About the Speaker

David Beasley, a former Governor of South Carolina, recently served as the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), having been nominated by two President’s Administrations of two different parties and appointed to that role initially in 2017 by the UN Secretary-General of the United Nations and served until April 2023. Under Mr. Beasley’s leadership, WFP was the largest humanitarian organization in the world assisting over 160 million people in 2022 alone and raised over $55 billion USD.  In 2020, Mr. Beasley received the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of WFP for its efforts to provide food assistance in conflict areas and to prevent food from being used as a weapon of war and conflict. 

In his acceptance speech delivered in Oslo on December 10, 2021, Mr. Beasley stated that “Working with 115 million people in 80 countries, day-in and day-out, the women and men of WFP have gained a unique perspective. We have learned that there is great richness in those who are seen, in the eyes of the world, as “the poor.” And many of us who are considered “rich” are actually poor in the things that
matter most.” 

Mr. Beasley also received the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award for his stand on the Confederate Flag as well as many other awards. He majored in Microbiology at Clemson University and received a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of South Carolina. He also was a Fellow and taught at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. He is married to the former Mary Wood Payne and is the father of four children and three grandchildren.