George Rupp

President and CEO, International Rescue Committee

George Rupp has been president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) since July 2002. He oversees the agency's relief and development operations in twenty-five countries, its refugee resettlement programs throughout the United States, and its advocacy efforts in Washington, Geneva, Brussels, and other capitals. Before joining the IRC, Dr. Rupp served as president of Columbia University. During his nine-year tenure, he focused on enhancing undergraduate education, strengthening campus ties to surrounding communities and New York City as a whole, and increasing the university's international orientation. Earlier, Dr. Rupp served as president of Rice University and before that he was the John Lord O'Brian professor of divinity and dean of the Harvard Divinity School. Educated in Europe and Asia as well as the United States, he is the author of numerous articles and five books, including Globalization Challenged: Commitment, Conflict, and Community. He is based in New York, NY.

Publications

Transcript

National Teleconference: The State of the World’s Refugees: From Indifference to Solidarity

Speaker: António Guterres
Presider: George Rupp

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres explains how the increasing number of new crises around the world, in areas such as Syria, Sudan/South Sudan, and Mali, has revealed that the capacity of the international community to present conflict is considerably limited.

This meeting is part of the Arthur C. Helton Memorial Lecture series, which was established by the Council and the family of Arthur C. Helton, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who died in the August 2003 bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad. The Helton Lectureship is an annual event at which one or more speakers address pressing issues in the broad field of human rights and humanitarian concerns.

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