He served as Mexico’s Ambassador to Kenya, concurrently accredited to Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania, as well as the Permanent Representative to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).
He joined the Mexican Foreign Service in 1999 and was assigned twice to the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (2007-2011 and 2019-2023). On both occasions, he was part of Mexico’s team at the Security Council. During his first term, he served as a non-proliferation expert (2009-2010), and in his second, as Political Coordinator (2021-2022). He has also been a delegate responsible for disarmament and human rights issues.
In 2012, he was appointed by then-United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as an expert on the Security Council Committee on the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (Committee 1540) for a five-year term. He has served as an advisor to the Undersecretariat for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2018), Deputy Consul at the Consulate of Mexico in Philadelphia (2011-2012), and delegate in charge of environmental and disarmament affairs at Mexico’s Permanent Mission to the International Organizations based in Geneva, Switzerland (1999-2007).
Enrique Ochoa holds a Master’s degree in Political Economy from the University of Essex, United Kingdom, and a Master’s in Diplomacy from the Matías Romero Institute. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the Ibero-American University. He has published various articles on Mexico’s foreign policy. He speaks German, French, English, and Italian.
A Kenyan national, Anne had an illustrious career with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for 40 years, 31 of which was as a partner. Her last role was Regional CEO for six countries in the Eastern Africa region and a member of the Africa leadership team. Anne retired from PwC in June 2018. She now serves in non-executive director positions on several boards, provides financial advice at a strategic level and mentors entrepreneurs. She chairs the audit and risk committees of several of the organizations where she serves as a non-executive director.
At PwC, Anne led provision of professional services to a wide range of organisations on audit and related advisory matters, interacting with ‘C-suite’ management and board of directors. She has advised audit committees and boards on governance, financial reporting, and internal control matters, including risk and readiness assessment prior to implementation of major financial systems and processes.
As the Eastern Africa Regional senior partner and CEO for six years, she was responsible for leading the region in developing and delivering the strategy for PwC.
Prior to her role as Regional CEO, Anne was responsible for the Assurance businesses in the East and West Africa regions covering not only the six countries in the East but also Nigeria, Ghana and Angola in the West. In this role she had overall responsibility for financial performance, people development and ensuring adherence to PwC global quality and risk management standards in the Assurance practice in the East and West Africa region.
She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered and Certified Accountants and has an MBA from the University of Warwick.
Results-driven and globally minded leader with 30+ years of experience in the area of food, land and water systems. Robust experience as executive, board member and researcher. Led high performance teams as CEO, Executive Director of R&D, Head of R&D Department and Director General of Research Center. As President of Embrapa increased four times public – private partnerships within three years; managed 43 Research Centers; coordinated the implementation of ERP/SAP in the whole organization, among other relevant activities. Extensive international experience. Visited more than 40 countries in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania as keynote speaker, consultant and counterpart of R&D projects. In 2021 received the “Norman Borlaug Award” in the category “Sustainability”. In 2023 was recognized as one the top 100 leaders in Brazilian agribusiness. Board member of different institutions around the globe such as The International Center of Biosaline Agriculture (United Arab Emirates), the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition (United Kingdom) and the OpenAg Foundation (Switzerland).
Lindiwe Majele Sibanda is an animal scientist and a practicing farmer with extensive experience, serving as a policy advisor to numerous African governments and global institutions. She is Professor, Director and Chair of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) Centre of Excellence in Food Systems at the University of Pretoria, in South Africa. She is a Nestlé SA Board Member and serves on the Board of WorldVeg. She is an Associate Fellow at Chatham House, and member of Champions 12.3, accelerating progress on UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 12.3, halving global per capita food waste.
She previously served as Board Chair for the International Livestock Research Institution (ILRI); Board Member of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT); and program advisor to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). She also served on the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems and as a member of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) Policy Advisory Council. She has served in senior leadership positions in various organizations, including co-Chair of the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (GACSA),Vice-President, Country Support, Policy and Partnerships for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and CEO and Head of Mission of the pan-African Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN). She holds a PhD and MSc in Agriculture from the University of Reading, and a BSc in Animal Production from the University of Alexandria, Egypt.
She was appointed to the CGIAR System Board in April 2021.
Shenggen Fan has extensive experience in developing strong connections at the highest levels with a wide range of influential stakeholders, and has engaged widely on issues related to agriculture, food, health, climate change, natural resource management and information technologies. He is currently Chair Professor at the College of Economics and Management at China Agricultural University in Beijing. He is a member of the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition; the Advisory Council of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford; the Board of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture; and the Council of Advisers of the World Food Prize. He also serves as a member of the Lead Group for the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement appointed by the UN Secretary General.
He previously spent over 20 years with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), including as Director General for the ten-year period until his departure in December 2019. His previous roles within IFPRI included several years as Division Director of Development Strategy and Governance, and prior to that, as a Research Fellow. His earlier professional experience also includes time as a Research Economist in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at the University of Arkansas and as a Post-doctoral Fellow and Associate Research Officer at the International Service for National Agricultural Research in the Netherlands. He holds a PhD in Applied Economics and an MSc in Agricultural Economics.
He was appointed to the CGIAR System Board in September 2020.
Hilary Wild has extensive international experience in the fields of finance, organizational management, governance, and risk management. She has been involved with CGIAR for several years, initially as a member of the Board of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and later the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), in both cases chairing their Finance and Audit Committees.
She is now a member of the CGIAR System Board as well as all the constituent Centers of CGIAR, as well as a member of the CGIAR Audit, Finance and Risk Committee, and is a member of the HarvestPlus Program Advisory Committee. She is Trustee and Audit Committee Chair of WaterAid UK, chair the Church Commissioners Audit and Risk Committee, a member of the Oversight Advisory Committee of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a member of the Advanced Agriculture and Food Advisory Panel of CSIR, South Africa, and Treasurer of Medical Aid for Palestinians.
She was previously Chief Financial Officer of the World Health Organization (WHO), with overall responsibility for financial management of a $2 billion organization operating in 140 countries, and Director of Business Change. Before joining the WHO, she held various positions in the international financial sector, including as a director in investment banking as well as asset management in the Kleinwort Benson Group. She also worked for UNICEF in New York as Chief of Finance, and for a major USA commercial bank in London and as its representative in Greece. She has chaired oversight committees for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), International Labour Organization (ILO), and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
She was appointed to the Board of the CGIAR System Organization in September 2019.
Alyssa Jade McDonald-Baertl has a dynamic and energetic entrepreneurial perspective and approach to international development, a passion for the role of research and evidence-based change, and strong knowledge of sustainable business in the midcap/SME sector. She currently advises policy and programs in the European Commission regarding sustainable finance, eco-innovation and deployment for commercial or public-private partnerships to adapt to new market conditions brought on by the green and social economy. She is also a board member of UnternehmensGruen (German Federation of Green Economy), a politically oriented entrepreneurs’ association that campaigns for the environment and a sustainable economy.
A decade ago, she founded a social enterprise to grow and harvest cacao in Ecuador, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea for processing and sale in Europe, producing high-grade chocolate while increasing farmer livelihoods and agroforestry. Responding to the need for better farmer resilience, the enterprise pivoted to focus on cacao farmer education. This transdisciplinary education, drawn from planetary health and living income methodologies, contributed to improved farmer health, wealth and crop yields from Latin America to the Pacific. In the deep past, she spent a decade in corporate business as Head of International Communications at Deutsche Telekom, developing communication strategy for more than 50 countries, and as International Brand Manager for T-Systems (DEU), focused on M&A and market development. She is a former board member of the European Sustainable Business Federation and is currently conducting post-graduate research in Environmental Science regarding farmer training.
She was appointed to the CGIAR System Board in September 2020.
Alice Ruhweza has extensive experience working at the intersection of conservation and development in Africa and globally, fostering successful partnerships with a wide range of international institutions. She is currently the Africa Region Director for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), where she leads and oversees a regional program comprising 10 countries and 400 staff. There she is leading design of a new conservation framework that brings together work at national, transboundary and global levels, as well as development of a new system of program quality assurance. She sits on the Board of The Global Ever-Greening Alliance and on the steering committee of the Future Earth Water-Food-Energy Nexus working group.
Before joining WWF, she was Vice President of Programs and Partnerships with Conservation International, where she oversaw the Vital Signs Program, which provides data and diagnostic tools to help inform agricultural decisions and monitor outcomes around the world. She was also the Team Leader and Technical Adviser for the United Nations Development Programme Global Environmental Finance Unit in Africa. In this role, she led a team supporting 44 sub-Saharan African countries to attract and drive public and private finance towards their sustainable development priorities. The program successfully mobilized over USD 600 million over six and a half years, which with co-financing made it the largest environment program in the UN. She is a former Sustainable Agriculture Intensification Commissioner. She holds an MSc in Agricultural and Applied Economics.
She was appointed to the CGIAR System Board in September 2020.
Partnerships and how to increase impact were two of the key issues discussed by the Board of Trustees of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) during their meeting in Kenya in October 6-10, 2019. Management and strategy discussions were combined with field trips and interactions with CIMMYT researchers and partners. Board members visited the research stations in Kiboko and Naivasha, as well as two partner seed companies in Machakos and Nairobi.
“To ensure CIMMYT’s crop breeding research benefits smallholder farmers, it is important for us to better understand how partnerships between CIMMYT and seed companies work on the ground, to know how seeds move from our research stations to the farmers,” said Marianne Bänziger, CIMMYT’s deputy director general for research and partnership.
CIMMYT board members and staff stand for a group photo outside the offices of East African Seed. (Photo: Jerome Bossuet/CIMMYT)
East African Seed, a family-owned seed business established in Nairobi in the 1970s, sells over 300 products, from maize and vegetable seeds to phytosanitary solutions. The company works through a large network of stockists and distributors across Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
Rogers Mugambi, chief business manager of East African Seed, underlined the successful partnership with CIMMYT, getting access to high-yielding disease-resistant germplasm and receiving technical support for the company’s breeding team. Mugambi highlighted CIMMYT’s contribution to contain the devastating maize lethal necrosis (MLN) outbreak since 2011. Most commercial varieties on the market fared badly against this new viral disease, but in 2020 East African Seed will launch two new MLN-tolerant varieties on the market thanks to CIMMYT’s breeding work.
Dryland Seed, another partner seed company, was established in 2005 in Kenya’s Machakos County. It commercializes the drought-tolerant SAWA maize hybrid, based on CIMMYT lines. Featured recently on Bill Gates’s blog, this hybrid is a success among farmers, thanks to earliness, nitrogen use efficiency and good yield potential in water-stressed regions. Dryland Seed’s production grew from 25 to 500 tons of seed per year, reaching out 42,000 farmers a year.
General view of the East African Seed warehouse. (Photo: Jerome Bossuet/CIMMYT)
Keeping seeds in business
When asked about the uniqueness of East African Seed, Mugambi highlighted trust and consistency in quality. They nurture their agrodealer network by investing in extension services and organizing evening meetings with stockists to discuss how to farm and be profitable. “Knowing and supporting the agrodealers selling your products is crucial, to make sure the stockists sell the right seeds and inputs, and store them well,” Mugambi explained.
Marianne Banziger (right), CIMMYT’s deputy director for research and partnership, listens to a Dryland Seed sales manager during a visit to a farm supplies shop in Machakos, Kenya. (Photo: Jerome Bossuet/CIMMYT)
“Many seed companies could learn from you. Quality control is crucial for any seed business as you sell genetics and any crop failure at farm level will jeopardize farmers’ trust in the company’ seeds,” said Bill Angus, CIMMYT Board member.
Ngila Kimotho, managing director of Dryland Seed, pointed out the financial challenges for a small local seed company to grow in this risky but important agribusiness. The company has to pay out-growers, sometimes face default payment by some agrodealers, while low-interest credit offers are scarce as “banks and microfinance institutions target short-term reliable businesses, not climate-risky rainfed farming,” Kimotho explained. Combining drought-tolerant crops with insurance products could lower business risks for banks.
Bringing top-notch research to farmers
“I am worried about the mutating stem rust which seems to break down the resistance of some popular wheat varieties,” stressed Joseph Nalang’u, a farmer in Narok with 600 acres dedicated to wheat and 100 to maize. “The unpredictable weather is another major concern. When I started farming, we knew exactly when the planting season would start, and this helped us in our planning. That is no longer the case.”
African farmers need agricultural research. A research that is responsive to develop rapidly scalable and affordable solutions against numerous emerging pests and diseases like wheat rusts, MLN or fall armyworm. They need advice on how to adapt to unpredictable climate.
While visiting the MLN Quarantine and Screening Facility in Naivasha, CIMMYT’s Board members discussed research priorities and delivery pathways with farmers, seed and input companies, and representatives of Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) and the Ministry of Agriculture.
CIMMYT board members, staff, partners and farmers listen to a researcher at the MLN Screening Facility in Naivasha, Kenya. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
“When you visit Naivasha MLN research facility or Njoro wheat rust phenotyping platform, both co-managed by CIMMYT and KALRO, you see a partnership that works very well,” said Zachary Kinyua, the assistant director for crop health research at KALRO. “These facilities are open to public-private collaboration, they generate important public goods for farmers, large and small.”
“If we develop or co-develop wonderful technologies but they don’t reach the farmers, that would be a fun and wonderful experience but with no impact,” said Kevin Pixley, CIMMYT’s director of the Genetic Resources program. “We depend on partners in the national agricultural research systems, seed companies and other private and public partners to realize the desired impact.”
“It is always so inspiring to see on the ground the results of years of research, to hear some of our partners talking about the real impact this research makes. The multiplier effect of what we do never ceases to amaze me,” expressed Nicole Birell, chair of CIMMYT’s Board of Trustees.
Cover image: CIMMYT board members and staff visited Riziki Farm Supplies, one of the agrodealers in Machakos which sells SAWA hybrid maize. (Photo: Jerome Bossuet/CIMMYT)
Margaret R. Bath joined CIMMYT’s Board of Trustees in 2019. She is a CEO with a strong background in research and development (R&D) and quality systems in food.
Bath spent seventeen years with the Kellogg Company, including over twelve years as Chief Technology Officer. In that role, she globalized the company’s R&D and quality network. During her tenure, global staff increased by almost 50% to over 900 professionals and the operating budget increased by approximately 20%. During her last six years at the Kellogg Company, six new R&D centers were opened, four of them in emerging markets. This globalization led to broader access of talent, external knowledge and new technologies, thereby strengthening the company’s entire global network, yielding stronger ideas, and speed to market.
Prior to joining the Kellogg Company in 2000, she spent several years at PepsiCo’s Frito Lay division, where she held positions of progressive responsibility in R&D.
Currently, as Founder & Managing Partner at Strong Harbor, LLC — a consultancy helping food companies with R&D and quality challenges — Bath is focused on bringing unique technology and regulatory insights to others in the consumer goods industry.
Throughout her career, Bath has served on the boards of several non-profit organizations. She is currently serving on the boards of directors at EIT Food, the International Food Protection Training Institute (IFPTI) and Monnell Chemical Senses.
Bath holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Food Science from the University of Maryland, United States, and an Honorary Doctorate in Bioscience Engineering from the Katholieke University in Leuven, Belgium.
Govaerts is renowned for pioneering, implementing, and inspiring transformational changes for farmers and consumers in meeting the sustainable development challenges. He brings together multi-disciplinary science and development teams to integrate sustainable, multi-stakeholder and sector strategies that generate innovation and change in agri-food systems. His initiatives, excellence in science for impact and the partnerships he inspired have resulted in improved nutrition, nature conservation, and national and international resilience and food security.
His work is geared toward transforming subsistence agriculture and failed farming systems into productive and sustainable production units, and has worked in countries like Ethiopia, India and Mexico. Together with a group of scientists, trainers, extension agents, collaborative farmers and communications and technology specialists, Govaerts developed a vision inspired by Norman Borlaug’s motto “Take it to the Farmer”: combining the right seed with the right conservation agriculture production practice embedded in an integrated market while recognizing and integrating farmer knowledge.
Govaerts holds a PhD in Bioscience Engineering – Soil Science, a master’s degree in Soil Conservation and Tropical Agriculture, and a bachelor’s degree in Bioscience Engineering, all from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.
In 2003, Govaerts received the Development Cooperation Prize from the Belgian Federal Government. In 2014 he was awarded the Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application — endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation and awarded by the World Food Prize — for the development of sustainable agricultural systems. In 2018 he received the Premio Tecnoagro, awarded by an organization of 2,500 Mexican farmers. He is a member of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network and A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. In 2020, Govaerts was elected as Fellow by The American Society of Agronomy (ASA) for his outstanding contributions to the field of agronomy.
Jose Cacho joined the CIMMYT Board of Trustees in June 2017. He has more than 30 years of experience in agribusiness, having held various management positions in the areas of sales, operations, administration, marketing, executive management and general management.
Cacho is the Executive Vice-President of Grupo Empresarial G, as well as General Manager of Grupo Minsa, Vice-President of the National Agricultural Council, Counselor of the National Chamber of Industrialized Maize and Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum Project for the New Vision of Agriculture in Mexico.
He was President of the National Chamber of Industrialized Maize, participated in various projects to promote the implementation of public policies to achieve the optimization of the maize value chain in Mexico. He participated in research and analysis on the feasibility of biofuel production in Mexico and its impact on agroindustrial value chains. For two years he was the leader of the Grains Group in Mexico within the project La Nueva Visión del Desarrollo Agroalimentario en México (VIDA), a program implemented in conjunction with the World Economic Forum. He has participated in the B20 Group for Food Security, attending the Davos Forum and in various regional forums in Latin America. He served as treasurer and Vice-President of Integration of Productive Chains of the National Agricultural Council.
Cacho holds a degree in Veterinary Medicine from the National University of Mexico (UNAM) with honorary mention. He followed postgraduate studies in administration and obtained a diploma in Marketing and Business Development from ITAM.
William Angus joined the CIMMYT Board of Trustees in October 2016 and serves as a Deputy Chair.
Angus joined the Plant Breeding Institute’s wheat breeding program in 1973 after graduating in Genetics from the University of Liverpool. In 1984 Angus served as research and development manager of the Nickerson Seed Company’s international wheat program, where he was later promoted to Head of Wheat Breeding in 1987. Angus then served as a senior wheat breeder under the company’s transition to the international agricultural co-op Groupe Limagrain. During his time at Limagrain, leading wheat varieties such as Claire, Einstein, Alchemy and Invicta were brought to market which gave the company an industry edge in the United Kingdom.
Angus co-edited the World Wheat Book trilogy and served on the British Crop Production Council (BCPC) Strategy Board from 2004 – 2007, during which time he was awarded a BCPC medal in 2011 and the Royal Agricultural Society of England Technology Award in 2007. He was also appointed to the BBSRC Strategy Advisory Board in 2010 and served as Chairman of the BBSRC Horticulture and Potato Initiative steering group from 2012 to 2016. He now runs an international wheat consultancy business that enhances public-private partnerships, reviews breeding programs globally and trains the next generation of wheat breeders.
Víctor Manuel Villalobos Arámbula is Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development and serves ex officio as Honorary Chair of the Board of Trustees.
An expert with over 40 years experience in agronomy, agricultural economy and environment sciences, Villalobos holds an engineering degree in Agronomy from Mexico’s Agriculture School and an MSc in Plant Genetics from the Graduate College of Chapingo. He holds a PhD in Plant Morphogenesis from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.
He was Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperating in Agriculture, a specialized agency from the Organization of American States, for two consecutive four-year periods from 2010. He was the first Mexican to hold this international position based in Costa Rica.
He has worked in high-level positions for Mexico’s Government. He has been appointed as Natural Resources Undersecretary, Agriculture Undersecretary and International Affairs Coordinator of Mexico’s Department of Agriculture. He has served as Principal Biotechnology Officer for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy, and Director of the Tropical Crops Improvement Program at the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica.
He became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry in 2004 for his research in biotechnology, plant production, and conservation of natural and genetic resources. He received an honorary doctorate from CATIE in the same year, and an honorary doctorate from Asunción University in Paraguay in 2013. In 2015, he received the “Golden Spike” award from the Graduate College of Agronomy Engineers and Agriculture and Livestock Professionals in La Paz, Bolivia.
