Born on 8th of April 938, Kofi Atta Annan is a diplomat from Ghana GCMG who went on to serve as the seventh United Nations Secretary-General from 1st of January 1997 to 1st of January 2007. Kofi Annan received the Nobel Prize for Peace during his career as a diplomat.

Kofi Annan’s parents were Henry and Victoria Reginald Annan living in Kofandros region of Kumasi area in Ghana. Kofi Annan was born as one of the twins, the other being a sister. This is concerned ominous in Ghanaian culture. Annan was part of a family that was one among the elite families of the country with his grandfathers and uncle being tribal chiefs. Annan's father worked for a cocoa company for a long time taking responsibilities of an export manager.

Kofi Annan’s wife, Nane Maria Annan is an artist and Swedish lawyer. Ama and Kojo are two of his children from an earlier marriage with a woman from Nigeria, Titi Alakija, divorced in latter part of the1970s. His wife also has a daughter from her previous husband, Nina C. de Groot.

Kofi Annan graduated from the esteemed Mfantsipim School after studying there from 1954 to 1957. Annan once said that he imbibed the value system from this school that suffering people anywhere in the world ought to be a concern for all the peoples of the world. The year Annan graduated Ghana received independence from Britain.

Kofi Annan studied for an economics degree at a college of Technology and Science in Kumasi which is now a University named after Kwame Nkrumah. Not long afterwards he got a grant from Ford Foundation which enabled him to pursue his studies further in Minnesota, USA at the Macalester College of St. Paul in 1961. Annan then accomplished a degree of DEA for International Relations from an institute for International Studies(IUHEI) located in Geneva, Switzerland. He also went on to receive Master of Science i.e. M.S. degree from the Sloan Management School of MIT.

Annan is well versed in many languages other than English, like French and African languages like Kru and many other Akan dialects. Kofi Annan started his career as a Budget Officer of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1962. From 1974 till 1976, he worked in the capacity of Director for Tourism in Ghana. Annan returned for UN work posted as the Assistant Secretary-General for three positions: Management and Security Coordination for Human Resources during the period of 1987 till 1990; from 1990 till 1992 he took control of Finance, Budget and Program Planning as Controller and finally became in charge of Peacekeeping Operations from March of 1993 till February of 1994.

On December 13th 1996, UN Security Council recommended Annan to replace the Egyptian Dr. Boutros-Ghali as the Secretary-General, after the latter’s second term’s nomination was vetoed by the United States. Kofi Annan was voted the Secretary-General after four days by the General Assembly. His first UN Secretary-General term began on The New Year’s Day of 1st January 1997.

A "Call to Action" with five points was issued by Annan in April 2001 to address the pandemic of HIV/AIDS, terming it as his personal priority as the UN Secretary-General. He proposed establishing a Health and AIDS Global Fund to accelerate spending for the help of developing countries facing the crisis of HIV/AIDS.

Kofi Annan was unflustered in calling the Iraq invasion illegal as it violated the UN charter. Annan was supportive of dispatching a United Nations peacekeeping mission to Sudan, after which he collaborated with the Sudan government to perform a power transfer from the peacekeeping mission of African Union to that of the UN. Annan was also involved in issues like women’s rights and others with many Arab and Muslim nations.

Kofi Annan supported Mark Malloch Brown, the deputy UN Secretary-General under him when he boldly criticized some segments of media in the US. His contentious speech openly lampooned Fox News and Rush Limbaugh for not revealing the UN’s role in peacekeeping on 6th June 2006.The ambassador for USA John Bolton reportedly called Annan and told him that he has made a great mistake as a senior official of UN. But when he was asked to comment on Kofi Annan’s career(which spanned 2 glorious terms for 10 years) at the close of the latter’s tenure he could only manage a sheepish "I'll pass."

 On 7th of March 2006, Kofi Annan presented a reform report to the General Assembly with his proposals for overhauling fundamentals of the UN Secretariat. On the 30th of the same month he presented another report with his recommendations after analysis for critical changes to be made to the UN Secretariat. Post UN Kofi Annan has been involved with many important political happenings in his country and other African Nations.Currently he is the Chancellor of University of Ghana.