Board of Trustees
Short Bios
Kym Anderson is the George Gollin Professor of Economics and former Executive Director of the Centre for International Economic Studies at the University of Adelaide, where he has been affiliated since 1984. Previously he was a Research Fellow at the Australian National University's Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (1977–1983), following doctoral studies at the University of Chicago and Stanford University (1974–1977). In 2012 he rejoined ANU part-time as a Professor of Economics in its Crawford School of Public Policy.
He has spent periods of leave in Korea (1980–1981 as Ford Foundation Visiting Fellow in International Economics), the Australian Department of Trade (1983), Stockholm University's Institute for International Economic Studies (1988), and the GATT (now WTO) Secretariat in Geneva (1990–92). In 2004–2007, he was on extended leave at the World Bank’s Development Research Group as Lead Economist (Trade Policy).
He is a Fellow of the American and Australian agricultural economics societies, the Academy of the Social Sciences of Australia, and Europe’s Centre for Economic Policy Research. In 1996 he became the first economist to serve on a series of dispute settlement panels at the World Trade Organization (concerning the EU's banana import regime, 1996–2008), and he also served as an expert witness in the US cotton subsidies case at the WTO (2008–2009).
He has published more than 300 articles and 30 books, including The Political Economy of Agricultural Protection (with Yujiro Hayami and others), Disarray in World Food Markets (with Rod Tyers), and Agricultural Trade Reform and the Doha Development Agenda (with Will Martin). In 2006–2010 he directed a large empirical research project for the World Bank that resulted in four regional books and three global books on distortions to agricultural incentives (see www.worldbank.org/agdistortions). Most recently he has focused on prospects for global trade and food and energy security to 2050 (including for the UK Chief Scientist, the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, the Asian Development Bank, and Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation [CSIRO]).
Margaret Catley-Carlson has worked in numerous positions throughout her career including Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, 1981–1983; President of the Canadian International Development Agency, 1983–1989; Deputy Minister of the Department of Health and Welfare of Canada, 1989–1992; and President of the Population Council, 1993–1998.
She serves on the boards of several organizations that strive to create positive change in water management, agricultural, and environmental issues. In the water area, she is Chair of the Foresight Advisory Committee for Group Suez Environment and on the Board of the Canadian Water Network, and the Stockholm Water Prize. She is on the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board, a member of the Rosenberg Forum, and a Patron of the Global Water Partnership. In agriculture, she is Chair of the Crop Diversity Trust, a Board member of the International Fertilizer Development Council, and on the Advisory Council of the World Food Prize. In natural resources and rural development, she is a Board member of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the Syngenta Foundation. She is a member of the Advisory Committees of the Biblioteca Alexandria, the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Water Security, and the Perinbam and Tyler Environmental prize juries.
In 2002 she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada for her outstanding work in public service. She received her BA from the University of British Columbia and has received honorary degrees from 10 universities.
Tiéna Coulibaly is the Ambassador of Mali to the United States and to Mexico as well as Mali’s representative to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He served as Malian Minister of Trade and Industry from June to September 2013 and as Minister of Economy, Finance, and Budget in 2012. Previously, he served as CEO of the Malian Textile Development Company, 2008; Technical Advisor to the Mission Restructuring the Cotton Sector (MSRC), 2001; Minister of Finance and Trade, 1988; Deputy Director General of the Libyan-Malian Society of Livestock Development, 1987–1988; and Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Livestock, 1981–1987.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Laval University in Quebec and a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Purdue University.
S. Mahendra Dev has been Director and Vice Chancellor of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) in Mumbai, India, since 2010. Prior to this position, he was Chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Ministry of Agriculture, in the rank of Secretary to Government of India from 2008 to 2010. From 1999 to 2008 he was Director of the Centre for Economic and Social Studies in Hyderabad, India.
He received his PhD from the Delhi School of Economics and did postdoctoral research at Yale University. He was a faculty member at IGIDR for 11 years. He was a Senior Fellow at the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation from 1996 to 1997 and a Visiting Professor at ZEF, University of Bonn, Germany, in 1999.
He has more than 100 research publications in national and international journals in the areas of agricultural development, poverty and public policy, food security, employment guarantee schemes, social security, and farm and nonfarm employment.
He has written or edited 12 books. Oxford University Press recently published his book Inclusive Growth in India: Agriculture, Poverty, and Human Development. His book Perspectives on Equitable Development was recently released by the Prime Minister of India.
He has been a consultant and adviser to many international organizations, such as the United Development Programme, the World Bank, the International Labor Organisation, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He has also conducted collaborative projects with IFPRI on food security and poverty.
He has been a member of several government committees, including the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Employment and the Committee on Financial Inclusion. He is the Chairman of the Committee on Terms of Trade on Agriculture constituted by the Indian Ministry of Agriculture. He is also member of the government’s newly constituted Expert Panel on poverty estimates. He was a member of working groups for India’s 9th, 10th, and 11th Five-Year Plans.
He has received honors for eminence in public service and awards for teaching economics and making outstanding contributions to education.
Ismahane Elouafi
Morocco/Canada
Ismahane Elouafi has been Director General of the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) since 2012. Before joining ICBA, she led the Research and Partnerships Division at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and held a management position at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). She has also worked as a scientist with several international research organizations such as the International Center for Agricultural Research and Dry Areas (ICARDA), the International Maize and Wheat Center (CIMMYT), and the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS). She holds a PhD in genetics from Cordoba University, Spain.
Shenggen Fan
Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute
Shenggen Fan has been director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) since 2009. Dr. Fan joined IFPRI in 1995 as a research fellow, conducting extensive research on pro-poor development strategies in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. He led IFPRI’s program on public investment before becoming the director of the Institute’s Development Strategy and Governance Division in 2005.
He is the Chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Food Security.
Dr. Fan received a PhD in applied economics from the University of Minnesota and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Nanjing Agricultural University in China.
Ruth Haug is a Professor of Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). Her field of expertise is in rural development with a focus on food and agriculture, conflicts and forced migration; climate change and management of natural resources and gender issues in development. From 2008 to 2014, Dr. Haug was Deputy Vice Chancellor of NMBU, and before that she directed the Department of International Environment and Development Studies (Noragric) for seven years. She has been a member of several boards and has been involved in many international policy processes in relation to food and agriculture. In particular, she represented Norway in CGIAR meetings from 1995 to 2012 and in meetings of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). She is currently a member of two CGIAR center boards: IFPRI and ICARDA. She is chairing the Program Committee of the IFPRI board and, in that role, also serves as the deputy board chair. She is also a member of the Svalbard Seed Vault Council. She received her PhD from the University of Maryland, USA and her MSc from the Norwegian University of Agriculture, Norway.
Catherine L. Kling is a Professor of Economics at Iowa State University and the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development. Her research interests include nonmarket valuation methods, especially revealed preference approaches, and interdisciplinary analyses focusing on policy design and incentives for the provision of ecosystem services from agriculture. Her research has been published in the Economic Journal, Review of Economics and Statistics, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Economic Inquiry, Journal of Public Economics, Land Economics, and elsewhere.
She is a Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA), a member of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board, president of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, and past board member of the AAEA. She has held editorial positions with the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and Land Economics. She has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on over $7 million of grants from US federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, and the US Department of Agriculture as well as from a variety of state and nonprofit groups. She received her PhD from the University of Maryland.
Simon Maxwell is an economist with more than 40 years’ experience in international development, as field worker, researcher, teacher, and policy adviser. He has degrees from the Universities of Oxford and Sussex. For the first 10 years of his career, he worked and lived in developing countries, first in Kenya and India with the United Nations Development Programme, then as a farming systems economist with the UK aid program in Bolivia. He then spent 15 years as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, working mainly on poverty, rural development, and food security. He was a member of the UN Advisory Group on Nutrition and established the Food Security Unit at IDS, working mainly on food issues in Africa south of the Sahara.
In 1997, he became Director of the Overseas Development Institute, the UK’s leading independent think tank on international development. He maintained an interest in food policy during this period, but also wrote widely on development and aid issues. Since 1999, he has been a Senior Research Associate of ODI. His principal engagements include acting as Executive Chair of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (www.cdkn.org) and specialist adviser to the UK House of Commons International Development Select Committee.
In addition to IFPRI, he is a trustee of the UK Fair Trade Foundation and of the Spanish think tank FRIDE. He is on the advisory group of the Institute of Public Policy Research. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Poverty and Sustainable Development and of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Union’s Commissioner for Development. He is a former President of the Development Studies Association of the UK and Ireland. In 2007, he was awarded a CBE for service to international development. A full list of publications and other activities can be found at www.simonmaxwell.eu.
Brave Rona Ndisale is the Deputy Director of the Social Protection Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) based in Rome. Prior to this post, she was Ambassador to Belgium, France, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Switzerland, The Principality of Monaco, and the European Union. She previously held senior positions in government and international organizations, including the African Union Commission, in a variety of areas including policy and planning. She has done short-term consultancies with FAO, AFRICARE, and the African Development Bank.
She is well versed in the areas of trade, input and product market systems, and land tenure and is familiar with a broad range of issues related to biotechnology, biosafety, and sanitary and phytosanitary regulations. She holds a PhD in agriculture and applied economics from the University of Minnesota and was awarded the African Graduate Fellowship (AFGRAD) for her PhD program.
Beatriz da Silveira Pinheiro
Brazil
Beatriz da Silveira Pinheiro has held many technical and management positions related to rice research and the Brazilian rice value chain. In 1974 she was hired by Embrapa to work on irrigated rice breeding the former UEPAE Pelotas, currently Embrapa Temperate Climate Research Centre. In 1977 she moved to the National Research Center for Rice and Beans to work on drought stress physiology. Her studies led to the development of the rice ideotype for climatically favored environments in Brazil (“favored upland rice”).
Alongside these scientific activities, she was intensively engaged in research management, acting as Coordinator of the National Rice Research Program (1989 to 1993), Executive Secretary of the Embrapa Grains Program (1997 to 2001), Deputy Head of R&D (2001 to 2003), and Center Director of Embrapa Rice and Beans, Goiania, GO (2004 to 2008). In 2009 she moved to Embrapa headquarters in Brasilia to act as Advisor to Embrapa's President (2009). In 2010, she was nominated as Center Director of a new research unit (Embrapa Studies and Training), also in Brasilia.
She actively participated in the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture Rice Production Chain Chamber, presided over the organizing committee of the National Meeting of Rice Research (RENAPA) four times (1990, 1994, 2002, and 2006), presided over the Congress of Rice Production Chain two times (2002 and 2006), and coordinated the national activities of the International Year of Rice promoted by FAO (2004). She coordinated the national campaign “Rice and Beans, the Perfect Pair,” aimed at enhancing public awareness about the complementarity and nutritional value of traditional Brazilian staple foods, for which consumption had been gradually decreasing.
Internationally, she has been a member of the Advisory Board of the International Network for Genetic Evaluation of Rice (INGER) Global and Latin America (1990–1995), a member of the Scientific Council of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) (2009–2010), and a member of the Advisory Committee for the conference “Leveraging Agriculture to Improve Nutrition and Health,” organized by IFPRI (2010–2011). Currently, she is a member of the Strategic Advisory Council of IFPRI and a member of the Oversight Committee of the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP), coordinated by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
She holds a BS in agronomic engineering from the Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil (1971); a specialization in rice breeding from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) (1973); a master’s in plant physiology from the University of California, Davis (1977); and a PhD in plant biology from the State University of Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil (1989).
Emorn Udomkesmalee (Wasantwisut)
Thailand
Dr. Udomkesmalee (Wasantwisut) is a Senior Advisor to and a former Director of the Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University, Thailand. She holds the position of Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of International Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. Her research interests include micronutrient assessment, bioavailability and metabolism, micronutrient interaction especially of vitamin A and zinc or iron and zinc, and micronutrient and immune function.
She is a member of the Independent Expert Group of the Global Nutrition Report; the WHO Nutrition Topic Advisory Group on ICD Revision Project; the International Zinc Nutrition Consultative Group; the Steering Committee of the Micronutrient Forum; the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) Partnership Council; and the Scientific and Public Health Advisory Committee of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) Southeast Asia Region, as well as its Scientific Director. She is a founding member of the International Society for Implementation Science in Nutrition (ISISN) and the Country Network Facilitator of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement.
She received her PhD in nutritional biochemistry and metabolism from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1985. Her postdoctoral training was at the Vitamin and Mineral Nutrition Laboratory, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Beltsville, Maryland, USA, in 1987.