News

The VSA Council is delighted to announce that it has appointed Dr Gill Greer as VSA’s new chief executive officer.

Dr Greer will take up her new role on July 9, succeeding the current CEO Debbie Snelson.

Dr Greer, a Wellingtonian, spent five years in London as director general of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), a volunteer-led organisation that works with 153 community-owned partners, including nine in the Pacific.

She was previously executive director of the New Zealand Family Planning Association, which includes Family Planning International, an advocacy, projects and research unit that focuses its work in the Pacific region.  She also chaired the Asia Pacific Alliance and the New Zealand NGO-Ministry of Health Forum.

Prior to that she was involved in education, including a term as Assistant Vice Chancellor at Victoria University.

Dr Greer was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to family planning and literature in 2005.  She was awarded a CBE in the January British New Year’s honours list for her work on international health and women’s rights.

She returned to New Zealand late last year, and has just completed two major reports on the Asia Pacific region.

VSA Council chair Farib Sos says that Dr Greer is extremely well qualified to head VSA, which is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary.

“Through her work with the IPPF she is very aware of the issues facing developing countries, including the countries in the wider Pacific where VSA’s volunteers are based,” he says. “We believe that Dr Greer’s experience will be invaluable in helping to guide VSA’s work as we enter our second half century.”