It was on a bright November morning that I met Michaela Friberg Storey — the tall, warm and energetic Swede who today leads all United Nations work in Thailand. I hoped to learn a bit more about who this statuesque, blonde, and charming woman is in her private life.
After first taking the MRT for eight stations Sukhumvit to Sam Yot, I continued by taxi to the UN building. It is an enormous complex, and it took the driver some time to figure out where to drop me off, but after a little over one hour I found myself standing at the correct entrance, received a badge, and was met by an intern from Michaela’s department.
Michaela welcomed me into her modern, bright office, and after exchanging a few personal remarks, I took out my pen and notebook and began asking Michaela my questions.
Michaela was born and raised on Östermalm in Stockholm.
Already at the age of 16, she felt ready to spread her wings, and unlike most Swedish teenagers who have the United States as their first choice for studies, Michaela wanted to go as far away as possible – and the natural choice became Australia.
She arrived in Melbourne and enrolled at Doncaster School outside the city. During her time in Australia, she took the opportunity to travel around the country, and she found the people somewhat a bit unique. She came to understand clearly how all of us are shaped by our surroundings, our culture, and our traditions.
After her stay in Australia, she returned to Sweden and Stockholm and completed her upper secondary education (studenten) at Östra Real and then enrolled at Stockholm and Uppsala University.
The next destination became France and Paris, where she studied the French language.
After Paris followed Belgium and the University Catholique de Louvain, a university of values, (UC Louvain), one of the oldest universities in Europe, located about 30 kilometers southeast of Brussel. This is the largest French-speaking university in Belgium. Here Michaela took her masters in “humanitarian assistance” (katastrofhjälp).
She also worked a short period for the EU (European Union) Commission and for “Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)” which was founded December 22, 1971 in Paris.
In her mind, she saw herself travelling to a conflict zone in Africa to continue her professional career, but instead her first humanitarian field mission became Albania, where the pyramid scheme had just fallen. We are talking 1998 and the country was in chaos.
Later she became part of the MSF-team that went into Kosovo during the NATO bombings in 1999.
She stayed in Kosovo, decided to leave Doctors Without Borders and instead joined the OSCE, (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) another important organization that Michaela compares to a mini-UN. This organization was founded in 1972 under the name ESK. It’s the world’s biggest regional security organization, with 57 participating states, working for peace, security and cooperation in Europe.
Almost 10 years Michaela stayed and worked in the Balkans under UN peacemaking mandate.
In Kosovo Michaela met her husband, Adam Storey, who is a British Psychologist and who also worked for the United Nations. Their first son Jonathan, saw the daylight in Kosovo. The family stayed in Kosovo until 2008 when they returned to Sweden.
Michaela was offered a job for the Folke Bernadotte Academy, a specialist government agency focusing on peace and conflict issues.
In Stockholm their second son Winston was born. Michaela went on to work for UD (The Ministry for Foreign Affairs) in Stockholm, until she in 2015, received an offer from The Red Cross that she couldn’t resist; She became responsible for the international programmes of the Swedish Red Cross around the world. With staff and operations in more than 20 countries she travelled more days of the year than she was home.
In 2018 the family moved to Bangkok and two years later Michaela was appointed by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres as his UN Resident Coordinator (UN RC) in Kazakhstan.
She stayed in Kazakhstan for 4 years, while Adam was staying with the 2 teenager sons in Bangkok. During these 4 years the family was apart, Michaela could fully concentrate on her work and Adam got to enjoy real quality time with both sons.
In September 2024, the UN Secretary-General appointed her back to Thailand as UNRC. In her position, she is responsible for everything the United Nations does in Thailand. With Michaela’s over 25 years of expertise in international humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding work, she was a more than suitable candidate.
So, has this busy woman any time for a hobby I had to ask.
“Yes, I play golf on and off and I like to stroll around in slightly secluded neighborhoods in Bangkok” Michaela answered.
The last book she read was “Klara and the sun” by the Japanese author Kazuo Ishiguro, who also wrote the famous book “The Remains of the Day”.
She mostly prefers to read and holding a “real” book, but recently she listened to Hjalmar Söderberg’s, “Doctor Glass” read by Krister Henriksson, which she warmly recommends us to listen too. Michaela loves the Swedish language and she has always spoken only Swedish with both their sons, and her husband also speaks quite well Swedish, after several years in Sweden.
Michaela enjoys her life in Bangkok and has been travelling around quite a lot. She likes the islands, Koh Tao she finds wonderful with its clear water and chilled atmosphere.
She finds the Thai people very friendly and they have a strong driving force she thinks. All traffic accidents scare her and she has, like myself, often difficulties with the very warm, humid weather. We both said in chorus; “We are typical winter girls,” or better said, ladies.
She finds the Thai food absolutely “aroy mak mak” (very delicious) and she can eat spicy dishes, also something we have in common. I very often finish my interviews asking this question; “If you could choose one person, dead or alive, to have dinner with, who would you pick and why and where would you like the dinner to take place?”
Here Michaela has to think for a second, but the first name she mentioned was late Koffi Annan, (United Nation’s Secretary-General from 1 January 1997 until 31 December 2006) most probably a very interesting gentleman to dine with, but she also added late Nelson Mandela, not less interesting, and of course she mentioned 2 women, Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados and late Astrid Lindgren, and after another second she added “Oh, my mum of course, she can talk to everybody and always knows what to say.”
I immediately thought, “like mother, like daughter”.
The dinner Michaela wanted to take place in the Stockholm archipelago, where the family owns a summerhouse. The guests should be served self-caught Perch with Chantarelles, self-picked, sugar snap peas and fresh potatoes with a little dill.
That sounds like a superb dinner that no one can resist, a very typical Swedish summer menu.
The time flew by and it was time for me to say good bye as Michaela had a meeting waiting and I had to find my way back home.
Thank you, dear Michaela, for a very pleasant talk and good luck with everything, until we meet again!
