Jimmy Wales and Mark Zuckerberg face to face

Kate Roberts is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

human rights advocate and humanitarian. She works on a global scale to develop programs and services which target malaria, child survival, HIV/AIDS, gender equality, reproductive health, and

non-communicable disease A non-communicable disease (NCD) is a disease that is not transmissible directly from one person to another. NCDs include Parkinson's disease, autoimmune diseases, strokes, most heart diseases, most cancers, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, ...

. She is best known as the founder of

YouthAIDS YouthAIDS is an international nongovernmental, nonprofit education, funding, and health initiative of Population Services International (PSI) that provides humanitarian assistance and brings global awareness to the proliferation of HIV/AIDS. The o ...

and Five & Alive, subsidiaries of

Population Services International Population Services International (PSI) is a 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit global health organization with programs targeting malaria, child survival, HIV, and reproductive health. PSI provides products, clinical services and behavior chan ...

(PSI), where she serves as vice president of corporate marketing and communications.

Early career

Roberts is originally from

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Iris ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, where she graduated from Southport College with a

City and Guilds The City and Guilds of London Institute is an educational organisation in the United Kingdom. Founded on 11 November 1878 by the City of London and 16 livery companies – to develop a national system of technical education, the institute has ...

in Hotel and Catering Management. She started her career with the hotel group, Relais et Chateau. She speaks five languages including

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

, and

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

. She is also an accomplished contemporary artist and interior designer. In the early 1990s, Roberts moved to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

, where she worked on launching the Russian version of ''

Cosmopolitan Magazine ''Cosmopolitan'' is an American monthly fashion and entertainment magazine for women, first published based in New York City in March 1886 as a family magazine; it was later transformed into a literary magazine and, since 1965, has become a wome ...

'', before moving into work in

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

and

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

with

Saatchi & Saatchi Saatchi & Saatchi is a British multinational communications and advertising agency network with 114 offices in 76 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in 1970 and is currently headquartered in London. The parent company of the agency gr ...

. Her work then took her to

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

where she created this country's first

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

/ AIDS prevention marketing campaign that, Roberts said, "increased condom use by 100 percent in the first year". On holiday in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

she became aware of the scale of mortality being caused by the disease AIDS in the country and realised that the work and strategies she had put in place in her Romanian campaign could be applied to the rest of the world. This led her to create the YouthAIDS campaign in 2001.'' CNN Heroes: Fighting AIDS with Ashley Judd''
CNN International (2007), retrieved on 8 November 2007

Programming development

;YouthAIDS Kate Roberts founded YouthAIDS in 2001 as an educational and prevention campaign for the charity

(PSI). YouthAIDS is based in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

, while being active in around 70 countries. ;Five & Alive After the success of YouthAIDS Roberts started another PSI campaign, Five & Alive, in order to raise money for and awareness of PSI projects to tackle preventable disease in children under five years old.''Bio for Kate Roberts''
, Population Services International, retrieved on 8 November 2007

References

External links

Kate Roberts on YoungGlobalLeaders.org

Kate Roberts on weforum.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Kate Living people British advertising executives HIV/AIDS activists Year of birth missing (living people) People from Southport