Peter Woicke appointed Chair of the International Save the Children Alliance

The world's leading independent charity for children, the International Save the Alliance, has appointed Peter Woicke Chair of its global Board. Mr Woicke takes over the role from Barry Clarke who has held the position of Chair for the past six years.

Mr Woicke has held senior posts in international business and development sectors and from 1999-2005 was a Managing Director of the World Bank and CEO of the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Under his leadership, the IFC fostered corporate social responsibility among its private sector clients. As a result, all major international Banks adopted IFC's social and environmental standards for their future project finance activities which became known as the Equatorpriciples.

Barry Clarke, outgoing Chair of the International Save the Children Alliance welcomed Mr Woicke's appointment and the skills he would bring to the role "Mr Woicke's combination of international experience in business, his personal qualities, his interest in development and children's rights issues and his excellent international connections will be extremely valuable. We warmly welcome him and wish him every success in his new role as Chair of the world's largest independent movement for children."

Mr Woicke will take up his position in May 2008 at the Annual Meeting of the 28 Save the Children organisations which make up the global Alliance.

Mr Woicke commenting on his appointment said "I am delighted and extremely honoured to be taking up the position of Chair of an organisation such as Save the Children which makes such an impact on millions of children's lives around the world. Over its 90 year history Save the Children has an unrivalled record of fighting against child poverty and disease and providing education and protection against abuse for children in the more than 100 countries in which it works. I am proud to be taking on the role of Chairman of the International Save the Children Alliance."

Before joining the World Bank group, Woicke had a 30 year career with leading global financial services firm JP Morgan where he rose to become Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific, based in Singapore.

Since retiring from the World Bank, Peter has become involved with a number of different activities as a Non-Executive Director, including service on the Board of the World Youth Foundation.

Peter has dual US/German citizenship and is living in Washington, DC. 

  

Mr Woicke is available for media interviews. For further information please contact:

Sharyn Hanly
Corporate Affairs Adviser
Save the Children Australia
+61 3 9938 2011
+61 (0)437 355 096