Matthew Nimetz

Matthew Nimetz (; born June 17, 1939) is an American diplomat and a former lawyer and retired managing director of a global private equity firm. He was the United Nations Special Representative for the naming dispute between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (now Republic of North Macedonia). He was also the Under Secretary of State for Security Assistance, Science, and Technology.

Early life Matthew Nimetz was born on June 17, 1939, in Brooklyn, New York City, to a Jewish family. He is the son of Joseph and Elsie Nimetz In that capacity he provided advice to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and had special responsibilities in connection with the Cyprus issue, Eastern Mediterranean issues including Greek-Turkish disputes, implementation of the Helsinki Accords and other issues involving Eastern/Central Europe, Mexico–United States border issues, the Micronesian status negotiations, and other matters. He was the senior State Department official involved in the return of the Crown of St. Stephen and other coronation regalia by the United States to Hungary in 1978 and testified before a Congressional Committee relating to the decision to return the crown, which had been entrusted to US forces following the defeat of Hungary in World War II. In December 1979, he was promoted to the post of Under Secretary for Security Assistance, Science and Technology.

After the end of the Carter Administration in January 1981, Nimetz returned to the private sector. He became a partner in the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where he concentrated in corporate and international law. During his 19-year tenure at the Paul Weiss law firm he served on the Executive Committee, as chair of the firm and as head of the corporate department. He moved to join one of his long time clients, the private equity investment firm General Atlantic LLC in January 2000, where he served as a managing director and as Chief Operating Officer through December 2011, when he became an Advisory Director. At General Atlantic, Nimetz was an important part of the team that built General Atlantic into a global growth equity firm with a successful record of investing in growth companies, primarily those that had a technological component. In May 2007 he was again appointed as a Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York by Governor Eliot Spitzer but, upon the resignation of Governor Spitzer, his nomination was not acted upon for confirmation by the State Senate.

From March 1994 to September 1995, he served as President Bill Clinton's Special Envoy to mediate the resolution of the Macedonian Issue, an important regional dispute that the United Nations Security Council had acted upon, involving both a national name and related disputes.

The major issues between the two neighbors were not, however, resolved in the Interim Agreement, and in 1999, Nimetz was appointed to succeed Cyrus Vance as the personal envoy of the UN secretary-general regarding the naming dispute. Nimetz has continued to work mediating between Greece and the Republic of North Macedonia, for more than two decades. He worked for a nominal salary of US$1 a year in order to find a solution suitable for all concerned. Following the successful resolution of the "name" dispute, Nimetz resigned in 2019 as the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. It is said that his UN mediation effort on the "name" dispute from 1999-2019 was the longest continuous mediation of one dispute by a UN mediator.

Nimetz has been a director of The Nature Conservancy of New York, trustee and founding chair of World Resources Institute, trustee emeritus of Williams College and former director of the Committee for Economic Development, and former chair of the advisory board of SUNY Global/The Levin Institute of the University of the State of New York from 2009 through 2014, a trustee emeritus of Central European University, Vienna/Budapest;, a trustee emeritus of American University of Central Asia, Bishkek, Kirghiz Republic. , he was a director/founding (former) chair of the Centre for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeastern Europe, Thessaloniki, Greece; a trustee emeritus of the Rubin Museum of Art, New York; a former director and co-chair of Green City Force, Brooklyn, New York; a trustee emeritus of National Committee on American Foreign Policy. As of 2021, he serves as a director of Landesa, a global not-for-profit organization focused on land rights Landesa Rural Development Institute; as a director of the Interfaith Center of New York, and of the Scholars at Risk Network, and of Americans for Oxford, Inc. He is on the advisory committee for the Williams College Center for Development Economics.

Mr. Nimetz lives in New York City. He is married and has two children and five grandchildren.