Panel II Biographies

MODERATOR: Howard Roy Williams

President and CEO, Center for Humanitarian Cooperation

Before becoming president and chief executive officer of the Center for Humanitarian Cooperation, Roy Williams served as the director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, Bureau for Humanitarian Response (BHR/OFDA), of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from January 1998 until January 2001. USAID is the U.S. government agency that provides economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide. As head of OFDA, Williams oversaw disaster preparedness and relief and rehabilitation programs throughout the world.

Before going to OFDA, Williams was with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) for 12 years. He served as director of operations from 1985 to 1993, vice president for overseas programs from 1993 to 1996, and vice president for overseas policy and planning from 1996 to January 1998. During this time, Williams led efforts that resulted in the conceptualization, creation, and staffing of IRC’s Emergency Preparedness Unit. He helped to establish and staff IRC offices in a variety of places, including Northern Iraq, Jordan, the Balkans, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, and Southern Sudan.

From 1979 to 1985, Williams served with the International Organization for Migration, formerly known as the International Committee for European Migration. He held the positions of chief of operations in Geneva, Switzerland; regional director in Bangkok, Thailand; and country representative in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. From 1976 to 1979, he was assistant to the director with the American Council for Nationalities Services in New York.

Williams has a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University. He also studied at the Columbia University School of Law.

Nancy E. Lindborg

President, Mercy Corps

Nancy E. Lindborg, Mercy Corps’ president, joined the Washington, D.C.-based international relief and development organization in 1996. She leads Mercy Corps’ strategic planning, policy and program development, and emergency response in areas such as Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, North Korea, and Central Asia.

From 2000 to 2005, Lindborg served on the Sphere Management Committee, an international initiative to improve the effectiveness and accountability of nongovernmental organizations; she chaired the committee from 2000 to 2003. Lindborg was co-chair of the InterAction Disaster Response Committee from 1998 to 2002, and is currently a member of the CSIS-AUSA Blue Ribbon Commission on Post-Conflict Reconstruction.

Prior to joining Mercy Corps, Lindborg managed economic development programs in post-Soviet Central Asia and worked in the private sector as a public policy consultant in Chicago and San Francisco. She graduated with honors from Stanford University with a bachelor’s in English literature. She also holds master’s degrees in English literature from Stanford and in public administration/international development from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Kevin M. Kennedy

Director, Coordination and Response Division
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations

Kevin M. Kennedy is the director of the Coordination and Response Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of the United Nations in New York. Previous OCHA assignments include duty in Geneva with the Complex Emergency Support Unit and in New York as chief, Africa I (West Africa), and chief of the Office of the Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs. Kennedy also held UN field assignments in Somalia, Haiti, the Balkans, and East Timor, as well as numerous missions to Africa and Asia.

In 2003, Kennedy was the deputy humanitarian coordinator for Iraq and then the officer-in-charge of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq. He most recently served as the acting resident/humanitarian coordinator for the Sudan.

Prior to joining the United Nations, Kennedy served in the U.S. Marine Corps as an infantry officer, retiring as a colonel in 1993. He served throughout the United States and abroad, including assignments in Vietnam, Lebanon, the Gulf War, Bangladesh, the Los Angeles riots, and Somalia.

Geoff Loane

Head of Regional Delegation for the United States and Canada,
International Committee of the Red Cross

Geoff Loane heads the regional delegation for the United States and Canada to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). He previously headed the ICRC delegations for Serbia and Montenegro in Belgrade, Serbia, Nairobi, and East Africa. Loane served as regional relief coordinator in Nairobi, where he initiated and led ICRC relief operations in Sudan (1989–1991) and Somalia (1991–1993). The Somalian relief effort involved more than 3,000 staff distributing 20,000 thousand tons of food monthly to a million people.

From 2000 to 2002, Loane served as the head of ICRC relief activities worldwide. Based in Geneva, he managed and oversaw more than 70 delegations and a budget in excess of $150 million.

Loane has published a number of articles and books on humanitarian concerns. He was a senior scholar for the Conflict Prevention Network in Munich, where he prepared a series of research papers on humanitarian and political issues as part of the network’s framework agreement with the European Commission and contributed to the establishment of policy in relation to new forms of conflict and humanitarian responses to them. While in the Sudan, Loane coordinated an extensive research project for the European Commission on the unintended consequences of humanitarian assistance.

Loane holds a bachelor’s degree in social studies, a master of arts, and a certificate in social work from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

Robert MacPherson

Director, CARE Security Unit

Robert Macpherson joined CARE in 1994 to organize and implement emergency response activities in humanitarian crisis situations. In addition, he coordinated all CARE land mine action programs worldwide. Since 1994, he has helped CARE respond to emergencies in Albania, Bosnia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kosovo, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, East Timor, Afghanistan, and Iraq. As part of the United Nations’ Operation Restore Hope in Somalia beginning in late 1992, Macpherson served as deputy director for civil and military operations, prioritizing and coordinating multinational relief efforts. Macpherson is a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel with 25 years of service, including Vietnam, Operation Desert Storm, and Somalia. After completing active service with the Marines, he founded Enable, a humanitarian relief organization dedicated to assisting the survivors of landmines and war. Enable is a corecipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.