Daniel V. Speckhard

President & CEO
Corus International, Parent of Lutheran World Relief and IMA World Health 

Daniel Speckhard, President and CEO of Lutheran World Relief. USE THIS PHOTO for LWR website and media.

He has lived in cities and countries around the world, but Daniel V. Speckhard feels very much at home in Baltimore. “Over the past two decades, Baltimore has developed into a hub for international NGOs that are saving lives and helping people living in poverty around the world,” said Speckhard, a former ambassador to both Belarus and Greece, and one-time State Department official based in Baghdad. Among those organizations, he said, are Catholic Relief Services, the International Youth Foundation, International Orthodox Christian Charities and the agency he heads, Lutheran World Relief.

“Collectively, we provide $1.5 billion a year in assistance, and our organizations employ thousands of Marylanders,” he said. “I’m proud that Lutheran World Relief has been a part of that, and our new parent, Corus International, will continue that leadership.”
Speckhard is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a non-resident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council and a former nonresident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution. In 2002, he was presented the NATO Medal for his work in support of crisis management in Macedonia.

Speckhard earned his bachelor’s degree, as well as master’s degrees in economics and public policy and administration, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“I come from a long line of Lutheran pastors,” Speckhard said. “That Lutheran upbringing instilled in me a strong core value of service to others, and a deep desire to contribute to alleviating poverty, suffering and injustice in the world.”
He added: “Ending poverty and building communities is not a ‘project.’ It’s about building relationships.”