100 years of Barbara Ward: An interview with David Runnalls

On 23 May 2014, Barbara Ward, the founder of the International Institute for Environment and Development, would have been 100 years old.

To mark the centenary, and to pay tribute to one of the first champions of sustainable development, IIED commissioned a series of interviews and blogs.

In this interview, former IIED director David Runnalls, who helped to set up IIED alongside Ward, remembers working alongside a woman Time magazine dubbed "one of the most influential visionaries of the 20th century".

Among the tales told are Ward's influence on a meeting between British Prime minister Harold Wilson and US President Lyndon Johnson, her battle against illness, and when Ward had the unenviable job of firing Laurence Olivier from the Old Vic.

More information: www.iied.org/BarbaraWard