Carlos Perez del Castillo, Chair of the Consortium Board of the CGIAR, is pleased to announce the incoming members of the inaugural Consortium Board: Mohammed Ait-Kadi, Tom Arnold, Ganesan Balanchander, Gebisa Ejeta, Ian Goldin and Lynn Haight. These six members join Perez del Castillo and the two Vice Chairs, Carl Hausmann and Bongiwe Njobe, in providing leadership and strategic direction for the newly formed Consortium of CGIAR Centers.
 
“I am impressed and inspired by the wealth of experience and wisdom these individuals will bring to the Consortium,” said Perez del Castillo. “I am confident that the new Board members will bring the necessary energy, commitment and perspectives to our task of establishing the new Consortium and delivering on the mission and vision of the CGIAR.”

Mohammed Ait-Kadi
From Morocco, Mohamed Ait Kadi is an irrigation systems analyst and operations research professional. He has provided analytical tools for decision making, going beyond the technical aspects of irrigation to address larger issues of water and land management and agricultural development. For the last decade, Ait Kadi has chaired the Moroccan General Council on Agricultural Development. This professional experience, and his work on the board of IFPRI, gives him a good understanding of the mission of international agricultural research and of the role of the CGIAR.  

Tom Arnold
Tom Arnold has worked extensively in the public sector: with the European Union, both in Brussels and in EC delegations in Cote d’Ivoire and Malawi, and with the Government of Ireland.  He has also worked with the OECD on issues of agriculture, agricultural policy and markets.  In the 1990s, he joined the Board of CONCERN, a large Irish NGO focused on hunger and poverty and in 2001 became its CEO.  In addition to serving as the CEO of CONCERN over the past 8 years, he has stayed engaged in international policy and programming, contributing to the Millennium Development Goals Hunger Task Force, the Ireland Hunger Task Force, and the UN’s emergency response fund efforts.  Under his leadership, CONCERN has worked closely with some of the CGIAR centers, entering into formal partnerships with a number of CGIAR Centers, with the idea of improving the quality of the CONCERN effort on the ground.  Tom brings to the Consortium a deep experience in agricultural policy and politics, international development and organizational change.

Ganesan Balachander
Ganesan Balachander is currently a member of the Board of Trustees at Bioversity International. His career interests have ranged from banking to environmental conservation.  He is now starting up a Green Bank intended to have a triple bottom line: good for business, good for the environment and good for poor people.  Balachander has represented the interests of South Asia at the Ford Foundation and has long experience in directing and implementing development projects with international and national NGOs.

Gebisa Ejeta
Gebisa Ejeta is an Ethiopian-American scientist with a background in plant breeding and genetics. In 2009, he was awarded the World Food Prize for his work on sorghum and striga, a weed with devastating impacts on cereal crops. Gebisa is currently a Professor of Agronomy at Purdue University and has been a member of the CGIAR Science Council. He has been engaged with both US universities and African research systems for a long time. He did a year-long sabbatical with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Gebisa will bring to the Consortium Board authority and knowledge of Africa and the national agricultural research systems. 

Ian Goldin
Ian Goldin has worked for the Government of South Africa, the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the OECD and, early on, Landell Mills, a commodity research group.  Ian has worked for both Nelson Mandela and James Wolfensohn, at their request. He is currently directing a “start-up” at Oxford University, the 21st Century School.  He has raised over $100 million for the School, which has made rapid progress under his leadership in both its reach (oceans, tropical forests, climate change as well as multi-sectoral frontier issues) and its faculty. Goldin’s experience with large organizations and complex development problems and his wide range of professional and personal contacts will be an asset to the Consortium Board.

Lynn Haight
Lynn Haight, a native of Canada, is well known to the CGIAR.  Lynn was recently Chair of Forester Holdings Europe, Director/Chief Operating and Finance Officer of Foresters US. She has also served as Chair of the Board of Trustees at the World Agroforestry Centre (she is stepping down from the World Agroforestry Board in April 2010). She is a Chartered Accountant with a long and highly successful career in the finance and insurance sectors with several Canadian Companies. Lynn is well aware of the CGIAR reform process and as in addition brings to the Consortium her experience in the private sector, where she has been much involved during her career with strategy, risk management and institutional reform.

In 2008, the CGIAR launched its Change Management Initiative to identify how best to adapt to and anticipate global changes and challenges, such as food price volatility, more extreme weather arising from climate change and the global financial crisis.  This initiative culminated in the CGIAR’s decision in December 2008 to adopt a new business model that will enable the CGIAR do more and do better, as it fulfills its mandate to fight poverty and hunger while conserving the environment.

The core of the new model is a partnership between a Consortium that unites CGIAR research Centers and a new Fund, built on a common vision of mobilizing agricultural research to reduce poverty and hunger, improve human health and nutrition, and enhance sustainable management of natural resources in the developing world. Implementation of the new model will take place throughout 2010 under the leadership of the Consortium Board and Fund Council.

For more information on the Consortium and the Consortium Board: http://alliance.cgxchange.org/welcome