At an extraordinary meeting of the shareholders of FMO today, Mrs. Farah Karimi (1960) was appointed as the sixth member of the Supervisory Board. Until 1 October 2018, Farah Karimi served as the Executive director and chair of Executive Board at Oxfam Novib, a position she held for 10 years.
Pier Vellinga, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at FMO: “Human rights are crucial for FMO and the projects we finance. Experience illustrates how difficult this can be in the countries and the type of projects we support. Therefore, we are delighted with the appointment of Farah Karimi as a Member of the Supervisory Board. Farah’s knowledge, understanding and input in the field of, amongst others, human rights will be of great value to the organization. Farah has put important issues on the political agenda and achieved notable results supporting the poorest people to improve their living conditions. She has made every effort to fight the root causes of poverty, inequality and climate change for many years – topics that are closely associated to the very heart of FMO’s ambitions and day-to-day activities.”
Farah Karimi was appointed on 1 February 2008 as Executive director and chair of Executive Board of Oxfam Novib and served as a member of the Executive Board of Oxfam International. Under her leadership the organisation has, as a part of Oxfam International, expanded to a worldwide, influential movement that fights poverty, inequality and injustice. From 1998 till 2006 she was a Member of the Dutch Parliament for GroenLinks with foreign policy, development aid and European affairs in her portfolio. In the past Farah Karimi has also been active for several charitable organisations at home and abroad. Farah Karimi has studied Industrial Design at the Isfahan University of Technology (Iran), Mathematics and Information Technology at Kiel University (Germany) and Policies and Governance in International Organisations at Groningen University (The Netherlands).
