David Morrison: President of NetAid

Since 2000 David Morrison has been president of NetAid, the non-profit organization dedicated to using the power of the Internet to end extreme poverty. NetAid (www.netaid.org) connects individuals and groups committed to taking action, providing them with information, access to new resources and ways to get involved.

Mr. Morrison has worked extensively with business and non-profit groups committed to supporting social change around the world. Prior to joining NetAid, Mr. Morrison was an Advisor on Strategic Partnerships to the Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). From 1995 to 1999 he served as Director and Member of the Executive Board of the World Economic Forum, a Geneva-based organization whose members include 1,000 of the world’s foremost multinational corporations. One of Mr. Morrison’s primary responsibilities at the Forum was organizing the programme of the group’s annual summit in Davos, Switzerland.

Prior to joining the Forum, Mr. Morrison was a Canadian diplomat for six years, three of which were spent at the Canadian embassy in Havana, Cuba. He was a member of the policy staff for the G7/G8 economic summits in 1994 and 1995. He began his career with UNDP in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 1988. In addition to his current position with NetAid, Mr. Morrison serves as a contributing editor at Foreign Policy magazine. He is a graduate of Yale and Oxford Universities.

At NetAid, Mr. Morrison recently launched the 'NetAid World Schoolhouse' to bring quality education to the world’s poorest children. “People all over the world understand the development gains afforded by quality education,” says Mr. Morrison. “When children are educated, HIV/AIDS infection rates go down as do maternal and infant mortality rates, fertility rates and environmental degradation. Citizens of the global community from corporations to everyday citizens recognize this opportunity and we think the World Schoolhouse Initiative is an effective way to involve them.”

Mr. Morrison, who will take part in the 9 May dialogue on public and private partnerships at the UN Special Session on Children, says that the meeting "represents a tremendous opportunity for leaders from the corporate, governmental and civil society sectors to sit down and share their agendas, expectations and aspirations.” He adds, “This is an opportunity to learn. I am sure that we’ll find that we’re all concerned about the same things and have much more in common than we ever knew.”