Richard Ponzio is currently the UNDP Peace and Development Coordinator in the Solomon Islands, overseeing projects related to governance reform, rehabilitation, and peacebuilding. 

He previously served as a Policy Adivsor for UNDP's Human Development Report Office, an assistant to the Deputy SRSG for the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Sierra Leone, and as a Visiting Fulbright Fellow at the Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre in Pakistan. 

Richard holds a degree in conflict resolution and development economics from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and plans to start work, in 2004, on a DPhil thesis on post-conflict political and military reconstruction issues.