Teunis van Rheenen, a citizen from The Netherlands, is the Head of Partnerships and Business Development at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). In this capacity, he is responsible for the development, enhancement, and maintenance of strategic partnerships and networks. These efforts require reaching out to new partners in innovative ways as well as closely monitoring and evaluating IFPRI’s ongoing and highly valued collaborations. As Head of Partnerships and Business Development, Dr. van Rheenen also facilitates IFPRI’s fundraising efforts and provides support to the IFPRI-led CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM) and Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH). In addition to ensuring that IFPRI’s partnerships and fundraising efforts are well-coordinated, Dr. van Rheenen also remains active in projects that address food security challenges in developing countries in Asia and Africa. From 2006 to 2010 he held the position of Secretary to the IFPRI Board of Trustees.

Before joining IFPRI, Teunis van Rheenen was a Senior Economist at the Agricultural Economics Research Institute in The Hague, The Netherlands, focusing on issues related to nature and the economy. In this capacity, he provided leadership to numerous national and international projects, and successfully participated in many fundraising efforts. Prior to this, at the University of Goettingen he worked on a project studying natural resource management issues in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. He has an extensive knowledge of Africa and worked for four years as the Scientific Coordinator of the Antenne Sahelienne Program in Burkina Faso. For his PhD, which he obtained from the Wageningen Agricultural University, he studied farm-level optimal resource allocation in East Java, Indonesia.