Her Excellency Amb. Marie-Therese Picket-Althann joined the United Nations Office at Geneva in 1970 as an international civil servant. Following an assignment in the Division of Administration, she served the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 1974 to 1983. During this period, she took on field missions to Africa and Central America and was entrusted in the Division of Protection with the reunification of refugee families.
In 1995, she joined the diplomatic service of the Sovereign Order of Malta where she has since served as First Counsellor, Minister Counsellor and Deputy Permanent Observer and since 2005 as Ambassador and Permanent Observer to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva.
In 1999, Marie-Thérèse Pictet-Althann founded the Diplomatic Spouses’ Circle, now the International Circle of Geneva, which she served as President until 2009. She was also Vice-President of the Geneva Diplomatic Club and served on its committee. In 2011 she co-founded with Cardinal Silvano Tomasi the Foundation “Caritas in Veritate” and served as its Vice-President until 2015.
In 2002, she was awarded the Order of Malta’s Cross pro Merito Melitensi with Crown and in 2015 with Plaque. She became Dame Commander of the Papal Order of Saint Gregory the Great in 2014.
