For Immediate Release:	March 4, 2003
For More Information:	Stefanie Ettelt, Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevoelkerung (DSW), stefanie.ettelt@dsw-hannover.de, +49 511 943 73-17
Sponsor Organization:	The German Foundation for World Population (DSW)
Dr Joerg F. Maas announced as successor to Dr Hans Fleisch from April 2003
Hannover, March 3, 2003--The German Foundation for World Population (DSW) has announced a change in its management: As of April 1, Dr Joerg F Maas will assume the position of Executive Director at the Hanover-based foundation. Dr Maas therefore fills the position vacated by Dr Hans Fleisch, who has directed the organisation since 1992. Dr Maas has been with DSW since 1996, directing the department of Project Management and Development from 1997. In his role as Director of International Programmes, which he assumed in 2001, he has been responsible for conceptualising and extending DSW's country programmes in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda as well as promoting DSW's international co-operations with partner organisations and grant-making instuitutions. Since 1999, he has been one of DSW's two Vice-Executive Directors. DSW's future Executive Director will be able to continue the successful pioneering of his predecessor. In his eleven years as Executive Director, Dr Hans Fleisch developed the organisation, founded in 1991, into a nationally and internationally renowned organisation committed to population issues such as contraception, sexual education and the right to family planning. Under his leadership, DSW has been able to establish itself as an important point of reference in all issues relating to the development of the world's population. DSW has also been responsible for ensuring that the 1994 ICPD Programme of Action remains in the forefront of development policy, both in Germany and abroad. Dr Fleisch is to become Executive Director of the newly-founded Supply Initiative: Meeting the Need for Reproductive Health Supplies in Brussels. This initiative brings attention to the current reproductive health supply shortage and aims to increase the availability and efficient use of human, institutional and financial resources for reproductive health supplies. Ms Renate Baehr, Director of Communication and Press Relations, remains DSW's Vice-Executive Director.