Marvin Rees

Former OBV MP and Commissioner Shadow Scheme participant, Marvin Rees, has been named 2010 Yale World Fellow.  Rees is one of 15 Yale World Fellows for 2010 selected by Yale University from a pool of nearly 1,500 applicants.

The Yale World Fellows Program is the University's signature global leadership development initiative and a core element of Yale's ongoing commitment to internationalisation.

Each year since 2002, the University has welcomed a group of exemplary professionals from a wide range of fields and countries for the four-month leadership program.

The total number of Yale World Fellows since the program's launch is 155 fellows, representing 74 countries.

Rees has been selected following a career as a leading voice on race relations and race equality both in his hometown of Bristol as well as in the wider community in the UK.

Past World Fellows have met with then- U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy, Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan; and former National Democratic Committee Chair Howard Dean, among others.

The Yale World Fellow Program has at its core three main goals: to provide advanced training to emerging leaders from diverse disciplines and countries, to link this network of world leaders to each other and to Yale, and to expand international understanding among the Yale community.

From August to December, the 2010 World Fellows will enrol in a specially designed seminar taught by leading Yale faculty, receive individualized skill-building training and meet with U.S. and foreign leaders.

"I am honoured by this opportunity", said Rees. "I look forward to sharing my experiences with the Yale community and learning about effective leadership from my peers and from the Yale faculty.

It will also be a great opportunity to build relations between my city, country and the global network of Yale fellows", he added.

Rees said that his engagement with OBV gave him the "badge of endorsement" he needed when he initially applied to the prestigious Yale World Fellow Program.
"My participation in the OBV MP and Commissioner Shadow broke me into a new circle of leadership", he said.

"Before I joined OBV, I wasn't aware that leadership in this country recycles itself. Through my own involvement with the Schemes I realised that the role of OBV was to break the cycle strategically by creating a new breed of potential leaders from the BME community", Rees added.

Rees, who is currently the Director of the Local Bristol Partnership, was encouraged by Chief Executive Debra Evans and the Director of Public Health Hugh Annette to apply for the Yale World Fellows, after having been involved within the job for only six months. They both offered their recommendation during the early nomination stage.

Rees hopes to use his experience as a Yale World Fellow in his future aspiration to become an MP in 2015 when he returns to the UK.

Yale President Richard C. Levin expressed his admiration for the 2010 Fellows' achievements, noting that "over the last nine years, the World Fellows Program has significantly broadened the Yale community's perspective on international affairs and helped develop the next generation of global leaders."

The Yale World Fellows Program is currently accepting nominations for the 2011 Program.

Please visit: www.yale.edu/worldfellows for further information.