WFP Welcomes Appointment Of New Executive Director

Ambassador Ertharin Cousin at the November 2011 meeting of WFP's Executive Board in Rome.

(Copyright: WFP/Giulio D'Adamo)

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed the appointment of Ertharin Cousin as its new Executive Director, following confirmation by the office of the UN Secretary General that she would assume the post at the head of the world’s largest humanitarian agency later this year.

ROME-- "Leading WFP is a great honour and a critical link to the world's most vulnerable. I offer every support to Ertharin Cousin and wish her the greatest success at this critical time for the world’s most vulnerable nations and people," said WFP's current Executive Director, Josette Sheeran.

Cousin is currently the United States Representative to the United Nations agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome, Italy.

"On behalf of the WFP Executive Board I wish to congratulate Ertharin Cousin on her appointment as next Executive Director. We have known and appreciated her as a colleague in Rome and we now look forward to working with her in her new role," said Ambassador Jim Harvey, President of WFP's Executive Board. "We also congratulate the current Executive Director, Josette Sheeran, on her new appointment at the World Economic Forum that will allow her to build on her many accomplishments at WFP. Both Josette and Ertharin are outstanding champions in the fight against world hunger".

Cousin is expected to assume her new role as Executive Director of WFP when Sheeran's term ends in April. Earlier this month, Sheeran announced that she will move to the World Economic Forum in Geneva where she will be the new Vice Chairman at the world's leading platform for engaging corporate and government leaders in solutions to global social, economic and humanitarian challenges.