The Alliance of CGIAR Centers is pleased to announce the appointment of Carlos Pérez del Castillo as Chair and Bongiwe Nomandi Njobe and Carl Hausmann as co-Vice Chairs to the new Consortium Board being established to provide leadership, strategic direction, fund-raising support and to be the ultimate authority for a newly-formed Consortium of CGIAR Centers. They are joined by six other Board members.

Carlos Pérez del Castillo, as the inaugural Consortium Board Chair, has a long and successful history of international and national public service that has spanned over 35 years. He is currently an independent international consultant involved in various assignments with governments, private sector, and international organizations. In 2005 he was appointed the Chairman of the WTO Panel established to examine the dispute over large civil aircrafts between the US and EC (Boeing-Airbus) and worked on an Independent External Evaluation of Governance of the Global Environmental Facility. He was a member of the core team assigned with the Independent External Evaluation of FAO until 2007. From March 2004 until October 2005, he was the Special Advisor on International Trade Negotiations to the President of the Republic of Uruguay. Carlos Pérez del Castillo served as the Chairman of the WTO General Council, as Vice-Minister and Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay (1995-1998) and Permanent Secretary of the Latin American Economic System (1987-1991). Carlos is a member of the Board of the International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council (IPC), and a small cattle farmer.

Throughout his career, Carlos Pérez del Castillo, has been the author of a substantial number of publications on a wide range of international economic issues, and has written a large number of articles for both international and regional magazines and newspapers. In 1990 he was awarded “The Dr. Raul Prebisch Award in Economics” by the Association of Latin American and Caribbean Economists, and he is a Permanent Member of the prestigious Harvard University Trade Group. Carlos Pérez del Castillo has received the highest decorations from the Governments of Brazil, Chile, France and Venezuela.


Carl Hausmann brings to the Consortium more than thirty years of experience in the agriculture processing sector. Currently president and CEO of Bunge North America, he is transitioning to a new role as managing director, global government and corporate affairs for Bunge. Carl joined the company in 2002 when Bunge acquired a majority stake in Cereol S.A. where he also served as CEO. He began his career in grain processing and international merchandising in 1978 at Continental Grain; he has worked in Africa (6 years, Zaire and Ivory Coast), South America (5 years, Brazil and Argentina), Europe (10 years in France, Belgium, Germany and Italy) and North America (15 years, USA). In his early career, as USAID contractor for the Conseil de L’Entente, he was a manager of a small business development unit covering 5 West African countries. He has been active in national trade associations as well as international agricultural policy groups. With this appointment to the Consortium Board Carl will provide significant strength regarding organizational change, strategic leadership, and managerial experience.

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.