If there’s one man who could get opposing political parties on board with funding humanitarian crises and development work abroad — even in a time of tightening foreign aid budgets — it’s probably David Beasley.
The former executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme raised a record-breaking amount of money for the agency: $55 billion over a six-year tenure that wrapped up in April 2023. He grew that amount each year, focusing not just on famine and starvation but on mass migration and destabilization.
Before joining WFP, Beasley — an American and a Republican known for his brash, straight-talking style — served as the governor of South Carolina. He knows a thing or two about convincing political conservatives that foreign aid is in their own domestic interest.