United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres confirmed on 11 August 2017 the appointment of Michèle Coninsx (Belgium) as Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) at the Assistant Secretary-General level, following the concurrence of the Security Council. She succeeds Jean-Paul Laborde of France to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his commitment and dedicated service to the Organization.
 
Ms. Coninsx currently serves as President of Eurojust, the Judicial Cooperation Unit of the European Union. She is also the Chair of Eurojust’s Counter Terrorism Team and of the Task Force on the Future of Eurojust.
 
In 2001 Ms. Coninsx joined Pro-Eurojust as Deputy Prosecutor General and became National Member for Belgium at Eurojust in 2002. She was appointed Vice-President of Eurojust (2008-2012) and became a member of the Presidency Team, and served as Acting President of Eurojust (2009-2010).
 
Prior to joining Pro-Eurojust, she was appointed National Prosecutor (1997) and served as Deputy Public Prosecutor at the Public Prosecutors Office of Brussels (1990-1997), Expert to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and Instructor Antiterrorism in the air, with assignment at the Belgian National Aviation Security Committee (Civil Aviation Administration).
 
Ms. Coninsx holds a Master’s degree in Law and a Master’s degree in Criminology from the University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel - VUB). She received the Aggregation higher secondary education (Law) and is specialised in air law, Auditor of the High Studies Security and Defence - Royal Higher Institute for Defence, Brussels (2005-2006). She is a Visiting Professor in the College of Europe (since 2016), Visiting Professor in the School of Law at Queen Mary University of London (since 2015) and hon. Fellow of Law and Criminology at VUB (since 2014).