David Muldrow Beasley (born February 26, 1957) is an American politician and the former executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme.

[1] A member of the Republican Party, he served one term as the 113th Governor of South Carolina from 1995 until 1999 before losing reelection to Democrat Jim Hodges.

Beasley defeated his toughest competitor, former congressman and state senator Arthur Ravenel Jr., in both the primary and run-off, and went on to win the general election by a narrow margin of 50% to 48%.

[12] He introduced Bush during a campaign speech at Bob Jones University, which drew controversy because of the fundamentalist school's anti-Catholic teaching and strict policy against interracial dating.

[15] In April 2005, Beasley, along with his administration's former chief legal counsel, Henry Deneen, incorporated the Center for Global Strategies, Ltd (CGS).

[a][18] United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization José Graziano da Silva officially appointed Beasley to the post in March 2017, saying he brought "extensive experience with key governmental and business leaders and stakeholders around the world, with very strong resource mobilisation skills.

[20] In his capacity as executive director of WFP, Beasley served at the level of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and was a member of the organization's Senior Management Group (SMG) under Guterres.

[21] Since 2019, he has been a member of the World Economic Forum High-Level Group on Humanitarian Investing, co-chaired by Børge Brende, Kristalina Georgieva and Peter Maurer.

[22] In December 2020, Beasley accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the WFP for its efforts to combat world hunger.

However, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres extended Beasley's term, citing the current food crisis of the Russo-Ukrainian War[23] and the COVID-19 pandemic.

[24] In 2023, he was made a Grand officer of the Order of the Two Niles by the Sudanese head of state General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.