UNECE Executive Secretary from 1987 to 1993Gerald Hintereger received a Bachelor of Arts in international studies from the University of Mississippi, USA in 1951, followed by a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Graz, Austria, and finally a Doctor of Law from the University of Vienna, Austria. He joined the Foreign Service in 1957. From 1965 to 1970 he was Embassy Secretary at the Austrian Embassy in Washington, and from 1970 to 1975 Head of the Cabinet of the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1975 he was named Austrian Ambassador to Spain, a post he held until 1978, when he became Austrian Ambassador to the Soviet Union. In 1981 he was recalled to Vienna, and became Secretary-General for Foreign Affairs and Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations, a post he held in Vienna for the next six years.