The deputy secretary-generals of the Commonwealth assist the secretary-general in managing the operations of the Commonwealth Secretariat, which is the central institution of the Commonwealth of Nations.

History Until 2016, three Commonwealth deputy secretaries-general assisted the secretary-general in running the Commonwealth Secretariat, each assigned an aspect of the Commonwealth's function to address particularly: one to economic affairs, one to political affairs and the other to corporate affairs.

They were elected by the Commonwealth heads of government, like the secretary-general. However, as their terms overlap with those of the secretary-general, and do not coincide with Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGMs), the heads of government are represented through their respective high commissioners in London. Originally, the Secretariat only engaged two deputy secretaries-general, whilst the corporate affairs portfolio was overseen by an assistant secretary-general. This changed in 2014 with the appointment of Gary Dunn from Australia to the post. However, by the end of March 2017, references to the role and Dunn had been removed from the Secretariat's website, indicating that the role may have been abolished though no announcement had been made to that effect.

Under Baroness Scotland's tenure as secretary-general, the vacancies left by the departures of Dunn, Deodat Maharaj, and Josephine Ojiambo were not filled and the three roles merged into a single post.

Lists of deputy scretaries-general +NameCountryStartEndArjoon SuddhooMauritius2019Incumbent

Economic affairs and development

Name Country Start End Tilak E. Gooneratne 1965 1970 Geoffrey Wilson 1971 1971 Hunter Wade 1972 1974Incomplete C. John Small 1979 1983 Peter Marshall 1983 1988 Peter Unwin 1989 1993 Humphrey Maud 1993 1999 Veronica Sutherland 1999 2001 Winston Cox 2001 2006 Ransford Smith 2006 2013 Deodat Maharaj 2014 2017

Political affairs

Name Country Start End A. L. Adu 1966 1970 M. A. Husain 1970 1977 Emeka Anyaoku 1977 19901 Anthony Siaguru 1990 1995 Krishnan Srinivasan 1995 2002 Florence Mugasha 2002 2008 Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwamba 2008 2014 Josephine Ojiambo 2015 2018 1 Initially served from 1977 to 1983, leaving his?? post for a few months to serve as Minister of Foreign Affairs in Nigeria. He was re-instated later that year.

Corporate affairs

Name Country Start End Gary Dunn 2014 2016https://au.linkedin.com/in/gary-dunn-80689213a

Footnotes