CdS recognizes the work of Walter Cotte at the head of the IFRC and welcomes Martha Keays

With a small meeting in which the Executive President and the Executive Vice President participated, the City of Knowledge Foundation thanked Walter Cotte Witingan for his work as Regional Director for the Americas of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

Cotte will be replaced in office by Martha Keays, who served as the Peace Corps Country Director in Guatemala, Kenya and Colombia and who was recently the El Salvador Resident Director of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. For Keays “it is unique and very exciting to be able to be in such an important place as the City of Knowledge and especially in these times of COVID-19, where the challenges are magnified. I have some very big shoes to fill thanks to Walter's great work, but we are aware that we are going to do an optimal job”.

For her part, the Executive Vice President of the City of Knowledge Foundation, Irene Perurena, welcomed Keays to the family by highlighting that “the Red Cross and the Red Crescent are an essential part of our community. The commitment to building a better, fairer and more participatory society, unites us on the road to travel every day”.

Jorge Arosemena, Executive President of the City of Knowledge Foundation, acknowledged that Walter, from the first day, was fully integrated by his vocation of service to humanity. In addition, he thanked him for his work to create "more just, participatory and sustainable societies always with a constructive spirit and with great capacity".

Cotte assumed the role of Regional Director for the Americas of the IFRC, located at the City of Knowledge, in 2015 and will now be the new Special Representative of the Secretary General for Covid-19.