Richard Leach

Senior Advisor

Richard Leach is a Senior Advisor of Fontheim International, LLC and President and CEO of World Food Programme USA. For more than twenty years, Mr. Leach has helped U.N. agencies, governments, and non-profit organizations develop new initiatives to address a wide range of issues.

Mr. Leach led a review of the World Health Organization’s operations concerning pharmaceuticals and health technologies and developed the plan for an initiative to halt the production and trade in counterfeit drugs. He has also established a non-profit organization for the United Nations World Food Program, and has helped the Alliance for Representative Democracy establish a nationwide initiative to ensure that all public schools in the United States provide an adequate civic education.

Mr. Leach directed a global initiative to identify and build support for public policies most critical to the World Health Organization and American Cancer Society. Additionally, Mr. Leach planned and launched the World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Campaign that brought the organization’s 25 country offices together around a common plan of action to address over-fishing, deforestation and other specific environmental threats.

In 1993, Mr. Leach was appointed by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to create and direct the federal government’s childhood immunization campaign. From 1991 to 1993, Mr. Leach served as the foreign policy advisor to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Hunger, helping shape Congressional policy on international development and humanitarian issues and serving as a member of the U.S. delegations to several international conferences convened by the United Nations.

Mr. Leach also assisted the Inter-American Development Bank expand its micro-enterprise lending program, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) build support for the 1990 World Summit for Children, and the Organization of American States commemorate its 50th Anniversary. He has helped produce numerous benefit concerts and rallies including Earth Day 1990 and 2000, the Mayor’s March on Washington, and other events.

Mr. Leach practiced corporate and maritime law in California from 1986 to 1989. He served as a member of the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Reform of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Mr. Leach has published articles on international human rights and micro-enterprise development and served as a correspondent on Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Internet Reporter. He also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Lung Association for the District of Columbia from 2004-2006 and is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation.