Three Brazilians names UNESCO Goodwill Ambassadors

Three Brazilians – a businessman, a designer and an artist – will be formally named Goodwill Ambassadors for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Friday, the agency announced today.

UNESCO said the new ambassadors, the businessman Nizan Guanaes, the designer Oskar Metsavaht and the artist Vik Muniz, will serve for two years as unpaid ambassadors using their talents and fame to advocate UNESCO ideals on behalf of vulnerable groups in Brazil and elsewhere.

Mr. Guanaes, 52, is the chairman of Grupo ABC de Comunicação, which brings together 18 advertising, marketing, content and entertainment companies. Mr Guanaes is also the President of the Association of Entrepreneurs and Businessmen Friends of UNESCO, which he founded in 2004 with Oskar Metsavaht.

Mr. Metsavaht, born in 1961, trained as an orthopaedist. In 1997 he created the sportswear label Osklen, which promotes a philosophy of living in harmony with the environment. He is also the founder of Instituto-E, a non-profit organization in Rio de Janeiro that promotes sustainable human development through its e-brigaders, groups of young people working for sustainable development, environmental protection and social inclusion.

Mr. Muniz, born in São Paulo in 1961, has lived in New York since the late 1980s. He uses photography to immortalize the images he creates with materials as varied as sugar, chocolate, diamonds, dust and recycled objects. He has shown his work in major museums and galleries around the world. His award-winning documentary film Waste Land is based on one of his projects.

The new ambassadors will join a roster that also includes former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela, the Cuban ballerina and choreographer Alicia Alonso and Princess Caroline of Hanover.