The Secretary General bestowed the award upon him in recognition of his many significant achievements throughout his long career within the Inter-American system.
San José, Costa Rica, October 28, (IICA). Attorney William Berenson, from the United States of America, has received the Leo S. Rowe Memorial Award granted by the Organization of American States, in recognition of “significant accomplishments that have benefitted both the OAS and its personnel” as well as his contribution to special missions conducted away from headquarters.
In selecting him to receive the award, OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza highlighted, inter alia, Berenson’s contribution to the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), where he has served as legal advisor for many years. Just recently, Dr. Berenson participated again in this capacity in the Meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of the Americas 2011, during which the Inter-American Board of Agriculture (IABA), IICA’s governing body, met.
Since 1984 he has been an adjunct professor at American University’s Washington College of Law; from 1990 to 1992, he served as Chairman of the International Development and Investment Committee of the Federal Bar Association; and in 1982, he was elected president of AYUDA, Inc., a non-profit bilingual legal services agency in the District of Columbia, where he served as a board member for many years.
Since 1980, the Leo S. Rowe Award has been conferred upon those OAS staff members who embody the spirit of service on behalf of the Americas, and is intended to give recognition to those persons who, in their work, promote the values espoused by Dr. Rowe, one of which was to contribute to bringing the nations of the Americas closer together.
The award is also aimed at motivating each employee to continue to work for the cause and perform his/her duties more effectively in keeping with the principles that characterized Leo S. Rowe.
For more information, contact:
patricia.leon@iica.int
