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

A new initiative to support independent journalism globally — and especially in low- and middle-income countries — is taking shape. It’s called the International Fund for Public Interest Media. Maria Ressa, co-founder and CEO at Rappler in the Philippines, and Mark Thompson, who was formerly CEO at The New York Times Company and director-general at the BBC, are co-chairing the initiative’s board, beginning in October. They will work closely with Sheetal Vyas, the initiative’s first executive director. Vyas was formerly director at the Larry Ellison Foundation, which was disbanded last year. The news came at the end of a busy month of job moves, appointments, and leadership changes. United Nations Sima Sami Bahous was appointed executive director at UN Women, the United Nations’ gender equality and empowerment entity. Most recently, she served as Jordan’s U.N. ambassador in New York. Bahous succeeds outgoing Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka of South Africa. Eleni Gabre-Madhin has joined the United Nations Development Programme as chief innovation officer within its Africa regional bureau. She will take the lead in launching timbuktoo, “a revolutionary private-public Youth Start-up Innovation Financing Facility for Africa,” according to the announcement of her new role. Gabre-Madhin started and led the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange and has held prior senior positions with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, World Bank, and International Food Policy Research Institute. The International Fund for Agricultural Development, a specialized agency of the U.N. addressing poverty and hunger, welcomed two new associate vice presidents. Satu Santala, from Finland, was appointed to the external relations and governance department, and Jyotsna Puri, from India, was appointed to the strategy and knowledge department. Cecilia Akintomide, former vice president secretary-general at the African Development Bank, is serving as chair of the newly established board of the Sanitation & Hygiene Fund. Executive Director Dominic O'Neill posted a tweet welcoming Akintomide at the end of August. World Food Program USA, the U.S. affiliate of the U.N. World Food Programme, has appointed Katharine Emerson as its new chief of staff. Previously, she worked at Bayer, the German pharmaceutical company. Ugochi Daniels has taken up the role of deputy director general for operations at the International Organization for Migration. Previously, she was the chief of staff at the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Global health Jeremy Knox is serving as head of policy for infectious diseases at Wellcome. Previously, he was the policy and advocacy lead for its drug-resistant infections program. Wellcome Trust’s work on antimicrobial resistance policy will now continue as part of the infectious diseases portfolio. Nísia Trindade Lima and Dr. Juan Pablo Uribe were appointed to the board of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, an international organization aiming to advance vaccines against emerging infectious diseases. Lima is president at Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil, the largest public health academic institution in the Latin American and Caribbean region. Uribe, who was formerly Colombia’s minister of health and social protection, is the World Bank’s global director for health, nutrition, and population, as well as director at the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents. Chloë Cooney has joined Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance as director of U.S. strategy. She posted the news on the day of the COVID-19 summit organized by U.S. President Joe Biden last week. Cooney joins Gavi from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Biden announced his intent to nominate Dr. John N. Nkengasong as ambassador-at-large and coordinator of U.S. government activities to combat HIV/AIDS globally. If confirmed, Nkengasong would lead the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. He is currently the director at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, a specialized technical institution of the African Union. US government And Biden is nominating Reta Jo Lewis to head the Export-Import Bank of the United States. She is currently a senior fellow and the director of congressional affairs at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a think tank that promotes cooperation between Europe and the U.S. The U.S. Agency for International Development named a number of senior political appointees. Jamille Bigio has joined as senior gender coordinator. Gillian Caldwell — who was formerly the CEO at Global Witness, an independent NGO investigating natural resource extraction — has joined as climate change coordinator and deputy assistant administrator at the Bureau of Development, Democracy and Innovation. And Michael Camilleri is executive director for the Northern Triangle region task force. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation named Lauren Cochran as vice president of equity and investment funds. Previously, she was managing director at Blue Haven Initiative, an impact investment organization. Cochran spent much of her time supporting the startup ecosystem in sub-Saharan Africa. Development banks It was a busy month for development banks. Asian Development Bank President Masatsugu Asakawa will serve a second term of five years, the bank announced at the end of August. Wolfgang Schläger was appointed leading representative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Brussels. And the African Development Bank announced that Solomon Mugera​​​​ is becoming its director of communications and external relations in October. Europe Finance in Common, a coalition of public development banks headquartered within the Agence Française de Développement in Paris, has appointed Adama Mariko as secretary-general. Jane-Ann McKenna will take on the role of CEO at Dóchas, a network of Irish international development agencies. There are several new senior appointments in the European External Action Service. Giacomo Durazzo is heading the European Union delegation to the Republic of Congo, Henriette Geiger to Kenya, and Carla Grijó to Cape Verde. Meanwhile, Rafael Dochao Moreno has been appointed chargé d’affaires to Venezuela. Florian Westphal is becoming the new CEO at Save the Children International’s member organization in Germany, Save the Children Deutschland, in October. Philanthropy and nonprofits The Wikimedia Foundation, the global nonprofit that supports Wikipedia and 12 other free knowledge projects, has appointed Maryana Iskander as CEO. Since 2013, she’s served as CEO at Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, a not-for-profit social enterprise in South Africa focused on youth unemployment. Razan Al Mubarak is becoming president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. She was elected during IUCN’s World Conservation Congress in Marseille, France. Linda Roth, vice president of external relations at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, is joining Vital Voices Global Partnership — a U.S.-based nonprofit supporting women leaders — as chief communications and digital marketing officer. Alight, formerly American Refugee Committee, has selected Jocelyn Wyatt, who led the nonprofit design studio IDEO.org for the past 10 years, as its new CEO. Her background is in human-centered design, an approach to problem-solving that involves the perspective of end users of a product or service in every stage of the design process.