FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill announced today the appointment of Lori A. Forman as Alternate U.S. Executive Director of the Asian Development Bank, effective September 14. "We are delighted to have Lori in this position. With her strong background in Asia and development issues she will make an excellent contribution to the Administration's international finance team."

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a multilateral development finance institution working to increase economic growth and reduce poverty in 60 Asian and Pacific countries. The ADB is based in Manila, Philippines.

Prior to this appointment, Forman served as the Assistant Administrator for Asia and the Near East of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). As head of the Bureau for Asia and the Near East, Forman was responsible for USAID programs in more than 30 countries ranging from the Mediterranean to the South Pacific. Forman also served at USAID from 1983 to 1990 in senior advisory positions in the Bureau for Asia and the Near East and the Bureau for Food for Peace and Voluntary Assistance. She was the agency's coordinator of the U.S.-Japan aid project from 1989 to 1990.

In between appointments at USAID, Forman was director of The Nature Conservancy's Japan Program from 1990 to 2001 in Arlington, Va., and Tokyo, Japan, where she was also a visiting professor on the Faculty of Law at Keio University. In early 1990, she was executive vice president of Pacific Management Resources Inc. in Honolulu.

Forman has written and presented extensively on development assistance, humanitarian aid, non-governmental organizations, and the environment.

Among her awards are an Award of Appreciation, Asociacion Nacional para la Conservacion de la Naturaleza, Panama (1999); selection as international advisor, Keidanren Nature Conservation Committee, Tokyo (1995); and being named one of Ten Outstanding Young People of the Year, Osaka Junior Chamber of Commerce, Osaka, Japan.

A native of South Dakota, Forman has a bachelor's degree in political science from Augustana College in Sioux Falls and a master's of public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.