Josette Sheeran

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Josette Sheeran
Josette Sheeran
11th Executive Director
UN World Food Programme
Incumbent
Assumed office 
April 2007
Preceded by James Morris (2002-07)
Born 1954
United States
Nationality United States
Spouse divorced

Josette Sheeran is the eleventh Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). She was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Jacques Diouf in November 2006[1], and began her tenure April 2007. Prior to this post, she served as the United States Under Secretary for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs in the State Department since August 2005.

Contents

[edit] World Food Programme (WFP)

As Executive Director of WFP, Sheeran is responsible for managing the world’s largest humanitarian organization which includes a worldwide organization of nearly 11,000 people. WFP provides emergency food aid to the world’s hungry as well as addresses the causes of chronic hunger. The UN estimates that there are more than 850,000,000 hungry and malnourished people [2], disproportionately represented by women and children who are often victims of war and natural disasters; orphans and families affected by HIV/AIDS; and schoolchildren in poor communities.

"I think we can, in our lifetime, win the battle against hunger because we now have the science, technology, know-how and the logistics to be able to meet hunger where it comes," Ms Sheeran said.[3]

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, who was told of the decision and jumped the gun on the official announcement, said the United States was very pleased and called Sheeran "extraordinarily well-qualified."[4]

Sheeran has outlined seven reasons why chronic hunger can be overcome and has expressed commitment to meeting the UN Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger and poverty by 2015.[5]

"Those pictures of children with swollen bellies will be a thing of history."[3]

The World Food Programme, founded in 1963, last year provided food to more than 90 million poor people in more than 80 countries worldwide. Its annual budget was US$1.7 billion in 1993[6] and is about $3 billion today.[citation needed]

In April 2008, Sheeran attracted world-wide attention with a speech in London warning about an impending world-wide food crisis, which she likened to a "silent tsunami."[7]

[edit] Professional experience: government sector

[edit] Under Secretary

As Under Secretary, Sheeran led new State Department initiatives in supporting Central Asia’s and Afghanistan's economic transformation and reconstruction. She was also responsible for a range of economic issues including: development, trade, agriculture, finance, energy, telecommunications and transportation. She helped foster and carry out aid and development initiatives in countries like China, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Lebanon.

Sheeran also served as the Foreign Affairs Sous-Sherpa on behalf of the President of the United States at the Group of Eight (G8) Summit. She headed a host of high-level bilateral or multilateral economic dialogues with the European Union, China, India, Japan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and many others.

She was named by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan along with Prime Ministers Luisa Dias Diogo, Prime Minister of Mozambique; Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway; and Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan to the High Level Panel on System-Wide Coherence. The panel conducted hundreds of interviews with development and humanitarian experts, non-governmental organizations and national leaders worldwide, and compiled strategies and recommendations for greater management coherence and effectiveness in UN efforts in the areas of the environment, development and humanitarian assistance.

She represented the United States at a wide variety of high-level bilateral and multilateral meetings, serving as Alternative Governor for the World Bank; the Inter-American Development Bank; the African Development Bank; the Asian Development Bank; and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Congress also confirmed her as a Member of the Board of Directors for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

[edit] Deputy United States Trade Representative

Prior to her tenure as Under Secretary, Sheeran served as Deputy United States Trade Representative in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). There, she was responsible for trade negotiations and treaties in Asia and Africa, driving U.S. efforts to open new markets and enforce existing trade agreements in China, East Asia, South Asia and Africa and for advancing global negotiations on counterfeiting, pharmaceuticals, labor, environment and trade capacity building. One of her legacy projects was fighting global counterfeiting, creating STOP – Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy’ and the protection of Intellectual Property. She helped bring to a successful conclusion the landmark U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which is expected to increase U.S. exports to Australia by $2 billion a year. She also led trade enforcement negotiations with China and furthered U.S. trade and investment interests in direct talks with Japan, Korea, India and many other nations.

[edit] Professional experience: private sector

[edit] Management

Before joining USTR, Sheeran was managing director of Starpoint Solutions, a Wall Street technology firm that works with Fortune 500 clients. During her tenure at Starpoint she led major strategic projects with corporate leaders such as Bank of America, Citibank and the Associated Press. Sheeran also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Empower America, where she developed its agenda of trade policy, technology policy, education reform, and tax reform.

[edit] Journalistic Experience

Sheeran got her start in journalism in 1976 with the now defunct New York News World, which was owned by News World Communications, itself owned by the Unification Church, which she had recently joined. She served in a number of capacities for News World, eventually becoming their White House correspondent. In 1982 she moved to News World's new sister paper, the Washington Times. Originally a features editor, she was eventually appointed managing editor.[8] During her tenure as managing editor of the Washington Times, she appeared as a commentator on programs such as Nightline, Fox news, the McLaughlin Group, The Diane Rehm Show, and CNN. Sheeran also wrote a nationally syndicated column for Scripps Howard News Service. She has had interviews with more than a dozen heads of state in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the United States, most famously her interview with North Korean head of state Kim Il Sung. She has twice served as a Pulitzer prize juror.

[edit] Associations

Sheeran has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations for more than a decade and has served on its Washington advisory board. In 1997, Washingtonian magazine named Sheeran as one of Washington's 100 Most Powerful Women.[8] She has served on a number of boards, including the Washington Urban League and the United Negro College Fund's Washington advisory board. She has received numerous awards, including the Press Award for Journalistic Achievement by the National Order of Women Legislators and a national award for developing and promoting African-American journalists. President George Bush appointed Sheeran to the President's Task Force on Puerto Rico's Status.[citation needed]

[edit] Personal

[edit] Inspired by late father's service

Her late father, James J. Sheeran inspired her public service. As a young man, he parachuted into Sainte-Mère-Église with the 101st Airborne Division on D-Day.[9] After returning from World War II he organized a food drive to benefit some of the villages he had helped to liberate.[10] He later served as New Jersey's Insurance Commissioner[10] and as mayor of West Orange, New Jersey. A few months before his death, the French Ambassador decorated him with the insignia of the Légion d'honneur.[11]

[edit] Education

She earned a BA from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1976.[8]

[edit] Religious affiliations

Sheeran was raised in the Roman Catholic Church. She joined the Unification Church in 1975[12], and in August 1975 her father tried to "rescue" her and her two sisters (against their wishes) from the Unification Theological Seminary in Barrytown, New York by forcing his way in to see them.[13] He failed, and the scuffle there led to mutual charges of assault.[10]

She left the Unification Church about 1996 and became an Episcopalian.[1] Sheeran's former membership in the Unification Church was raised in an Associated Press interview, where she said that she had no association with the Unification Church after she left the Washington Times in 1997.[14] Other publications reported on this as well.[15][16] In an article about Shiner's appointment to the World Food Program in The Washington Post, the newspaper reported that it was pressed by the George W. Bush Administration not to write about her past relationship with the Unification Church.[17]

[edit] Family

She and her former husband, Whitney Shiner, are now divorced. They have three children.

[edit] Note

Portions of this article were originally taken from Sheeran's Department of State biography, as well as from her official biography on the World Food Programme website.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b American diplomat Josette Sheeran selected to head U.N. World Food Program, U.N. announces , International Herald Tribune, November 7, 2006 (Associated Press item)
  2. ^ WHAT IS HUNGER? World Food Programme
  3. ^ a b "World hunger can end in our lifetime: UN", Reuters in Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, NSW, Australia: Fairfax Media, Ltd, 2007-04-19. Retrieved on 2008-02-26. 
  4. ^ Associated Press. "U.S. diplomat to head U.N. food program", USA Today, 2006-11-07. Retrieved on 2008-02-26. 
  5. ^ Sheeran, Josette (2006-10-19). [http://www.worldfoodprize.org/assets/symposium/2006/transcripts/SHEERAN-statedept.pdf Seven Reasons Why We Can End Hunger in Our Lifetime] (PDF). The World Food Prize. Retrieved on 2008-02-26. “#1: Focus...#2: Technical and Policy Revolution...# 3: Private Sector...# 4: Ownership - at the individual, village and country level...# 5. Women...# 6: Micro-credit and other innovative policy mechanisms...#7: You.” Des Moines, Iowa
  6. ^ The World Food Programme at 30: fighting hunger, feeding hope - includes statistics - United Nations developments UN Chronicle, Sept, 1993.
  7. ^ Time
  8. ^ a b c ROSENTHAL, ELISABETH. "A Desire to Feed the World and Inspire Self-Sufficiency", New York Times, 2007-08-11. Retrieved on 2008-02-25. 
  9. ^ "James Sheeran, 84, dies; WWII hero, N.J. official" (fee), Washington Times, 2007-07-18. Retrieved on 2008-02-26. 
  10. ^ a b c "Mad About Moon", Time, Time-Life, 1975-11-10. Retrieved on 2008-02-25. 
  11. ^ McCaslin, John. "An American hero" (fee), Washington Times, 2007-02-02. Retrieved on 2008-02-26. ""I want to pay tribute on behalf of France to a great American patriot," the ambassador said, "and to a son of France."" 
  12. ^ Moss, Bret. [http://www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Talks/Shiner/SHINER.htm Unification Sermons and Talks: The Words of the Shiner Family]. Unification Theological Seminary, Barrytown , NY. Retrieved on 2008-02-25. (From an interview 23 February, probably 1993)
  13. ^ Carlton Sherwood. (1991). Inquisition: The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Regnery Publishing.
  14. ^ U.S. envoy to head World Food Program, Associated Press, November 7, 2006, Edith M. Lederer. "Formerly known by her married name of Josette Shiner, she spent 15 years at the Washington Times founded by Rev. Sun Myung Moon, including as managing editor. She joined Moon's Unification Church in the 1970s, but has said she later became an Episcopalian. Dujarric was asked whether Sheeran's past membership in the Unification Church came up during her interview for the job. 'People's religious affiliation is their own,' he said. 'People are not judged on their religious affiliation.'"
  15. ^ Bush Crony to Head UN's Food Program, November 8, 2006, The Nation
  16. ^ A Tale of Two Americans Vying to Head the World Food Program, Banbury and Sheeran Shiner, Inner City Press, Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at United Nations, October 27, 2006 (accessed 2008-02-26)
  17. ^ State Department Official Picked to Run U.N. Food Program, The Washington Post, November 8, 2006; Page A13, Colum Lynch. "The Bush administration was sensitive to the possibility that Sheeran's former membership in the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church would emerge as an issue in the race. A U.S. official pressed The Washington Post not to mention Sheeran's past links to the church, saying it was inappropriate to describe her religious affiliation. Sheeran said of her candidacy, 'I don't know why personal faith has any relation or bearing,' adding: 'It is a matter of record that I have no association with the Unification Church.'"

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

World Food Programme

Speech from the 20th Annual World Food Prize Symposium 2006 Other

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