between Libya and the Security Council over the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland;

The 1999 transition of East Timor to independence;

Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000;

Continuing efforts to quell the violence in the Middle East.

Annan also worked to make improvements within the United Nations. He introduced fiscal reforms and brokered a deal to get the United States to pay its debt to the United Nations, estimated to be at least $1 billion.

As Annan's first five-year term was winding to a close, he and the United Nations won one of the world community's greatest honors. In 2001, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Annan and the United Nations the famous Peace Prize.

In conferring the prize, the Nobel Committee said Annan "had been pre-eminent in bringing new life to the organization."

Annan was also elected to a second term that year.

Distinguished Background

Colleagues describe Annan as self-confident and candid, with a keen sense of humor. He has been a popular and familiar figure both inside and outside the United Nations.