The IAEA Board of Governors elected by acclamation the Governor of South Africa, Ambassador Tebogo Seokolo, as the Chairman of the IAEA’s Board of Governors for 2016-2017. His one-year term commences today.? He replaces the Governor of Brazil, Ambassador Laércio Antonio Vinhas.

Ambassador Seokolo is South Africa's Permanent Representative to the United Nations and International Organizations in Vienna and is also his country's Ambassador to Austria, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Since joining the South African Foreign Service in 1995, his appointments have included serving at the South African Embassy in The Netherlands, and as Deputy and Acting Chief of State Protocol and Chief Director for Western Europe in the Department of International Relations and Cooperation in Pretoria. He also served as South Africa’s Ambassador to Turkey, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.

In his current assignment, Ambassador Seokolo has served as the co-Chair of the Friends of ReNuAL — the IAEA project to renovate its Nuclear Applications Laboratories in Seibersdorf, Austria; Chairperson of the African Group (July to December 2015); President of the Board of UNIDO (November 2014 to June 2015); Vice Chairperson of the PrepCom of the CTBTO; Vice-Chairperson of the United Nations Crime Congress (2015) and 2^nd Vice Chair of the 25^th Session of the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.

Ambassador Seokolo has a Master's degree in Diplomatic Studies from the University of Pretoria and a Bachelor’s degree in History and English Literature from the Vista University.

During the one-day session, the Board of Governors also elected the two Vice-Chairs, Governor of Latvia, Bahtijors Hasans and Governor of Spain, Gonzalo de Salazar Serantes.

Eleven countries have been newly elected to serve on the 35-member IAEA Board of Governors for the period 2016-2018. The election took place today at the plenary session of the 60th IAEA General Conference. The newly elected Board members are Algeria, Argentina, Costa Rica, C?te d’Ivoire, Denmark, the Netherlands, Peru, Qatar, Singapore, Slovenia and the United Arab Emirates.

For 2016-2017 the new composition of the 35-member IAEA Board of Governors is as follows: ?Algeria,? Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, C?te d’Ivoire, Denmark, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Latvia, Namibia, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Qatar, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America and Uruguay.