Photo: Gordon Zook. Photo by Suvendu Bairagee/MCC. The national board of directors of Ten Thousand Villages has announced the appointment of Gordon Zook as chief executive officer of Ten Thousand Villages. Zook holds a Ph.D. in organizational leadership from Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, and brings more than 20 years of leadership experience to the CEO position. During the past several years, Gordon served as co-country director for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in India and, prior to that, was co-country director for MCC in Bangladesh and Haiti. In addition, Gordon has worked as a commercial division manager for a U.S.-based manufacturing company and as a senior loan officer at a farmer credit cooperative. Gordon has knowledge in strategic sales planning, international development, leadership development and executive-level financial management. Board chair Ed Diller said: “We believe that Gordon is the right person to continue building on the great work of the entire Ten Thousand Villages team. We are excited about Gordon’s leadership abilities and deep desire for our organizational success as we work toward reclaiming our leadership in the Fair-Trade movement, build momentum as a brand in the Maker to Market movement and drive toward results to expand our mission impact. The board is grateful to Llenay Ferretti for her leadership of Ten Thousand Villages during the 8-month CEO transition period. Under her leadership, Ten Thousand Villages continued its progress toward organizational growth and made significant strides in its rebranding, marketing and infrastructure improvement efforts.” Ferretti will continue with Ten Thousand Villages as a member of the national board of directors. Zook shared his excitement for joining Ten Thousand Villages: “I believe deeply in the importance of Ten Thousand Villages’ mission of connecting artisans with markets, having seen firsthand the difference its purchases make in artisan’s lives and in their communities. I am excited to join the Ten Thousand Villages team and look forward to working together to ensure that the hard work of repositioning Villages for organizational sustainability will enable Ten Thousand Villages to continue its support of its artisan partners around the world.”