Kate Roberts (YouthAIDS)

Kate Roberts is the founder of YouthAIDS. Roberts is originally from Southport in the United Kingdom where she gained a City and Guilds in Hotel and Catering Management, starting her career with the hotel group Relais et Chateau. In the early 1990s she moved to Moscow where she became advertising and marketing executive. Her work then took her to Romania where she created this country's first HIV/AIDS prevention marketing campaign that, Roberts said, "increased condom use by 100 percent in the first year". On holiday in South Africa 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. [ [http://edition.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/10/31/judd.heroes/ " CNN Heroes: Fighting AIDS with Ashley Judd"] , CNN International (2007) , retrieved on 8 November 2007]

Early career

In the early 1990s Roberts moved to Moscow where she worked on launching the Russian version of Cosmopolitan Magazine before moving into work in advertising and marketing with Saatchi & Saatchi. [ [http://projects.psi.org/site/DocServer/Kate_Roberts_Washington_Post_Article.pdf?docID=124 "The Washington Post: A Consuming Cause"] , Population Services International (2004) , retrieved on 20 November 2007] Her work then took her to Romania where she created this country's first HIV/AIDS prevention marketing campaign that, Roberts said, "increased condom use by 100 percent in the first year". On holiday in South Africa 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. [ [http://edition.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/10/31/judd.heroes/ " CNN Heroes: Fighting AIDS with Ashley Judd"] , CNN International (2007) , retrieved on 8 November 2007]

YouthAIDS

Kate Roberts founded YouthAIDS in 2001 as an educational and prevention campaign for the charity Population Services International (PSI). [ [http://edition.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/10/31/judd.heroes/ " CNN Heroes: Fighting AIDS with Ashley Judd"] , CNN International (2007) , retrieved on 8 November 2007] YouthAIDS is based in Washington, DC while being active in around 70 countries. [ [http://gstudynet.org/what/events/gweek/fall04/keynote.php" Keynote Speech: Kate Roberts, YouthAIDS"] , GW Center for the Study of Globalization (30 September 2004) , retrieved on 20 November 2007]

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 diseases in under five year olds. She speaks five languages including Russian, Dutch, and Romanian. She is also an accomplished contemporary artist and interior designer. [ [http://projects.psi.org/site/DocServer/Kate_Roberts_Bio_2007.pdf?docID=1061 "Bio for Kate Roberts"] , Population Services International , retrieved on 8 November 2007]

References

* [http://www.younggloballeaders.org/htdocs/Files/March%2007%20geographical%20mapping_YGL_web.pdf Kate Roberts on YoungGlobalLeaders.org]
* [http://www.weforum.org/pdf/Dalian/Dalian07_ParticipantsList.pdf Kate Roberts on weforum.org]