CHANDRA A. MADRAMOOTOO, PhD, P.Eng.
McGill University
Chandra Madramootoo is a James McGill Professor in the Department of Bioresource Engineering at McGill University, and a Visiting Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, as well as a Visiting Scholar in Water and Food Security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He completed his undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in agricultural engineering at McGill. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences from 2005 to 2015, and was the Founding Director of the Brace Centre for Water Resources Management at McGill University. He created the McGill Institute for Global Food Security, as well as programs in integrated water management, food safety, food security, and innovation and entrepreneurship in the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Chandra is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Vice Chair of the IDRC Board of Governors, and a member of the NSERC Advisory Committee on University-Industry Grants. He Chaired the NSERC Strategic Review Panel on Environment and Agriculture.
J. SCOTT ANGLE
International Fertilizer Development Center
Dr. J. Scott Angle received his BS and MS at the University of Maryland in Agronomy and Soil Science, respectively. He obtained his PhD from the University of Missouri with an emphasis on Soil Microbiology.
Angle worked for 24 years as a Professor of Soil Science and administrator (Director of the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station and Maryland Cooperative Extension) at the University of Maryland. His early work focused on the study of losses of nutrients from agro-ecosystems. He also has extensive experience on the study of organic wastes, primarily biosolids, on agriculture systems and the environment. This led him into the study of impacts of biosolids-borne micronutrients, especially heavy metals, on the environment, with a focus on metal impacts on soil microbes and their functions. Later he concentrated his studies on phytoremediation, the use of plants for extraction of heavy metals from soil. In 2005, he moved to Athens, Georgia, where he served as Dean and Director of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of Georgia for 10 years. He is a fellow in the American Society of Agronomy and the Soil Science Society of America. He is also a Fulbright Fellow having worked at the Rothamsted (Research) Experimental Station, in the UK.
Currently, he is the President and CEO of the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), where he oversees a staff of over 800 and coordinates development projects in diverse regions of the world. IFDC provides solutions to alleviate global hunger and poverty through the promotion of economic development and self-sufficiency.
GHISLAIN AUGER
Développement international Desjardins (DID)
Ghislain Auger has worked, throughout the various stages of his career, in credit management and portfolio development within the Desjardins group. His specific fields of expertise include business development, design of financial product and services, risk management and the development of capacity building programs. He has been entrusted with the management of professional teams and experts in financial services.
At DID, Mr. Auger main responsibilities include the definition, instrumentation and implementation of rural finance program, particularly in the development of products and services, risk management, loan portfolio management. He provides support to financial institutions by offering technical services for portfolio management, design of specialized financial products, capacity building and monitoring loan portfolio performance.
Mr. Auger has a Master’s degree in rural economy from University of Guelph and a Baccalaureate in agronomy from Université Laval.
CAROLINE BEGG
McGill University
Dr Caroline Begg has worked in the field of sustainable agriculture in Tanzania and the Philippines. Her main interest is in ecological agriculture; other research interests include the relationships between spatial patterns of crop and soil parameters in agricultural fields. Dr Begg conducts research on food security on the island of Montreal and on ecological agriculture practices focusing on soil and crop management. In 2016 Dr Begg received the Macdonald Campus Award for Teaching Excellence and the Principal‘s Prize for Excellence in Teaching (Faculty Lecturer). She is the mentor to two Macdonald campus clubs; the Macdonald Student-Run Ecological Garden (MSEG), and the Farm-to-School Program. Both student groups have received the McGill Office for Sustainability Catalyst Award (2012 and 2014). Caroline is president of the Marché Ste Anne, a growing farmers market located in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. As well, she serves on the Board of Corbeille de Pain, a food security organization in the West Island, on the board of École-O-Champ an agricultural education non-profit organization founded by two former McGill students and on the board of the ECOLE Project a McGill Student initiative.
RUI BENFICA
Lead Economist, Research and Impact Assessment Division, Strategy and Knowledge Department, IFAD
As Lead Economist in the Strategy and Knowledge Department, IFAD, Rui Benfica's research work includes applied quantitative policy analysis on income diversification, food and nutrition security, poverty and gender. His areas of expertise are household-level survey design, data collection, management and analysis, as well as policy outreach. Prior to joining IFAD, he was with USAID and the Food Security Research Group at Michigan State University, United States. Prior to that, he worked as an Economist in the World Bank's Gender and Development Group, and as Poverty Economist in the Bank's Africa Region, undertaking poverty assessments, impact evaluations, and poverty and social impact analyses. He was part of the team that prepared IFAD’s Rural Development Report 2016. He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University.
MARGARET BIGGS
Queen's University & International Development Research Centre
Margaret Biggs, is Matthews Fellow in Global Public Policy at Queen’s University, and has served in the highest levels of the Canadian federal government. She was President of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) from 2008-2013, with responsibility for overseeing Canada's international development and humanitarian assistance efforts worldwide. In this role she represented Canada in numerous international fora. Ms. Biggs served as Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet and Assistant Secretary, Priorities and Planning, in the Privy Council Office. She is currently Chair of the Board of Governors for the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and also serves on a number of Boards and advisory committees. Ms. Biggs is graduate of the University of British Columbia and the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University.
Samy Gaiji is an agronomist specializing in genetic resources and crop improvement. He leads the FAO Research & Extension Unit since January 2016. Samy obtained his Master degrees in Agronomy and Genetics from SupAgro (Montpelier) and AgroParis Tech, France. He brings extensive experience in agriculture research and innovation systems through his 25 years career in private breeding companies, CIRAD, FAO, UNEP, World Bank, IPGRI, Bioversity and the CGIAR.
Tim Geary obtained his PhD in 1980 from the University of Michigan (Pharmacology), following undergraduate studies at the University of Notre Dame (Biology). From 1980-1985, he was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Assistant Professor at Michigan State University. From 1985 to 2005, he was a research scientist at the Upjohn Company (Pharmacia, then Pfizer) in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he led the parasitology research group. In 2005, Tim joined McGill University as a Tier I Canada Research Chair and Professor in the Institute of Parasitology, and became its Director in 2007. He has received the Bueding-von Brand Award of the American Society of Parasitologists, the Merial-AAVP Distinguished Veterinary Parasitologist Award, and is currently President of the American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists. Tim is on the editorial boards of 7 scientific journals and is a consultant for many pharmaceutical/biotechnology companies on antiparasitic drug discovery and development and for non-profit organizations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
ANJA GEITMANN
McGill University
Anja Geitmann is Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and Professor in the Department of Plant Science. She leads an interdisciplinary team of cell biologists and mechanical engineers. Her research program focuses on the biomechanical principles underlying plant development and reproduction. Using powerful microscopical techniques and micromanipulation, her team investigates how sperm cells are delivered in plants during fertilization, how plant cells grow and divide, and how intracellular transport processes govern morphogenetic features. The ultimate goal of this research is to understand how genetic composition or a plant translates to its physical phenotype.
Dr. Geitmann is actively involved in the executive committees of numerous learned societies. She currently serves as President of the Canadian Society of Plant Biologists and as Past‐President of the Microscopical Society of Canada. She is the Vice-President of the International Association of Plant Sexual Reproduction Research. She serves on the editorial boards of multiple scientific journals including Plant Physiology. She has served on the organizing committees of numerous international meetings including Plant Biology 2010, Plant Biology 2014, M&M 2014 and Botany 2015. She was the organizer of the first Alumni Meeting of the Human Frontier Science Program, the International BIRS Workshop on 'Multiscale Modeling of Cell Wall Mechanics and Growth in Walled Cells' and a biannual series of Advanced Workshops on Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques. The quality of her teaching merited her a Teaching Award from the Faculté des Arts et des Science de l'Université de Montréal in 2012.
MARCO FERRONI
Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture
An expert in international agriculture and sustainability challenges, Marco Ferroni joined the Syngenta Foundation as its Executive Director in 2008 after a career in multilateral institutions and government. The Foundation’s mission is to modernize small-scale farming in low- and middle-income countries through sustainable intensification, diversification and the activation of value chains. The Foundation incubates scalable products and solutions, tests them and catalyzes uptake and dissemination through commercial partnerships. Focus areas include seed systems, agricultural insurance and finance, and farmer support services, including digital decision tools in agriculture. Before joining the Foundation, Marco Ferroni, a Swiss citizen with a PhD in agricultural economics from Cornell University, held executive and advisory positions, respectively, at the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank in Washington DC.
SONIA LASZLO
McGill University
Prof. Sonia Laszlo is Associate Professor of Economics and Director of the Institute for the Study of International Development. Her research expertise covers many aspects of applied microeconomic analysis in economic development. Specifically, she is currently working in two broad research areas: decision-making under uncertainty (namely concerning technology adoption among subsistence farmers) and the micro-economic effects of social policies and conditions (in the area of education, health and labour markets), with a focus on women. Prof. Laszlo has conducted her research in Peru, Kenya and in the Caribbean, using laboratory experiments, surveys or randomized controlled trials. She is also a member of the Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherche en Organizations (CIRANO) and the Grupo de Analysis para el Desarrollo (GRADE). In 2005 she co‐founded and has since been an executive member of the Canadian Development Economics Study Group (CDESG), which groups both academic and policy development economists in Canada.
JOHN McARTHUR
Brookings Institute
John W. McArthur is a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution. He is also a senior advisor to the UN Foundation and a member of the Board of Governors for the International Development Research Centre. He served as deputy director of the United Nations Millennium Project, and in that role, he helped launch global MDG policy efforts. He oversaw a policy team that provided integrated technical advice to governments in low-income countries around the world, and served as lead editor of the project’s final report, Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals. In 2013-14, John McArthur chaired the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Poverty and Sustainable Development. He is a member of the Forum’s Advisory Board on Sustainability and Competitiveness. In 2014-15, he co-chaired a working group convened by the University of Ottawa’s Centre for International Policy Studies, leading to the final report, Towards 2030: Building Canada’s Engagement with Global Sustainable Development.
A Rhodes Scholar, John McArthur obtained an MPhil and DPhil (PhD) in economics at Oxford University, a master’s in Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a BA from University of British Columbia.
PHILIP OXHORN
McGill University
Philip Oxhorn is Associate Provost (International) and a Professor of Political Science at McGill University. Prior to that, he was the Founding Director of McGill’s Institute for the Study of International Development and Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Latin American Research Review. His research focuses on the comparative study of civil society and its role in supporting democratic regimes, particularly in Latin America. Professor Oxhorn’s publications include Sustaining Civil Society: Economic Change, Democracy and the Social Construction of Citizenship in Latin America (Penn State University Press, 2011) and Organizing Civil Society: The Popular Sectors and the Struggle for Democracy in Chile (Penn State University Press, 1995), as well as numerous articles and four co-edited volumes. He has a PhD in Political Science from Harvard University.
LEROY PHILLIP
McGill University
Leroy Phillip was Associate Professor of nutrition in the Department of Animal Science at McGill, until his recent retirement. He was also Associate Director of the Food and Nutrition Research Centre at McGill University, Canada. He has over 30 years of research, teaching and graduate training experience, and has published extensively in areas dealing with nutritional and feeding strategies to improve production efficiency and reduce environmental pollution from ruminant animals. He has a keen interest in food security and international development, and has conducted research projects in Kenya and the Caribbean. Recently he led a major IDRC funded CIFSRF multidisciplinary research project dealing with food and nutrition security in the Caribbean aimed at improving agricultural productivity and diet diversity, and utilizing school feeding programs to improve nutrition outcomes and reduce obesity in children.
TIM PREWITT
International Development Enterprises (iDE)
Tim Prewitt is CEO of International Development Enterprises (iDE). For 25 years, Tim has brought private sector strategies to raising income, creating jobs, and having tangible impact on the those at the base of the pyramid, working in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe. Tim began his career in Romania, learning firsthand how handouts lead to inefficiency and waste; He has since worked in more than 30 developing countries, committed to tapping market forces in service of the very poor. Prior to joining iDE, Tim worked in Nigeria with farmers, agriculture and food production companies, and the Nigerian government to increase farmer income and farm yields, leading to impact of more than a million farmers and a UN World Business Development Award. Previously, he served as head of the Private Sector Practice for the world’s largest development consultancy, Chemonics International, as well as leadership positions in East Timor, China, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Romania. Tim is a Fulbright Scholar with an M.A. in Sociology and an M.B.A.
CLAUDIA RINGLER
International Food Policy Research Institute
Claudia Ringler is Deputy Division Director of the Environment and Production Technology Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). She also manages IFPRI’s Natural Resource Theme and co-leads the Institute’s water research program. She is currently also a co-manager of the Managing Resource Variability, Risks and Competing Uses for Increased Resilience (VCR) of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), chairs the Food, Energy, Environment and Water Network (FE2W) and is associated with the Sustainable Water Futures Program of Future Earth. Her research interests are water management, global food and water security, natural resource constraints to global food production, and the synergies of climate change adaptation and mitigation. She has more than 100 publications in these areas.
SUE SZABO
International Development Research Centre
Sue Szabo is the Director of the Inclusive Economies program at the International Development Research Centre, leading a multidisciplinary team that strengthens policy research capacity in developing countries on issues of economic policy, governance and health systems. Sue has more than 20 years of experience in international development, including positions at Canada’s Department of Finance, Aga Khan Foundation Canada, and the World Bank. Sue holds a PhD and an MPhil in economics from the University of Cambridge.
SERENA THOMSON
Finance Alliance for Sustainable Trade (FAST)
Serena Thomson is the International Relations Officer at the Finance Alliance for Sustainable Trade (FAST), an organization that provides services to increase access to finance for small and medium enterprises in emerging economies. Serena manages partnerships and structures programs with FAST's partners in international development and finance. She also has on-the-ground experience managing an access-to-finance project for SMEs in the coffee and fruit/vegetable sectors in Central America, and has supported similar projects in Tanzania, Peru, and the Caribbean.