Who's who in #globaldev: June 2021 executive appointments

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development had some major leadership changes last month, announcing two high-level appointments. Kazuhiko Koguchi will become secretary-general in August, leaving his position as EBRD’s director for shareholder relations. Koguchi succeeds Enzo Quattrociocche, who is retiring after 12 years in the position. Koguchi began his career at Japan’s Ministry of Finance. Mark Bowman was appointed vice president of policy and partnerships at EBRD and will start the role in October. He joins the bank from his recent position as director general of international finance at the U.K. Treasury. EBRD has also made some changes to its team in Warsaw, Poland. Elisabetta Falcetti was appointed as the bank’s head in the country, overseeing its work in central Europe and the Baltic states. She is replacing Grzegorz Zieliński, who has taken on a new role focused on energy. United Nations United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed the following individuals to key positions in June: • Elizabeth Nyamayaro was named special adviser for the World Food Programme. • Amakobe Sande was appointed U.N. resident coordinator in Eritrea. • Susan Ngongi Namondo was appointed U.N. resident coordinator in Uganda. • Bernardo Mariano Jr. was appointed chief information technology officer at the U.N. • Rebeca Grynspan will be the new secretary-general at the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development. • Kersti Kaljulaid, the president of Estonia, is the new global advocate for Every Woman Every Child. Also, Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid was elected the next president of the U.N. General Assembly. He won in a race against Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul. Mark Lowcock, the former U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, started his new role as a distinguished nonresident fellow at the Center for Global Development in June. He’ll also begin work as a visiting professor of practice at the London School of Economics and Political Science in September. World Health Organization Dr. Patrick Amoth was elected chairperson of the World Health Organization’s 34-member executive board. Amoth, who has been serving as acting director-general for health at Kenya’s Ministry of Health, will serve a three-year term. WHO also appointed Syed Jaffar Hussain as its new representative to Iran, replacing Christoph Hamelmann. Hussain most recently held the position of WHO’s chief of cabinet for a regional office in Egypt. African Development Bank The African Development Bank appointed Beth Dunford, who previously worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, as vice president of agriculture, human, and social development. Jacques Djofack, a financial risk management expert who most recently served as division manager in AfDB’s financial management department, was appointed director of financial management at the bank. Amnesty International UK Three senior leaders at Amnesty International UK — Eilidh Douglas, Susan Jex, and Sharon Lovell — stepped down following the release of an internal review that identified racist incidents at the international secretariat, according to a report by Third Sector. World Resources Institute Aniruddha Dasgupta, who has been leading the World Resources Institute’s cities program for the past seven years, was selected to be WRI’s next president and CEO. Originally from India, Dasgupta succeeds Andrew Steer, who left the organization earlier this year to lead the Bezos Earth Fund. European Union The Council of the European Union appointed new special representatives for the Sahel, Central Asia, and the Horn of Africa. Respectively, they are Italian politician Emanuela Claudia Del Re, Finnish diplomat Terhi Hakala, and Annette Weber, a peace talks expert from Germany. USAID Jamille Bigio joined USAID as director of the office of gender equality and women’s empowerment. She is also serving in other two positions in an acting capacity: senior gender coordinator and deputy assistant administrator for gender equality. Bigio most recently served as a senior fellow for women and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. International Rescue Committee Andrea Sweeney, after working for five years with Save the Children, has joined the International Rescue Committee as associate director for humanitarian policy. ONE Campaign Amy Dodd has left Development Initiatives to become policy director for development finance at ONE Campaign. Oceana Antha Williams, global head of the environment program at Bloomberg Philanthropies, has joined the board of directors at environmental group Oceana. Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children Helle Thorning-Schmidt, former prime minister of Denmark, and Joy Phumaphi, former health minister of Botswana, were appointed as board co-chairs at the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children.