Choson Exchange is proud to announce that Katharina Zellweger will be joining Choson Exchange’s Board of Advisors. Katharina is a highly experienced and respected development worker with extensive on-the-ground experience in the DPRK, particularly in capacity building in our focus areas of business, economics and law. As we grow Choson Exchange’s impact, we are glad to have the opportunity to benefit from her advice on designing programs, participant selection, program evaluation and growth strategy. Coming from Switzerland and having lived in Hong Kong and the DPRK, we believe there is a strong fit between her international background and the strong international experience of Choson Exchange’s team. Her bio is attached below. Bio
Katharina Zellweger has been the Pantech Fellow in Korean Studies at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University since 2011. She is a senior aid manager with over 30 years of field experience in Hong Kong, China and North Korea.
Zellweger lived and worked in Pyongyang for five years (2006-2011) as the North Korea country director for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). She focused on sustainable agricultural production to address food security issues, income generation to improve people’s livelihoods, and capacity development to contribute to individual and institutional learning.
Before joining SDC, Zellweger worked for almost 30 years for the Catholic agency Caritas in Hong Kong where she developed pioneering Caritas involvement in China and in North Korea. Zellweger received the Bishop Tji Hak-soon Justice and Peace Award from a South Korean foundation established to promote social justice, and the Dame of St. Gregory the Great from the Vatican for her work in North Korea.
Zellweger has a Master’s in International Administration, School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont.
Update 25 Feb 2015: Ms Zellweger decided to set up an organization providing humanitarian and education programs in North Korea, and as such, has informed us that she will resign from the Board of Advisors.