Ms Guerrieri, a national of Italy, holds an M.Sc. in Agronomy from the University of Bologna, Italy, and a Diploma in Watershed Management from the International Institute for Aerial Survey and Earth Science (ITC), Enschede, Netherlands. Ms Guerrieri started her career in 1982 as an aerial photo-interpreter. Between 1982 and 1988, she worked for the University of Bologna as a researcher/teacher of soil conservation and land evaluation/ watershed management. During that period, she was a member of the Board of Examiners for the Soil Science Degree and served as Coordinator of the Environmental Education Project funded by the European Commission. In 1987, she became Land Management Consultant for the UNICEF Irrigation Project in Timbuctu, Mali. Ms Guerrieri joined FAO in 1988 as Associate Project Operations Officer in the Latin American and Caribbean Desk, Forestry Department, FAO Headquarters. From 1990 to 1992, she served as Programme Officer for the FAO Representation in Equatorial Guinea, outposted from Cameroon and then, from 1992 to 1995, as Deputy FAO Representative in Côte d’Ivoire. In 1995, she returned to Headquarters as Project Analyst, Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP). In 1998, she was appointed FAO Representative in Vietnam. She returned to Headquarters in 2002 as Chief, Emergency Operations Service, TCEO. In August 2008, she was appointed Deputy Regional Representative, Subregional Coordinator for Central and Eastern Europe in Budapest. In addition, she also served as FAO Representative in Armenia, Georgia and Moldova. Ms Guerrieri succeeds Ms Maria Kadlecikova as Assistant Director-General/Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia.