Press Releases

24 November 2003

UNA-CANADA WELCOMES NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The United Nations Association in Canada is pleased to announce the appointment of Kathryn White as its new Executive Director.

For the past twenty-five years, Kate White has been the head of Black & White Inc. an Ottawa-based international consultancy specializing in policy research, education and citizen engagement, integrating risk management and risk perception into initiatives and solutions. She has been recognized nationally and internationally for her leadership in issues ranging from youth-at-risk, climate change, disaster and crisis response and mitigation, corporate social responsibility, international peacebuilding and conflict resolution. She consistently adapts policy questions and research into viable policy solutions and options for managers, executives, and senior public- and private-sector decision makers.

Ms White has also been the Volunteer President of UNIFEM Canada since 1993. "We are delighted to have Kate as our new Executive Director," says Nancy Gordon, National President of UNA-Canada. "We are confident that she brings the right mix of experience, strategic vision and commitment to UN values to her new position."

The United Nations Associations in Canada (UNA-Canada) is a registered charity, founded in 1946, with a mandate to educate and engage Canadians in support for and understanding of the United Nations and its issues which have a global impact. A Canadian NGO, UNA-Canada has a wide variety of programmes and activities through which to build Canadian capacity to identify and address emerging international issues on a national basis and to provide a foresight and policy research capacity underpinning this innovative programming. With a professional, national secretariat in Ottawa, UNA-Canada derives much of its strength and community outreach from its network of 14, volunteer-based, branches. Working with the private and public sector, academia, community leaders, like-minded NGOs as well as multilateral organizations, UNA-Canada provides a place for Canadians to offer their made-in-Canada solutions to challenges confronting the global commons and to develop skills in living together in peace and prosperity. Key programmes target Canadian youth, human rights, sustainable development, environment, peacebuilding and corporate social responsibility.

Kate White formally assumed her new role on November 10th, 2003.

- 30 -