New governors appointed to IDRC board

Margaret Biggs, Elizabeth Parr-Johnston and Monte Solberg were appointed to the board of governors of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in May. The trio of Canadians will be joined by two new international members, Gordon Shirley and Rory Stewart.

A Crown corporation, IDRC works collaboratively with federal departments to help developing countries use science and technology to find practical, long-term solutions to the social, economic and environmental problems they face. Support is directed toward developing an indigenous research capacity to sustain policies and technologies that developing countries need to build healthier, more equitable and more prosperous societies.

Biggs has held a variety of senior positions in the federal government, including assistant secretary to Cabinet, Priorities and Planning, Privy Council Office; ADM Human Investment Programs; and associate executive head, Strategic Policy, Human Resources Development Canada.

Parr-Johnston has served as senior policy adviser and chief of staff to the Minister of Employment and Immigration, and has held senior private sector roles with Inco Ltd. and Shell Canada. She has also held academic appointments at the University of Western Ontario, the University of British Columbia, Wesleyan University (Connecticut) and Carleton University.

While in government, Solberg served as minister of Human Resources and Social Development Canada and Citizenship and Immigration Canada. He currently works as a senior adviser for Fleishman-Hillard Canada in Calgary and writes a weekly column for the Sun Media newspapers.

Shirley is principal of the UWI, Mona Campus, in Kingston, Jamaica. He was appointed director of the Mona School of Business in 2001, and served concurrently as executive chairman of the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited. He served as Jamaica’s ambassador to the United States and permanent representative to the Organization of American States.

Stewart is director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. The founder and chief executive of the Turquoise Mountain Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the regeneration of the historic commercial centre in Kabul, Afghanistan, has served as the British representative to Montenegro in the wake of the Kosovo campaign, and, in 2003-2004, as coalition deputy governor of Maysan and senior adviser in Dhi Qar, two provinces in southern Iraq. He is the author of The Places in Between and The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq.