by Catholic News Service
BALTIMORE -- Carolyn Y. Woo, dean of the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, has been named president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services.
Woo, 57, will succeed Ken Hackett, who is retiring after 18 years as head of the bishops' international relief and development agency.
She will begin the job Jan. 1.
"Dr. Woo is a woman of deep faith with a strong commitment to the mission of the church," Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas, of Tucson, Ariz., chairman of the CRS board of directors, said in a statement from the Baltimore-based agency. "She will bring exceptional abilities and gifts to the task of serving the poor around the world in the name of Catholics throughout the United States."
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Woo served on the CRS board of directors from 2004 until 2010 and traveled to observe the agency's program in Africa and Asia, including Banda Aceh, Indonesia, soon after the Indian Ocean tsunami.
She immigrated to the United States to attend Purdue University in Indiana, where she received bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. She held various positions at Purdue, ultimately serving as associate executive vice president for academic affairs.
Her teaching and research interests include corporate and competitive strategy, entrepreneurship, management of innovation and change and organizational systems.
Bishop Kicanas praised Hackett's leadership of the agency since 1993.
Hackett said in a statement that he had the chance to work with Woo as a board member and appreciated her "keen sense of the critical issues and decisions that faces us institutionally."
"Her powerful intellect and insight combined with a profound faith and an abiding compassion will equip her well to lead CRS as it faces the challenges ahead," he added.
Woo and her husband, David Bartkus, live in South Bend, Ind.
