Rebeca Grynspan to be next chair of IIED's board

IIED is delighted to announce that Rebeca Grynspan will become the chair of our board of trustees in June, when the term of current chair Maureen O'Neil ends.

News, 26 February 2014
Rebeca Grynspan will become the chair of IIED's board of trustees in June

Rebeca Grynspan will become the chair of IIED's board of trustees in June

Grynspan is a UN Under-Secretary-General and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. She was Vice-President of Costa Rica between 1994 and 1998. On Monday, Grynspan was elected to serve as the new Secretary-General of the Ibero-American Secretariat.

Previously, she was Director of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean Sub-regional Headquarters in Mexico, where she also served as Co-Chair of the International Food Policy Research Institute's Executive Board, and Assistant-Secretary-General and Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the United Nations Development Programme (2006-2010).

Grynspan says: "I am honoured and humbled by this nomination to chair IIED's Board of Trustees. IIED is one of the world's leading policy research organizations and its work on bridging environment and development at different policy levels has been for decades at the forefront of the international debate on sustainable development. Now that we are about to take stock of the Millennium Development Goals process and build a new agenda for 2015 onwards, research, advice and advocacy on sustainable development from a bottom up approach and involving different stakeholders is more needed than ever, and IIED is no doubt one of the most respected partners for this endeavor."

Camilla Toulmin, IIED's director says: "Rebeca Grynspan has spent her life working to promote inclusive sustainable development. She is the ideal person to lead IIED's board as we embark on our new five-year strategy. She will build on the great work that our current chair Maureen O'Neil has provided to shape our ambition and increase our impact over the past five years."

"Rebeca Grynspan has a wealth of experience as a politician, international public servant and development thinker," says IIED's outgoing chair Maureen O'Neil, President of the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement and President of the International Development Research Centre. "She will bring great value to IIED as it turns its strategic focus from problem-oriented research towards stronger engagement with diverse sectors and stakeholders to achieve the changes we need to see in the world."

NOTES TO EDITORS

Rebeca Grynspan's most updated biography.

Maureen O'Neil is President of the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement. Previous positions include President of the International Development Research Centre, Interim President of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, President of the North-South Institute, and Deputy Minister of Citizenship for the Government of Ontario.