Charles North is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).

He joined GPE in March 2019 after 32 years as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Just prior to joining GPE, he was a senior advisor on Ukraine and Russia on secondment to the U.S. Institute of Peace. He was previously the acting assistant administrator in USAID’s Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment, 2014-2017, and senior deputy assistant administrator from February 2013. During this time, he served for two years on GPE’s Board of Directors. 

Charles North served for 17 years in USAID’s overseas posts in Kenya, Sudan, Mozambique, El Salvador and Russia, and was the USAID mission director in Russia in his second assignment there, 2010-2013. He has held numerous Washington leadership positions, including as senior deputy director of USAID’s Afghanistan and Pakistan Task Force from 2008-2010. He also served as regional director for the Western Hemisphere in the State Department’s Office of the Director of Foreign Assistance (2006-2008), and as director of the Policy Office in USAID’s Bureau for Policy and Program Coordination (2004-2006). 

He is a graduate of Wesleyan University, and holds master’s degrees in management from Yale University and in national security strategy from the National War College.