About Henrietta Holsman Fore
On January 1st 2018, Ms. Fore became the seventh Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). UNICEF, the world’s leading children’s organization, was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1946 with a mandate to provide assistance to children. Today, UNICEF works world-wide. The work of UNICEF is guided by the UNICEF Executive Board, elected from Members of the United Nations. As UNICEF’s Executive Director, Ms. Fore is a member of the Secretary-General’s Senior Management Group. Ms. Fore has worked to champion economic development, education, health, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in a public service, private sector and non-profit leadership career that spans more than four decades.
From 2007 to 2009, Ms. Fore served as the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Director of United States Foreign Assistance. The first woman to serve in these roles, she was responsible for managing $39.5 billion of U.S. foreign assistance annually, including support to peoples and countries recovering from disaster and building their futures economically, politically and socially.
Earlier in her career at USAID, Ms. Fore was appointed Assistant Administrator for Asia and Assistant Administrator for Private Enterprise (1989-1993). She served on the Boards of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Millennium Challenge Corporation. In 2009, she received the Distinguished Service Award, the highest award the Secretary of State can bestow.
