Forwarded as a courtesy of the International Development Network
(http://www.idn.org/) - Apologies for any crossposting (with a wink and
a nod to the SDGateway:-)):

Winnipeg, Manitoba, October 30, 1998

David Runnalls to be Interim President of IISD

  David Runnalls has been appointed Interim President of IISD, replacing
Dr. Arthur Hanson who stepped down from the post to become the
Institute's Distinguished Fellow and Senior Scientist.

  The announcement was made today by Jim MacNeill, the Chair of the
Institute's Board of Directors. The Institute's Executive Committee has
appointed a Search Committee, chaired by Jack McLeod, to immediately
begin an international search for IISD's next full-time CEO.

  "IISD is indeed fortunate in having someone of David's experience
ready and willing to step in at such short notice," Mr. MacNeill stated.
"He is one of the handful of Canadians who was active at the beginning
of the international environmental debate. He worked with the British
economist and writer, Barbara Ward, in the production of the
award-winning book, Only One Earth, which set the tone for the first
global conference on the environment in Stockholm in 1972."

  Runnalls was one of the cofounders of the International Institute for
Environment and Development (IIED) in 1973 and acted as the Director of
the IIED office in London until 1981. He helped to establish its
keystone programs in energy, human settlements, information and in
monitoring the environmental performance of the foreign aid agencies. In
1981 he moved to Washington where he made the Institute's North American
office into one of the premier players in the environment and
development debate in the United States.

  He returned to Canada in 1988 to help establish an environment program
at the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP). While at the
IRPP, Runnalls became a frequent media commentator on environmental
issues leading up to the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. He was a
  regular columnist on CBC Radio's As It Happens and a frequent
contributor to Canada AM.

  In 1993 Runnalls left the IRPP to become a Senior Fellow of IISD,
directing its Trade Program.

  He also became Senior Advisor to the President of the International
Development Research Centre and to the Administrator of the United
Nations Development Programme. He is also the Co-Chair of the Trade and
Environment Working Group of the China Council for International
Cooperation on Environment and Development.

  Mr. Runnalls is a Director of IIED (London), the World Environment
Center in New York and   Pollution Probe, a Canadian ENGO. He was for
six years the Canadian member of the Board of   IUCN/The World
Conservation Union and the Chair of the Planning Committee for the
  organization's World Conservation Congress in Montreal in 1996.

  IISD was established in 1990 with funding from the governments of
Canada and Manitoba. The head office is in Winnipeg. IISD carries out
sustainable development activities in Canada and worldwide, supported by
more than 40 funding sources.

  For further information, please contact Jim MacNeill, Chairman of the
Board, at 204-958-7707.