Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I
am pleased to announce that I have decided to take early retirement from IFRC.
It's something I've planned carefully, with the welcome support of my USG over
the past few months.
I celebrated
my 64th birthday last month, and mandatory retirement would be a
year-away. However, we completed our 5-year IT Strategy in 2015 and are
in the midst of a strategy refresh process for 2016-2020. Under any scenario, I
will not be here for its implementation. If I were a new CIO coming into
the IFRC, I would want a say in finalizing the IT strategy, and not be faced
with reassessing it one-year into the plan; for IFRC, this would not be the
best use of time and resources. So the turn of this year was the right
time to propose a new CIO come in earlier, finish the strategy work and own the
new plan.
My last day at office will be on Aug. 10th. My wife and I will be moving to Lisbon until mid-December. I will be working on finishing a few book projects and volunteering to help a colleague on a new NGO venture. So the good work continues!
We
look forward to being home for the holidays to celebrate with family and
friends. Then the next chapter begins teaching at a university (still to be
determined). Thank you for your interest in and support of our IT
and innovation work. It has been an honor serve the RC Movement these
past six years, and I have always believed that the best is yet to
come. So stay focused on the morning
star. Best regards,
Ed
Edward G. Happ
Global CIO and Director of IT
“Even if you
are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
--Will Rogers, American Humorist
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Route de Pré-Bois 1 | 1214 Vernier | Geneva | Switzerland
Tel. +41 (0)22 730 4365 | Mob. +41 (0)79 250 0558
Saving lives,
changing minds.
"The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent positions, strategies or opinions of any of the organizations with which I am associated."
