WASHINGTON, D.C., December 2, 2015 – The Peace Corps and IBM (NYSE: IBM) International Foundation’s Corporate Service Corps are launching an innovative public-private partnership to allow highly skilled corporate professionals to serve overseas in short-term, high-impact assignments through the Peace Corps Response program. The new initiative, announced yesterday by Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet and IBM Vice President of Corporate Citizen and Corporate Affairs and IBM Foundation President Stanley Litow, is set to launch in three countries next year.

“We are thrilled to embark on this new partnership that will bring together IBM’s multinational reach with Peace Corps’ grassroots network,” Hessler-Radelet said. “Peace Corps and IBM share a common dedication to problem-solving in a way that makes a measurable impact in the world, whether it is reinventing information and revolutionizing technology or helping communities address pressing needs at the last mile of development.”

The Corporate Service Corps was created in 2008 to help communities around the world address critical business problems while providing IBM employees with unique leadership development opportunities. IBM’s Director of Corporate Citizenship Initiatives and returned Peace Corps volunteer Gina Tesla (Panama, 2000-02) leads the Corporate Service Corps in selecting top management prospects to be trained and dispatched to emerging markets around the world. Participants spend four weeks in groups of 10 to 15 working collaboratively with their host government and community counterparts to understand how to implement socially responsible business practices with measurable results in a global context.

Through this innovative partnership, the Peace Corps Response program will engage a currently untapped pool of global corporate professionals who have been identified as leaders at IBM as both Peace Corps Response applicants and counterparts in the field. Peace Corps Resp