At its meeting last November in Manila, Philippines, the APPC Board of Directors elected Erna Witoelar as its new Chair. Erna is currently a board member of the KEHATI Indonesian Biodiversity Foundation in Jakarta. Prior to being Chair, she served as APPC’s Deputy Chair.

Along with the election of the new Chair went the reconstitution of the Executive Committee. Christine Edwards (The Myer Foundation) now serves as Deputy Chair while Safi Rahman Khan (Bangladesh Freedom Foundation) serves as Honorary Secretary. Roberto Calingo (TeamEnergy Foundation Philippines) remains as Treasurer while former APPC Chair Darwin Chen, Chair of Habitat for Humanity China, is currently Honorary Member. Recently recognized for his outstanding work in philanthropy at the China Philanthropy Conference, Darwin Chen was honoured by board members for his steadfast leadership of APPC. Currently, APPC has a total of 15 board members from Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and the US.

As to its work for the year 2009, APPC plans to continue its Diaspora Philanthropy, Family Philanthropy and Corporate Philanthropy programmes.

The APPC Board Meeting and Annual General Meeting were capped with a Joint Breakfast of the APPC Board of Directors with the Coordinating Committee of WINGS. The gathering was a lively exchange between the two organizations on the impact of the continuing global economic crisis on non-profit and philanthropy support organizations in their respective countries and regions as well as an update on each organization’s plans for the year ahead. APPC is exploring a collaboration with WINGS for future activities in the Asia Pacific region.

For more information
Contact APPC at info@asiapacificphilanthropy.org or go to http://www.asiapacificphilanthropy.org