http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/world/americas/11sheeran.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1186837299-XBkqM/FdwnBbxwjBuB8TNQA Desire to Feed the World and Inspire Self-Sufficiency
Doug Mills/The New York Times
Josette Sheeran: “When you see a hungry child, you feel you represent all humanity.”
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: August 11, 2007
FITTING easily into the most conservative wing of the Bush administration, Josette Sheeran was from the outset an unlikely candidate to run the World Food Program, the world’s largest humanitarian aid organization, which has frequently been at odds with Washington.
She had already been appointed to senior roles in the government, with the A-list of connections common in that circle, from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Jack Kemp, the former New York congressman and free-market champion. But what made her more unusual was her long tenure as a major figure in the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church — she left it in the late 1990s — a conservative church that many Americans distrust.
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She was appointed the World Food Program’s executive director in November, having been nominated and aggressively promoted by the Bush administration over vociferous objections from the European Union. But it was not until April that she assumed her position at the agency, which feeds 90 million people worldwide.
SINCE her arrival at the World Food Program, Ms. Sheeran has generally impressed staff members with her enthusiasm and grasp of the issues. But many within the agency were initially “uncomfortable” and “nervous” about her appointment, thinking that her background was a “bad fit” for the mission of the agency, said one staff member who has worked in many postings over two decades. The staff member and all those contacted in researching this article spoke on condition of anonymity because they would be working under Ms. Sheeran.
Many people favored Tony Banbury, an American who has had a long run with the group’s Asia operations, the staff member said, adding: “We know there’s a lot of politics behind the appointment. We’ve worked with all types, so we’re used to it.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/world/americas/11sheeran.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1186837299-XBkqM/FdwnBbxwjBuB8TNQ
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