In 2023, Tim Curtis became the Director and representative of the UNESCO Regional Office in New Delhi, which includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka. Prior to this appointment, he served as the Secretary of UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage, managing the statutory and operational aspects of UNESCO’s global programme for Living Heritage. He has worked in culture and sustainable development in various international contexts for over twenty-five years, of which twenty have been with UNESCO. From 2004 until 2016, he served as a UNESCO Programme Specialist for Culture in East Africa and Southeast Asia. Before his work with UNESCO, he was engaged in advocacy and academic pursuits. He received a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University, during which he conducted extensive ethnographic research among the Na’hai speakers of Malakula, Republic of Vanuatu.