Kaveh served as the Deputy Executive Secretary of UNESCAP from 2016 to 2023.

From 1995 to 2016 he served at UNEP in positions of in-creasing responsibility, including as Regional Director and Representative for Asia and the Pacific; Deputy Director of the Economy Division and Climate Change Coordinator (Paris, France); Acting Director/Deputy Director of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (Cambridge, United Kingdom); Regional Coordinator (Mexico City, Mexico); and Environmental Affairs Officer (Nairobi, Kenya).

Mr Zahedi started his career in 1993 as Economic Consult-ant at the non-governmental organization Cooperation for Development in London as responsible for managing agricultural credit and microfinance projects in Latin America and the Middle East. He holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from The Fletcher School at Tufts University and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from University College London.