František Ruzicka and Yasushi Masaki have been appointed as new Deputy Secretaries-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. They will take up their duties on 1 December 2025.
They will both bring substantial multilateral, foreign service and leadership experience to their new roles.
František Ruzicka, a Slovak national, joins the OECD with a wealth of relevant senior public service experience, after a distinguished foreign service career over a period of more than 35 years, including as a former Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, as a long serving ambassador to the UN, as Chief of Staff to the President of the UN General Assembly and more recently as ambassador to the OECD.
During his term as ambassador to the OECD František served for two years as Chair of the OECD’s Executive Committee, leading efforts to achieve consensus on key corporate reforms delivered during that period.
Yasushi Masaki, a Japanese national, joins the senior leadership team of the OECD after a distinguished career in Japan’s Foreign Ministry spanning more than 40 years. During this time, he has served in many important and relevant positions, including in Japanese delegations to the WTO, in the Economic Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs in charge of OECD Affairs, as Ambassador to the European Union, and more recently as Ambassador to Indonesia.
During his career Yasushi has been involved in a wide range of important Free Trade Agreement negotiations, including with China, Korea and Australia and on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
František and Yasushi will join the OECD’s other Deputy Secretaries-General Fabrizia Lapecorella and Mary Beth Goodman.
Working with over 100 countries, the OECD is a global policy forum that promotes policies to preserve individual liberty and improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.