Mark Malloch Brown

Mark Malloch Brown, as a journalist, political adviser, and World Bank official, you have worked with politicians and executives from across the globe to address the needs of people in developing countries. As administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) since 1999, you have reformed the UN’s largest agency, raising more than $3 billion a year for programs to promote democracy, fight poverty, protect the environment, and address the impact of HIV/AIDS. Now as UN chief of staff you are helping the secretary-general lead a wide reform effort to modernize the UN.

A British citizen, you received an honors degree in history from Cambridge University, and came to the United States to earn a master’s degree in political science from the University of Michigan.

In 1977, you began work as a political correspondent for The Economist. You went on to found and edit the Economist Development Report, a monthly chronicle on the aid community and the political economy for development. From 1986 to 1994, you were lead international partner for the Sawyer-Miller Group, a consulting firm, where you advised corporations, governments, and political candidates. In this role, you worked on many campaigns across the developing world, including successfully advising Corazon Aquino when she ran against Ferdinand Marcos for president of the Philippines.

You began working for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 1979. Initially stationed in Thailand, you were in charge of field operations for Cambodian refugees. Later, as deputy chief of the emergency unit in Geneva, you undertook missions in the Horn of Africa and Central America. In 1981, you were among the UNHCR staff who received the Nobel Peace Prize.

From 1994 to 1999 you served at the World Bank, first as director for external affairs and then as vice president for external affairs and United Nations affairs. There, you reshaped the bank’s communications strategy and strengthened partnerships with the UN and nongovernmental organizations.

You were appointed administrator of the United Nations Development Program by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1999. During your tenure, you have overseen a comprehensive reform effort, which has been widely recognized as having made the UNDP more focused and effective. In 2003, you were unanimously approved by the General Assembly for a second four-year term.

Serving as chair of the United Nations Development Group, you lead a committee of decision-makers from all UN funds, programs, and departments that work on development issues. You also lead the UN in forming strategy to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals, which are eight time-bound development targets that have the overarching goal of reducing extreme poverty 50 percent by the year 2015—an attempt to change our world within a single generation.

For your efforts in human rights, and for your leadership in keeping the United Nations vital and essential in the 21st century, Pace University is honored to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, with all the rights and privileges pertaining thereunto.