Carol Bellamy assumed office as the fourth Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), with the rank of Under Secretary General, on 1 May 1995.

Executive Director Carol Bellamy

Biographical information

Copyright 1999 UNICEFExecutive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund since 1995, Carol Bellamy is a respected voice in the international community.

Now entering her eighth year at the helm of UNICEF, Ms. Bellamy has focused the world's leading children's organization on five major priorities: immunizing every child; getting all girls and boys into school, and getting all schools to offer quality basic education; reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS and its impact on young people; fighting for the protection of children from violence and exploitation; and introducing early childhood programs in every country.

Under Ms. Bellamy's leadership UNICEF has become a champion of global investment in children, arguing that efforts to reduce poverty and build a more secure world can only be successful if they ensure that children have an opportunity to grow to adulthood in health, peace and dignity. She has challenged leaders from all walks of life to recognize their moral, social, and economic responsibility to invest in children - and to shift national resources accordingly. She encouraged the General Assembly to allow children to take part in the UN Special Session on Children in May 2002, and hundreds did, meeting directly with Heads of State to discuss the issues affecting their lives. The ground-breaking summit adopted new global goals for children and provided world leaders with ideas and inspiration for achieving them. (A complete overview is available at www.unicef.org/specialsession.)

Ms. Bellamy has visited more than 100 countries, advocating for children and women with heads of state, cultural icons, corporate leaders, rebel commanders, and many others.

Trained in corporate law and finance and deeply committed to global peace and development, Ms. Bellamy has brought a compassionate yet pragmatic ethic to improving the lives of children. Her first two years at UNICEF were devoted to streamlining operations, cutting costs, and giving UNICEF's 160 country offices more flexibility to respond to local needs. She also focused UNICEF on helping countries improve their data gathering so that global goals set for children in 1990 could be monitored effectively. The results of that successful effort can be found in UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's 2001 report, "We The Children," perhaps the most comprehensive picture of the global child ever assembled.

Prior to joining UNICEF, Ms. Bellamy was Director of the United States Peace Corps. Having served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala from 1963 to 1965, she was the first former volunteer to run the organization, which works in more than 90 countries.

Ms. Bellamy has had a distinguished career in the private sector. She was a Managing Director of Bear Stearns & Co. from 1990 to 1993, and a Principal at Morgan Stanley and Co. from 1986 to 1990. Between 1968 and 1971 she was an associate at Cravath, Swaine and Moore.

Ms. Bellamy also spent 13 years as an elected public official, including five years in the New York State Senate (1973-1977). In 1978, she became the first woman to be elected President of the New York City Council, a position she held until 1985.

Ms. Bellamy earned her law degree from New York University in 1968. She is a former Fellow of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and an honorary member of Phi Alpha Alpha, the U.S. National Honor Society for Accomplishment and Scholarship in Public Affairs and Administration. Ms. Bellamy graduated from Gettysburg College in 1963. She was born and raised in the New York area. She is a Mets fan.

June 2002