I hold a diverse and challenging position involving the responsibility for financial analysis, departmental policy and resource management. I address issues of programme planning, organizational structure, budget formulation, cost analysis and procurement procedures. These are subjects which impact the workday and activities of everyone in the Department, designed to create a more effective and efficient organization, with honed objectives and meaningful results.

While I am given broad freedom and independence in pursuing my work, I am also fortunate to be part of an environment which fosters great team spirit among colleagues in my Section and throughout the Department. I often participate in working groups or task forces on Departmental or Agency-wide topics. These working groups have been a rich forum for creativity, innovation and exchange of ideas. Lively discussions at management seminars, decisive appeals for the purchase of equipment which will help deter or detect mishandling of nuclear materials, and bustling preparations of a response to a Member State's inquiry, are examples of a dynamic and energized environment on a typical business day.

The diversity of the staff is a wonderful aspect of working at the IAEA. The common denominator is the highest standard of quality, and I am happy for the opportunity to meet colleagues from countries conceived as remote and exotic in the stories I heard as a child. I can now claim good friends from every continent and feel enriched by their diversity, their customs and their individuality.

My own background is also diverse. I grew up in Montevideo in a family with Italian and German roots and Uruguayan traditions. I earned a BA in Economics and an MBA in Finance in the United States, worked for the International Monetary Fund, became a Certified Public Accountant, and for 10 years headed my own auditing and accounting firm in Washington, D.C. In 1992, my husband and I moved to Europe.

The professional and personal rewards of working at the IAEA are matched by its appealing location. Vienna is a gentle city with beautiful architecture, full of parks, music and great auction houses. Imperial times are still alive in its elegant coffee houses and traditional balls, while the new century marches in on the stage of modern theatres, concert houses and art galleries.

After 4 years I find my work at the IAEA as challenging and exciting as ever. It has been a rewarding experience which has raised my awareness of the importance of a forum for dialogue and communication on nuclear issues among the peoples of the world. By working at the IAEA I have come to fully recognize that, in our own measure, each one of us can contribute to the development of international solutions to the problems which affect the world today.