Photo: Maryam Owji, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons¹⁵

Roy W. Brown

British activist

Roy W. Brown (born 2 November 1937) is a British-born engineer, humanist and human rights activist. He was president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) from 2003 to 2006 and was for a time its main representative at the United Nations, Geneva.²

From Wikipedia’s article on Roy W. Brown (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Nov 2, 1947.¹

Early life and education

Date not recordedUniversity of London³
Date not recordedHaberdashers' Aske's Boys' School³

Roy Brown was born in London on 2 November 1937. He was educated at the Martin School, East Finchley and The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, an Independent school in Elstree in Hertfordshire, and the University of London where he read engineering. He trained as an engineer with ITT in London working on the development of electronic systems, and the UK Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Orford Ness and Aldermaston where he was part of the team developing monitoring systems for the international Test Ban Treaty. After emigrating to Canada where he worked for four years with Canadian Marconi in Montreal on the design of airborne radar and navigation systems he returned to the UK as Chief Designer for Racal Research in Tewkesbury, pioneers in the field of Computer Aided Design.

From Wikipedia’s article on Roy W. Brown (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: businessperson, engineer, activist.¹¹

2003 to 2006President, Humanists International¹⁰
Since 1987Chairperson, World Population Foundation¹⁰
Since 1967Worked at Racal^{4 6}
Since 1963Worked at Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company of Canada^{4 6}
Date not recordedWorked at Time Sharing Limited^{4 5}
Date not recordedFounded World Population Foundation⁷
Date not recordedFounded Metier Management Systems⁸
Date not recordedBoard member, World Population Foundation⁹
Date not recordedFounder¹⁰

Personal life

BornNov 2, 1947, London¹²
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom¹³
ResidenceCanada, Switzerland, Château de Barasc¹⁴

Philanthropy

World Population Foundation

Brown moved to the Netherlands in 1984 where with his wife Diana he founded the World Population Foundation (WPF) to promote family planning: a major factor in improving the quality of life of women and families, and solving the problems of human development and rapid population growth in developing countries.

By 1993 WPF had become one of the leading population advocacy organisations in Europe, and in 1994 played an important role in the Dutch delegation to the International Conference on Population and Development, (ICPD), held in Cairo.

In 1996, WPF became a founding member of Eurongo, the European network of NGOs working in the field of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Population and Development, an organisation first proposed in 1991 by Brown, Sjaak Bavelaar (at that time executive director of WPF), and Ann Allport of CARE International.

WPF played a significant role in persuading the Dutch government to treble its funding for population assistance in 1998, becoming the largest single donor to the UN Population Fund. In 1999 WPF became more widely known when it was chosen by the UN to host the Hague Forum on Population and Development.

In 1998 Brown handed over the chairmanship of WPF to Nicolaas Biegman, former Dutch ambassador to the UN, but remained on the board until 2012.

International Foundation for Population and Development

The family moved to Switzerland in 1987.

In 1999, together with Christine Magistretti, Charles Riolo and Frederick Naville, Brown became a founding member of the board of the International Foundation for Population and Development based in Lausanne Switzerland. Working with their partner organisation, the Centre for the Study of Social Change, CSSC, in Mumbai, India, IFPD created the WIN program, opening 20 clinics providing primary health care for mothers and their children, family planning, skills training and literacy classes for young women and girls in the slums around Bandra East. As of 2010, WIN was providing services to a population of over 80,000 people.

From Wikipedia’s article on Roy W. Brown (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

1
WikidataRoy W. Brown on Wikidata
2
WikipediaRoy W. Brown on Wikipedia
3
WikidataRoy W. Brown: education, on Wikidata
4
WikidataRoy W. Brown: Worked at Time Sharing Limited, on Wikidata
5
WikidataWorked at Time Sharing Limited, as reported
6
WikidataWorked at Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company of Canada, as reported by The Irish Humanist
7
WikidataRoy W. Brown: Founded World Population Foundation, on Wikidata
8
WikidataRoy W. Brown: Founded Metier Management Systems, on Wikidata
9
WikidataRoy W. Brown: Board member, World Population Foundation, on Wikidata
10
WikidataRoy W. Brown: Founder, on Wikidata
11
WikidataRoy W. Brown: occupation, on Wikidata
12
WikidataRoy W. Brown: place of birth, on Wikidata
13
WikidataRoy W. Brown: citizenship, on Wikidata
14
WikidataRoy W. Brown: residence, on Wikidata
15
Wikimedia CommonsRoy W. Brown photo by Maryam Owji, CC BY-SA 3.0

Early life and education

Career

Personal life

Philanthropy

World Population Foundation

International Foundation for Population and Development

Links

Sources