Luke Lindberg Appointed Executive Director of the World Food Programme

19 September 2026National

The United Nations appointed US agriculture official Luke Lindberg as Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) on 18 September 2026, with confirmation by the WFP Executive Board. The appointment was announced jointly by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu, and runs for a five-year term. Lindberg, aged 37, becomes the youngest person to head the agency and succeeds Cindy McCain; he was previously Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs at the USDA. An American has held the post since the early 1990s. The Rome-based WFP aims to reach 110 million people in 2026, against about 266 million facing acute hunger.

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The World Food Programme was established in 1961 and is headquartered in Rome, Italy | WFP was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020 | FAO and IFAD are the other two Rome-based UN food agencies

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