Maimunah Mohd Sharif

Maimunah Mohd Sharif is the Mayor of Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia’s Special Envoy for Sustainable Urbanisation. Appointed in 2024 as the capital city’s first woman mayor, she is leading initiatives to make Kuala Lumpur a livable and carbon-neutral city by 2040.

From 2018 to 2024, she served as Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). The first Asian woman to lead UN-Habitat, she repositioned the agency as a global thought leader on sustainable urban development, launching its 2020–2023 Strategic Plan with priorities that included climate action, reduced inequality, enhanced prosperity, and crisis prevention. Under her tenure, UN-Habitat was present in 93 countries with projects in 1,600 cities. This included improved access to water for 58 million people, supporting five million low-income urban residents, and providing COVID-19 relief to one million people.

Recipient of the Global Human Settlements Outstanding Contribution Award and the Malaysian Institute of Planners’ Planner of the Year award, she also serves on the COP29 Urbanisation Advisory Group. She holds degrees in urban planning from the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology and the Malaysia Science University.

Driven by a vision of urban environments that are sustainable, equitable and inclusive, Maimunah Mohd Sharif has consistently advanced policies that centre voices of women, marginalized communities, and city residents.

Maimunah Mohd Sharif will address the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science ceremony on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, at 3 p.m.