New York/Rome 14 February 2002 -- U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf announced today their appointment of James T. Morris as Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP). The announcement came following consultations with WFP's executive board of 36 member countries.

Mr. Morris is a citizen of the United States and was chairman and chief executive officer of IWC Resources Corporation, the parent company of the Indianapolis Water Company. He also serves as president of the Indiana University Board of Trustees. Formerly, Mr. Morris was president of the Lilly Endowment. The Lilly Endowment, one of largest charitable foundations in the United States, was established in 1937 by members of the Lilly family to pursue philanthropic interests.

Mr. Morris succeeds Catherine Bertini, the first U.S. national to head the Rome-based programme. Ms. Bertini's second five-year term will end in March.

Established in 1963, WFP is an autonomous joint subsidiary programme of the UN and FAO for food aid. In 2000, the programme fed 83 million people in 83 countries, including most of the world's internally displaced people, delivering 3.7 million tonnes of food aid.