The US Agency for International Development said on 19 April that Dan Amstutz, who served as an undersecretary in the Agriculture Department during the Reagan administration, has been named to head the agency's reconstruction effort in Iraq. After leaving government service, Amstutz was president and chief executive officer of the North American Export Grain Association and chairman of Pradium, an online agricultural products trading company. He has also worked for Cargill, the US food distributor.

Former US ambassador Timothy Carney has been named industry adviser in the Office for Reconstruction & Humanitarian Affairs (ORHA) team. He was a member of UN peacekeeping missions in Cambodia, Somalia and South Africa and ambassador to Sudan in 1995-97. At the end of April, Carney was still in Kuwait pending a move to Baghdad.

James K Haveman, who was previously director of the Michigan Department of Community Health, has been appointed ORHA health adviser.