Who's who in #globaldev: September 2022 executive appointments

Miriam Sapiro has been announced as the next president and CEO of InterAction. Sapiro has experience at the White House, the State Department, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and in the private sector and NGO community. She is currently a partner at FGS Global, a global strategic advisory and communications firm. Ambassador Sapiro will join InterAction in December. Here’s a look at other high-level job moves, leadership changes, and executive appointments in global development during August. NGOs Adrian Lovett has joined Development Initiatives as its new CEO. Lovett was previously CEO of the World Wide Web Foundation. Mark Shrime has joined Mercy Ships as international chief medical officer. Shrime was previously a Harvard lecturer and regular Mercy Ships volunteer. Erica Bliss and Dawn Thomas were appointed to the board of directors at ACDI/VOCA. Bliss is head of commercial and marketing at Mineral, a subsidiary of Alphabet company X. Thomas is an agricultural economist with 30 years of experience at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Kenneth Roth served his last day as executive director of Human Rights Watch, after nearly 30 years. The organization said he had taken it “from a small group of regional ‘watch committees’ to a major international human rights organization.” David Beer has become CEO of Trade Mark East Africa. He was previously British High Commissioner in Malawi. The Rockefeller Foundation has appointed a new chief operating officer, Natalye Paquin. She was previously CEO at community service nonprofit Points of Light. Andy Jarvis is joining the Bezos Earth Fund as director for the future of food. He was previously head of research at the Alliance of Biodiversity International and CIAT, which focuses on biodiversity, environment, and nutrition. United Nations Antonio Pedro is taking over as acting executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa after Vera Songwe announced that she was stepping down. Pedro was previously her deputy. Doreen Bogdan-Martin will be the next secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, after winning 139 out of 172 votes. She is the first woman to hold the role. The Pan American Health Organization has named Brazilian Dr. Jarbas Barbosa da Silva Jr. as its new director. He is a long-time PAHO employee and succeeds Dr. Carissa Etienne of Dominica. Filippo Grandi will continue as the U.N. high commissioner for refugees until 2025. Grandi, an Italian, took office in 2016. Michael Bloomberg was reappointed as WHO global ambassador of noncommunicable diseases and injuries for the third time. Imran Riza was appointed U.N. deputy special coordinator for Lebanon and resident and humanitarian coordinator. He was previously humanitarian coordinator in Syria. Finance The directors of the Inter-American Development Bank have ousted Mauricio Claver-Carone as president following a sex scandal. His deputy, former Citi-banker Reina Irene Mejía Chacón takes over as interim president. Franca Vossen was appointed chief risk officer at FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. Vossen was previously at Triodos Bank. Pierre Mejlak has left his job as head of the media and digital team at the International Finance Corporation to join the International Monetary Fund as chief of media relations. Brian Christensen will become IMF’s director of the corporate services and facilities department, after a long career with the fund. Etienne Espagne is joining the World Bank as a senior climate economist. Espagne is currently on leave from AFD. The African Development Bank has appointed Caroline Kende-Robb as director of strategy and operational policies department. It also appointed 12 executive directors, bringing the number of women on the 20-member board of directors to five. Donors Papa Amadou Sarr joins the Agence Française de Développement as executive director in charge of partnerships, mobilization, and communication. He was previously working on entrepreneurship in Senegal. Dina Esposito has returned to USAID to serve as global food crisis coordinator. A former USAID employee, Esposito worked for the last five years at Mercy Corps, most recently as vice president of policy, research, and technical leadership. Policy, research, and consultancy The Atlantic Council’s Africa Center added eight new fellows: Jonathan Mboyo Esole, Frannie Leautier, Jean-Paul Mvogo, Michael Shurkin, Emilie Bel, Tom Koch, Jacqueline Muna Musiitwa, and Sarah Daly. The Bridgespan Group has appointed Pritha Venkatachalam and Jan Schwier to the Bridgespan Leadership Team as co-heads for Asia and Africa. Fatema Sumar is joining the Center for International Development at Harvard University as executive director, after working for the Millennium Challenge Corporation and Oxfam America. Health Shashi Buluswar is stepping down as CEO of Global Health Labs — an initiative created and fully funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to innovate in fields such as health care tools and equipment and diagnostics. PATH’s chief scientific officer, Dr. David Kaslow, is leaving to take on the role of director of the office of vaccines research and review, part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Luis Pizarro, a Chilean-French doctor who has worked in West and Central Africa, is the new executive director of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, succeeding founder Dr. Bernard Pécoul. Partners In Health has announced the retirement of Dr. Agnes Binagwaho. Currently serving as vice chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity, she will step down in November. Diplomatic New Kenyan President William Ruto has appointed his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta as peace envoy for the conflict in northern Ethiopia. Mohamed El-Amine Souef of Comoros has taken over as the African Union chair’s special representative to Somalia after the previous postholder was expelled.