Room to Read announces new board appointments

SAN FRANCISCO – Dec. 2, 2021 – Room to Read announced today the appointment of Lydie Hudson and Najoh Tita-Reid to its global Board of Directors. 

“Lydie and Najoh bring a wealth of experience and commitment to our global Board of Directors,” said Dr. Geetha Murali, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Room to Read. “Their deep leadership and functional expertise will help Room to Read strengthen our global operations and brand as we work towards achieving our ambitious goal of benefiting 40 million children by 2025 – doubling the number of children who have benefited from our programs over the first two decades in just five years.

Lydie Hudson is the Chief Executive Officer of Sustainability, Research and Investment Solutions at Credit Suisse and is a member of the Credit Suisse Executive Board. She oversees the bank’s development of innovative research, advisory, and investment solutions for wealth management, corporate and institutional clients. Additionally, Hudson co-leads Credit Suisse’s employee culture strategy. Hudson was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2017, a Finance Leaders Fellow at the Aspen Institute in 2021 and she sits on the board of the New York based non-profit, Good Shepherd Services. Hudson holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Middlebury College where she graduated with honors. In March 2020, Hudson participated in an International Women’s Day panel discussion organized by Room to Read titled “Protecting and Rebuilding Gender Equality in a COVID-19 World.”  

“For a sustainable future, it is essential that we invest in the next generations globally,” said Hudson. “This entails enabling access to education for children everywhere, irrelevant of gender or economic backgrounds. It is my honor to join hands with Room to Read and their global board of executives from both private and public sectors to support and contribute to the mission of eradicating illiteracy and gender inequality.” 

As Chief Marketing Officer at Logitech, Najoh Tita-Reid is responsible for worldwide marketing and communications, brand equity, creative, marketing data and analytics, branded and e-commerce sites, and marketing transformation in support of all categories and brands. Throughout her career, Tita-Reid has been a leader in empowering, advocating, and building equity for underserved communities. In addition, to her experience as a General Manager for Countries and Regions, she has led marketing for several billion-dollar brands, driven breakthrough multicultural marketing, and has been awarded for her work on “Groundbreaking campaigns” by Advertising Age and recognized as a “Game Changer” in the marketing industry.  Most recently, she co-founded the Black Executive CMO Alliance, a group that aims to provide a space for Black marketing C-Suite executives to share, learn, elevate, and pay it forward in order to create opportunity, access, and equality for the current and next generation of leaders. Tita-Reid holds an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a B.A. in English from Spelman College. She has also completed a number of leadership and design programs from schools including Simmons University and the Stanford School of Design. 

“Education is everything – an invariable right, regardless of gender or economic background”, said Najoh Tita-Reid, Chief Marketing Officer at Logitech. “We have an opportunity to ensure all children experience this, without prejudice or inequality. I would not be here today if someone did not fight for my right to have an education as a young girl growing up in a village in Africa and as a minority in the United States of America.  I am humbled to join the Room to Read community and excited to play a part in supporting future generations with literacy and life skills that will shape tomorrow’s world.”    

A full listing of Room to Read’s board of directors can be found here.  

About Room to Read  

Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®, Room to Read is creating a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality. We are achieving this goal by helping children in low-income communities develop literacy skills and a habit of reading, and by supporting girls to build skills to succeed in school and negotiate key life decisions. We collaborate with governments and other partner organizations to deliver positive outcomes for children at scale. Room to Read has benefitted more than 23 million children across 20 countries and over 48,000 communities and aims to reach 40 million children by 2025. Learn more at www.roomtoread.org.   

Media Contact:   

Jacqueline Pezzillo   

Room to Read   

jacqueline.pezzillo@roomtoread.org   

+1 (415) 839-4401