Appointed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on 9 August 2017, Smale succeeded Cristina Gallach of Spain, who had served in the position from 4 December 2014 to 31 March 2017.
[1] Born on 5 February 1955 (London, UK), Smale has almost 40-years of journalism experience gained in an international career that has included holding some of the most prestigious posts in the profession.
Since August 2013, Smale served as chief correspondent for The New York Times for Germany and central and eastern Europe.
[8] She covered the anti-Communist revolutions in Eastern Europe and, on the night of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, crossed Checkpoint Charlie along with the first East Germans to do so.
[9] The Independent, in an article about the IHT's redesign in April 2009, which Smale oversaw, called her "the most powerful British female editor overseas.