Senior Vice President and Head of the New York Office
Sofia Borges is the United Nations Foundation’s Senior Vice President and leads the Foundation’s office in New York. Before joining the UN Foundation, Sofia was the Deputy Chef de Cabinet to the President of the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly (2017-2018) and served in the Cabinet of the President of the 71st Session (2016-2017) of the UN General Assembly as his Special Adviser on Strategic Engagement and Transparency.
Prior to joining the Office of the President of the UN General Assembly, Sofia worked as Special Adviser on the 2030 Agenda to the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA).
Previously, she was Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Timor-Leste to the UN from 2010-2016. She was the Chief Negotiator for her country during the Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals (2013-2014) and Chief Negotiator for Timor-Leste on the Post-2015 Inter-Governmental Negotiations on the SDGs (2014-2015). She was Chair of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (2014-2016). Sofia also served as Chair of the g7+ (2010-2014), a role that was critical in the negotiations on the 2030 Agenda. Sofia was also a member of the Advisory Board UN Democracy Fund (2012-2013) as well as a Member of the Executive Board of UN Women (2012-2013). Before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sofia worked as a Women’s Anthropologist at the Central Land Council in Australia.
Sofia holds degrees in Anthropology, Political Science, and Law from the Australian National University, Canberra, and Northern University, Darwin. She speaks Tetum, English, and Portuguese.
