|
Corporation News
Kofi Annan Joins Board of Carnegie Corporation Of New York
New
York, NY, October 30, 2007 – Former Governor Thomas H.
Kean, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Corporation
of New York and Vartan Gregorian, President of Carnegie Corporation,
today announced the appointment of former United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan to its Board of Trustees.
“We
are deeply honored to have Kofi Annan serve on our Board of Trustees,”
said Vartan Gregorian. “He has dedicated his career to reducing
conflict and promoting education as a catalyst for development—two
issues to which the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie devoted the Corporation.”
“I’m
delighted to join this group of extraordinary women and men who
sit on the Carnegie Corporation Board under the competent and dynamic
leadership of my good friend, Dr. Vartan Gregorian,” said
Mr. Annan.
“Kofi
Annan’s extraordinary accomplishments in international diplomacy
and his passion for advancing mankind’s well-being will be
tremendous assets to Carnegie Corporation as we continue to address
some of this country’s—and the world’s—most
complex challenges,” said Governor Kean.
Gregorian
noted that, over the past decade, Kofi Annan’s determined
diplomacy has greatly contributed to focusing the world’s
attention on addressing threats to peace, and building its confidence
in the possibility of finding common solutions. His insight, said
Gregorian, will help to advance the Corporation’s mission.
Kofi
Annan joins a Board of Trustees whose composition reflects the Corporation’s
international perspective and its commitment to finding innovative
responses to complex national and global challenges. Serving on
the Board are prominent global leaders including Mexico’s
former Secretary of the Treasury, a former Foreign Minister of Spain,
a former Vice-Chairman of the (U.S.) Joint Chiefs of Staff and a
former U.S. Ambassador who has served in numerous international
posts. The Board also includes three university presidents and three
former U.S. governors, one of whom also served as U.S. Secretary
of Education. The President and CEO of The New York Times and the
former Editor-in-Chief of Time Inc. provide the Board with a deep
understanding of current changes in communications and the news
industry. Also serving on the board is a former mayor of a major
U.S. city, a renowned academic, the CEO of a major investment firm
and the former manager of a leading hedge fund.
Commenting
on Mr. Annan’s appointment, Former Governor James Hunt, Chairman
of the Nominating Committee of the Carnegie Corporation Board of
Trustee said, “His vision and intellect have made Kofi Annan
one of the most influential international voices of our time. Kofi
Annan’s contributions to the Corporation will enrich our work,
and increase our impact, immeasurably."
Kofi
Annan served as United Nations Secretary-General from 1997-2006.
During his tenure, he prioritized a program of comprehensive reform
aimed at revitalizing the United Nations and making the organization
more effective. He was a constant advocate for human rights, the
rule of law, the Millennium Development Goals and Africa, and sought
to bring the institution closer to the global public by forging
ties with civil society, the private sector and other partners.
Mr. Annan is currently Chairman of the Board of the Alliance for
a Green Revolution in Africa.
Since
the UN’s creation more than 60 years ago, the Corporation
has been actively involved with the international organization,
supporting policy initiatives, reforms and funding various commissions
and dissemination efforts intended to promote security and peace
as well as human rights and justice. During their respective administrations,
past Carnegie Corporation presidents David Hamburg, Alan Pifer,
and John Gardner have each funded specific UN initiatives.
In
1999, for example, the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly
Conflict helped to make the concept of preventing deadly conflict
a priority concern for the United Nations. The Commission, led by
David Hamburg and Cyrus R. Vance, former U.S. Secretary of State,
produced academic and technical reports, which contributed to the
adoption by the Secretary-General of the concept of a “culture
of prevention” for the UN.
Carnegie
Corporation supported the International Commission on Intervention
and State Sovereignty. The Commission, chaired by Canadian Foreign
Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy, was created in response to a challenge
by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to ensure that the indifference
and inaction by the world community in the face of situations like
Rwanda and Srebrenica would no longer be an option.
Carnegie
Corporation funded the United Nations Intellectual History Project
to underscore the economic and social aspects of the UN’s
contribution to world peace and progress. The independent research
effort produced a collection of oral histories and a series of scholarly
books.
Kofi
Annan has been an outspoken champion of an initiative established
in 1999 by the Corporation and several foundation partners to support
the improvement of higher education institutions in a number of
sub-Saharan African countries. At the launch of the Partnership
for Higher Education in Africa he called higher education “central
to development, human progress and freedom.”
Andrew
Carnegie was one of the earliest and most ardent supporters of a
League of Nations. To this day, Carnegie Corporation of New York
continues its commitment to the primary concerns to which founder
Andrew Carnegie devoted the foundation: international peace and
advancing education and knowledge. Mr. Carnegie argued that war
might be eliminated if a global organization were established with
authority to settle international disputes through arbitration and
the use of economic sanctions. The philanthropist founded the Corporation
in 1911 to “promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge
and understanding,” a mission that was, in Carnegie’s
mind, the surest path to permanent peace. He said, “Who so
wants to share the heroism of battle let him join the fight against
ignorance…and the mad idea that war is necessary.” Carnegie
believed that war is wasteful, that diplomacy can resolve disputes
without bloodshed and that nations can and should act collectively
to prosecute cases of injustice when necessary.
For
more than 95 years the Corporation has carried out Andrew Carnegie's
vision of philanthropy by building on his two major concerns: international
peace and advancing education and knowledge. As a private grantmaking
foundation, the Corporation will invest more than $100 million this
year in nonprofits to fulfill Mr. Carnegie's mission, “to
do real and permanent good in this world.” The Corporation's
capital fund, originally donated at a value of about $135 million,
had a market value of approximately $3 billion on September 30,
2007.
|