McPherson Joins PSI Board

WASHINGTON, DC, April 12, 2005 — M. Peter McPherson, president emeritus of Michigan State University and founding co-chair of Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, has joined PSI's board of directors.

Mr. McPherson has more than forty years of distinguished service in public and private sector positions, ranging from Peace Corps volunteer in Peru in the 1960s to director of economic policy with the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq in 2003.

PSI, a non-profit organization based in Washington, is the world's leading social marketing organization, with programs in 70 countries in HIV/AIDS prevention, family planning, malaria, safe water and nutrition. PSI uses social marketing strategies to deliver health products, services and education that enable low-income and vulnerable people to lead healthier lives.

"I am pleased to join PSI's board of directors as a way of supporting its effective and cost efficient work in malaria, clean water and reproductive health," said Mr. McPherson. "With my own background in development, education and business, I have long admired how PSI uses both education and the private, commercial sector to improve the health of low income and vulnerable people in developing countries, an approach fully compatible with my own development philosophy."

Mr. McPherson was president of Michigan State University from 1993-2004. He held several senior positions in the Bank of America from 1989-1993. In the Reagan and Bush administrations of the 1980s, he served as deputy secretary and acting secretary of the Treasury, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and general counsel to the Reagan/Bush Transition Team. He served as partner and head of the Washington office of the large Ohio law firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease. Mr. McPherson was special assistant to President Ford and deputy director of the Presidential Personnel Office from 1975-1977 and a tax law specialist in the Internal Revenue Service from 1969-1975. He began his government service in Peru where he was a Peace Corps volunteer from 1964-1965.

Mr. McPherson is the founding co-chair of the Partnership to Cut Hunger in Africa (co-chairs include Bob Dole, Lee Hamilton and four African presidents) and chair of the advisory committee to mobilize research money for bio-fortification of crops in poor countries. He is chair of the board of International Food and Agriculture Development, which advises USAID on agricultural and university matters. Mr. McPherson led a Presidential Election Observation Mission to Peru with former President Jimmy Carter in 2001.

In the business world, Mr. McPherson is a member of the board of directors of Dow Jones and Company, the international board of advisors of Komatsu Company, the board of trustees of Series Trust controlled by Jackson National Life and the steering committee for Michigan Life Sciences Corridor, now the Technology Tri-Corridor.

In the education world, Mr. McPherson serves as chair of the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Commission, board of directors of the National Association of Land Grant Colleges and Universities and the board of trustees of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation.

Among Mr. McPherson's awards and honors are the Secretary of State Distinguished Leadership Award for "distinguished contribution to the development, management and implementation of current foreign policy;" UNICEF's "Outstanding Contribution to Child Survival;" U.S. Presidential Certificate of Outstanding Achievement for "continued demonstrated vision, initiative and leadership in efforts to achieve a world without hunger," Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton Award, honorary doctorates from Michigan State University, Mount St. Mary's College and Virginia State University; and "Humanitarian of the Year" award from the American Lebanese League.

Mr. McPherson graduated from Michigan State University in 1963, has an MBA from Western Michigan University and a JD from American University Law School.

Other members of PSI's Board of Directors include Chair Frank Loy, former under secretary of State for global affairs, U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC; Rita I. Bass, chief executive officer of MEDIBANC, Inc., Denver, CO; Frank Carlucci, chairman emeritus of The Carlyle Group, Washington, DC; Sarah G. Epstein, population consultant, Washington, DC; Richard A. Frank, PSI president, Washington, DC; Gail McGreevy Harmon, partner, Harmon Curran, Spielberg & Eisenberg, LLP, Washington, DC; William C. Harrop, former U.S. ambassador to Guinea, Israel, Kenya, and Zaire and inspector general of the U.S. State Department and the Foreign Service, Washington, DC; Adriaan Jacobovits de Szeged, former Netherlands ambassador to the U.S.; Ashley Judd, actor/activist, Franklin, Tennessee; Dr. Gilbert Omenn, professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; Dr. Malcolm Potts, professor, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA; and Mechai Viravaidya, chairman, Population and Community Development Association, Bangkok, Thailand.

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