Secretary-General Appoints Cindy H. McCain of United States Executive Director, World Food Programme

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Qu Dongyu announced today their appointment of Cindy H. McCain of the United States as Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), at the Under-Secretary-General level.

Ms. McCain succeeds David Beasley of the United States.  The Executive Board of WFP has confirmed its concurrence with the appointment.

The Secretary-General and FAO Director-General express their deep appreciation to Mr. Beasley for his leadership of WFP over the last six years.  He has led WFP with a deep compassion for the world’s hungry and most vulnerable during what can only be described as unprecedented crises, which severely impacted global food security.  He has humanized for the world the women and children most affected by hunger and used his powerful voice to bring awareness and substantial resources to one crisis after another.  Both the Secretary-General and the Director-General wish him every success in his future endeavours.

Ms. McCain, a champion for human rights, has a long history of giving a voice to the voiceless through her humanitarian and philanthropic work.   She is currently United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome.

An advocate for children, Ms. McCain has served on the board of directors for Operation Smile, a non-profit organization whose mission is to address facial deformities for children around the world, visiting India, Morocco and Viet Nam in that capacity.  She founded and operated the American Voluntary Medical Team, providing emergency medical and surgical care to impoverished children throughout the world.  She has also travelled extensively in her personal capacity on behalf of WFP, visiting mother and child feeding programmes in Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Ms. McCain holds an undergraduate degree in education and a master’s degree in special education from the University of Southern California, in the United States.