Who's who in #globaldev: February 2019 appointments

UNEP U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Inger Andersen as the new head of the U.N. Environment Programme. She replaces Erik Solheim, who resigned in November following an internal audit that revealed excessive travel costs. Andersen served in various roles focusing on the environment throughout her career. Prior to the appointment, she was director general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. She also served in various positions at the World Bank, including as vice president for the Middle East and North Africa. UNAIDS Guterres has also appointed Shannon Hader as new deputy executive director of programs at UNAIDS. Hader has a longstanding career working on infectious diseases, including HIV response. Prior to her appointment, she was director of the division of global HIV and tuberculosis at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She also previously served as senior deputy director on HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, sexually transmitted diseases, and TB administration for the District of Columbia, and as director of CDC in Zimbabwe. She starts in her new role in March. The Skoll Foundation Donald Gips, former U.S. ambassador to South Africa and architect of the AmeriCorps program, is the new CEO of the Skoll Foundation. Jeff Skoll, the foundation’s founder and chairman, said of Gips’ appointment: “Don Gips is an exceptional leader who will bring global insight, proven relationship‐building capacity, diverse professional experiences, and impeccable character to the Skoll Foundation.” EBRD The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has appointed its first director for gender and economic inclusion. Barbara Rambosek, who led the bank’s current economic inclusion strategy, will expand the bank’s inclusion work to gender across its investments. “We will build on our distinctive private sector focused model and experience over the past years but also continue to innovate and learn in order to further deepen and strengthen our impact,” she said in a statement following her appointment. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Cheikh Oumar Seydi joins the Gates Foundation as its new director for Africa. Seydi, who was previously regional director for sub-Saharan Africa of the World Bank’s International Finance Corp., comes to the foundation as it plans to expand its work in the continent WHO Gabby Stern is moving from the Gates Foundation to the World Health Organization as the latter’s new director of communications. Her coming on board comes at a critical time at the organization, as it works on a new organizational structure, prepares to implement a new strategy and rallies donors for support for its next program budget.