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July 7, 2000: Ambassador Edward Perkins to chair Corporate Council on Africa Southern Africa Working Group

The Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) named former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Edward Perkins new Chairman of its Southern Africa Policy Working Group. Perkins succeeds Ambassador Princeton Lyman who recently took over as Chairman of CCA's Nigeria Working Group. CCA President Stephen Hayes announced this change at a recent private luncheon with members of the working group and the Ambassadors of eight Southern African nations.

The Southern Africa Working Group is the arm of the Corporate Council that looks specifically at Southern African Policy issues. As its principal objective, Group seeks to promote US Southern economic and commercial relations, and to enhance CCA member involvement in those relations. The Group has explored key issues such as regional economic integration, project financing opportunities in the Southern African region, the EU-South Africa Free Trade Agreement and security issues in Angola.

During the last several months, the Working Group has been in close contact with senior State Department officials in preparation for the U.S.-SADC Business Forum in Maputo, Mozambique in May. It also met with Ambassador Sheila Sisulu directly after the State Visit of South African President Thabo Mbeki. The Working Group has also recently hosted business meetings with Special SADC representative, John Lange, and Ex-Im Bank Chairman James Harmon.

Ambassador Perkins is presently William J. Crowe Chair Professor of Geopolitics and Executive Director of the International Programs Center at The University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. In 1985, he was appointed Ambassador to Liberia, and in 1986 as Ambassador to South Africa where he served from 1986-89. In 1989 Ambassador Perkins was appointed as Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Personnel in the Department of State where he served until 1992.

In 1992 he was appointed US Representative to the United Nations with the rank and status of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, and US Representative in the UN Security Council, where he served until 1993. From 1993 to 1996, he was appointed Ambassador to the Commonwealth of Australia and he retired with the rank of Career Minister in the US Foreign Service on August, 1996.

During his Foreign Service career, Perkins received the Presidential Distinguished and Meritorious Service Awards; the Department of State's Distinguished Honor and Superior Honor Award; the Una Chapman Cox Foundation Award for Distinguished Foreign Service Work; the University of Southern California's Distinguished Alumni Award; the Southern University's Achievement Award; the Links, Inc. Living Legend Award, the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Award for Distinguished Service; the Kappa Alpha Psi C. Rodger Wilson Leadership Conference Award and the Kappa Alpha Psi Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Foreign Service, as well as 1992's Statesman of the Year Award from George Washington University.

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