David Miliband (of course you should know) is the former British foreign secretary who now runs one of our largest refugee resettlement agencies—the International Rescue Committee—and makes a cool $400,000 plus salary doing it. See our archives for more on the man who was a “celebrity” in the UK, but is virtually unrecognizable in NYC. The New York Times (in its name-dropping story) makes sure we know throughout the article how much he is enjoying his anonymity when he surely was entitled to be among the recognized.
Photo: Times of London
The article is long, and long on gush, but gives us one more look at the glitz and glamor that surrounds the human rights industrial complex these days.
From the NYT (emphasis mine):
The speakers at the fund-raising gala in New York last month had come to praise the guest of honor: the new president and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband. Amid all the charity-circuit one-liners delivered by big-ticket names like Bill Clinton, George Soros and Samantha Power, a remark by Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state, hit closest to home.
“I would like to dispel the rumor,” Ms. Albright said, “that David himself has sought refuge in America from that most terrible of democratic tyrannies, the British tabloids.”
She may be right, but surely no one would blame Mr. Miliband — a former British foreign secretary, candidate for leader of the Labour Party and newspaper torture victim — if escape had indeed been one of his motives for fleeing England at the end of the summer.
IRC staff not so welcoming to man who says he wanted to deal with “knotty” issues:
Some longtime I.R.C. staff members responded to news of his appointment with a certain wariness, mainly because of Mr. Miliband’s foreignness, his celebrity, his lack of experience running nonprofit agencies and because they did not know what his management style would be. (He started the job in September, installing two longtime advisers from Britain as top executives, and said he was spending the first few months getting his head around the organization and the job.)
We are not informed if he has won them over.
Read the whole thing if you feel like it by clicking here.