Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines
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Director, Biotechnology and Management of Bioresources Division
The Energy Resources Institute (TERI), India
Vice Chairperson, Planning Board, Punjab
Chairwoman of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER)
Member, ADB eminent persons group
Isher Judge Ahluwalia is Vice Chairperson, Planning Board, Punjab, and Member, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, Government of India. She served as Director and Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) in New Delhi from 1997 to 2001 and is now Chairperson, Board of Governors of ICRIER. Until recently, she was the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Dr. Ahluwalia's research has focused on industrial development and economic liberalization in India. She is an author/co-author/editor of numerous journal articles and several books including India's Economic Reforms and Development: Essays for Manmohan Singh, which she co-edited with Prof. I.M.D Little. Her book, Industrial Growth in India: Stagnation since the Mid-Sixties (OUP, 1985) received the Batheja Memorial Award for the best book on the Indian economy in 1987. She ran a weekly program on the WTO and India in 2002 on national television.
Dr. Ahluwalia is on the boards of numerous research institutes in India including the NCAER (National Council of Applied Economic Research), Madras School of Economics and the Board of Governors, Global Development Network, New Delhi among others. Dr. Ahluwalia received her B.A. from Presidency College at Calcutta University, her M.A. from the Delhi School of Economics, and her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, all in economics.
Senior Research Fellow, Food Consumption and Nutrition Division
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Akhter Ahmed joined IFPRI in 1990 and is a senior research fellow who co-leads IFPRI's Global and Regional Program on Large-Scale Human Capital Interventions. He works on strategies for restructuring social protection and safety net programs to improve the food security, nutrition and livelihoods of the poor in developing countries. Ahmed was posted in Bangladesh from 1990 to 1994, where he worked on targeted interventions and participated in designing the innovative food for education program. From 1996 to 1999 he was posted in Egypt as the leader of IFPRI's collaborative project on food security research. During 2000-2006, Ahmed worked on poverty and human development issues in Bangladesh, China, India, Malawi, and the Philippines. Currently he is leading an impact evaluation of the conditional cash transfer program in Turkey. Before coming to IFPRI, Ahmed worked with the World Bank and was an agricultural economist for the U.S. Agency for International Development. He received a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Colorado State University, and an M.S. in agricultural economics from Cornell University.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Development Strategy and Governance Division
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Kamiljon Akramov joined IFPRI's Development Strategy & Governance Division in September 2006 as a post-doctoral fellow. He conducts research on development policy issues and data analysis using qualitative and quantitative methods. He also is conducting research on determinants of aid to agriculture, decentralization and service delivery in transition and developing countries. Prior to this, Dr. Akramov was a Doctoral Fellow at Pardee RAND Graduate School (where he obtained his Ph.D in Policy Analysis), a consultant for ADB on governance and regional cooperation, and Director of the Monetary Policy Research Center at the Central Bank of Uzbekistan. He also has a Master's Degree in Development Economics from Williams College, USA.
Director, Institute of Agricultural and Food Policy Studies
Universiti Putra Malaysia
Fatimah Mohamed Arshad is a professor at the Faculty of Economics and Management at the Universiti Putra Malaysia where she started working with the faculty in 1980. In addition, she is the Director of the Institut Kajian Dasar Pertanian dan Makanan (or Institute of Agricultural and Food Policy Studies). She has taught courses on agricultural marketing, marketing research and commodity futures trading both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Prior to her current positions, she was the Coordinator of the Centre for Agricultural Policy Studies, President of the Malaysian Agricultural Economics Association, and the Associate Editor and later Chief Editor of the Malaysian Journal of Agricultural Economics. She is also a member of the reviewer board of the International Journal of Agribusiness and Food Marketing. She has been an associate editor of the ASEAN Food Journal and Journal of International Society for Southeast Asian Agricultural Sciences since 2002 and a member of the Malaysian Social Science Society for the last two decades. She is a member of the National Advisory Panel on Malaysian Agricultural Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries, Malaysia. She is the Chairperson, FAMA-IHLs (Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority and Institution of Higher Learnings) Research Collaboration Committee. She obtained her doctoral degree in Agricultural Marketing from the University of Newcastle upon-Tyne, UK.
Vice-Chancellor, Beaconhouse National University
Former Minister of Finance, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Former Minister of Agriculture, Pakistan
Sartaj Aziz, a development economist, is Vice-Chancellor to Beacon House National University. He became a member of the Senate of Pakistan in 1985 and served there until 1999. He began his career as a civil servant, most of which he spent in the National Planning Commission, where he was involved in the formulation and implementation of Pakistan's Second and Third "Five Year Plans." Mr. Aziz has also written several books and articles. He earned a degree in Commerce from Punjab University and an M.A. in development economics from Harvard University.
Director, Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA)
Professor of Economics, University of the Philippines Diliman
Dr. Arsenio Balisacan is the Director of the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), the regional center of excellence for agriculture of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO). Concurrently, beginning in mid-2003, he serves as the Secretary General of the Asia-Pacific Agricultural Policy Forum and as Executive Secretary of the Asian Association of Agricultural Colleges and Universities. On secondment from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, where he has been a Professor of Economics since 1988, he served twice as Undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture (2000-2001, early 2003). He has taken many advisory and consultancy roles for various institutions, including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, United Nations agencies, and Philippine Government Agencies. He has served as a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra, a Research Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, and an Economist at the World Bank in Washington, DC.
He holds a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Hawaii and a Master's degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of the Philippines at Los Baños.
Water Resources Management Specialist
Agriculture, Natural Resources and Social Services Division, South Asia Department
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Plamen Bozakov is a Water Resources Management specialist in the South Asia Department of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). His professional background includes identification, formulation, planning, computer aided design and management of inter-disciplinary projects in the fields of integrated water resources management, irrigation, drainage, flood control, land reclamation, and water management institutions development in Africa, Europe, South America and during the last 15 years, in Asia.
Head of the Poverty Unit, Regional and Sustainable Development Department (RSDD-PU)
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Shiladitya Chatterjee is the Head of the Poverty Unit in the Regional and Sustainable Development Department of ADB. Prior to his current position he was a Principal/Senior Programs Coordination Specialist at the IRM and Country Team Leader in ADB. He also taught economics at St. Stephen's College (Delhi University), Boston University, and at the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Chatterjee has a Ph.D in Economics from Boston University and a Master's degree from the Delhi School of Economics.
Secretary of Planning
Ministry of Planning, Bangladesh
Jafar Ahmed Chowdhury is the Secretary of the Planning Division of Bangladesh's Ministry of Planning. Earlier he held the position of Secretary of the Ministry of Information, Ministry of Environment & Forests and the President's Office. He served as the Joint Secretary for the Economic Relations Division. He held different positions in the field administration including Deputy Commissioner, Mymensingh.
Mr. Chowdhury obtained his B.A. (Hons) and M.A. Degrees in Economics from the University of Dhaka. In 1980, he obtained an LL.B. Degree from the University of Dhaka. In 1990, he obtained a Masters Degree with distinction in Development Studies specializing in Economic Policy and Planning from the Institute of Social Studies, the Hague, the Netherlands.
Director, Development Strategy and Governance Division
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Shenggen Fan is the director of IFPRI's Development Strategy and Governance Division. Dr. Fan is a Chinese citizen who joined IFPRI in 1995. For the last 10 years, his major work includes technical change, institutional reforms, productivity measurement, and the effects of public investment on growth and poverty reduction in developing countries. Prior to IFPRI, he worked for the International Service for National Agricultural Research, and the University of Arkansas. He received his PH.D in applied economics from the University of Minnesota. Both of his B.S. and M.S. are from Nanjing Agricultural University, China.
Senior Policy Advisor, Division 45 - Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH
Gerd Fleischer, an agricultural economist, is a senior policy advisor for agriculture and rural development in the planning and development department of GTZ, working on programme-based approaches for countries in Asia and Africa. Prior to his, he managed a collaborative policy research project at the University of Hanover, thereof three years as a seconded advisor for sustainable agriculture at the World Bank. Dr. Fleischer received a MSc equivalent degree from the University of Göttingen and a Ph.D from the University of Hanover, both in Germany.
Chairman, Board of Trustees, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Professor of Economics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University
Ross G. Garnaut is a Professor of Economics at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University. An expert on economic development, public finance, and international economic relations in the Asia-Pacific region, Dr. Garnaut is the author of numerous books and influential scholarly articles on these topics. He has frequently been a consultant to the Australian government. From 1985 to 1988, he was the Australian Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, and from 1994 to 2000, he chaired the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. He currently serves on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals and on the governing boards of various research organizations. He also sits on the boards of several private businesses, serving as board chair of Lihir Gold Ltd. and Lonely Planet Publications, the world's largest publisher of travel guides. Dr. Garnaut is an officer of the Order of Australia. He received his B.A. and Ph.D. in economics from The Australian National University.
Senior Program Officer, Agriculture Development
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Dr. Lutz Goedde is a Senior Program Officer in the Agricultural Development Program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He previously worked as a senior executive in the agricultural inputs sector. As CEO and President, he led the turnaround of Alta Genetics, the world's largest privately owned cattle genetics improvement and artificial insemination company. While CEO, he also acted as VP Marketing & Sales for Alta Genetics, managing the large US sales force directly. Prior to his leadership of Alta Genetics, he was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, the world's foremost strategy consulting firm, in their Toronto and Chicago offices. He focused his consulting work on agriculture, food and healthcare, becoming co-lead of the firm's Agriculture & Food Chains industry practice. He was also part of the leadership team for the Innovation & Technology Management functional practice. In his earlier career he worked as a marketing manager for Bayer's crop protection business in Central America. Dr. Goedde is fluent in English, German and Spanish and has extensive work experience in North America, Latin America, Europe, Southern Africa and Southeast Asia. He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Bonn, Germany, and an MBA with honors from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Professor, Asian Center, University of the Philippines
Former President, Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), Philippines
Eduardo Gonzalez joined the University of the Philippines in 2006 and teaches policy analysis, governance and institutions, urban-industrial linkages, and innovative processes in development. He is the immediate past president of the Development Academy of the Philippines, where his professional career started. He has authored policy studies on social protection, the 20/20 initiative, diversity management, decentralization, and the impact of liberalization on Philippine labor and has worked on issues involving children and women with UNICEF, managing urbanization under a decentralized framework with UNFPA, and anti-corruption strategies with the World Bank. He was part of the quality review team that appraised UNDP projects in the Philippines, and is currently a member of the advisory and quality assurance group of the Australia-Philippines Partnership for Economic Governance Reforms. Dr. Gonzalez has a Ph.D in public policy from the University of Pennsylvania and an MS in urban and regional planning from the University of the Philippines.
Vice President, Operations 2
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Lawrence Greenwood is Vice President of Operations Area 2 of the ADB since 2006. He is a career diplomat with close to 30 years experience in Asia in the areas of international finance, development, trade, and investment. Previously, he worked for the US Department of State as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, International Finance and Development Department, and as Ambassador to APEC and Minister Counselor of the US Embassy in Japan. He holds a master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University, USA.
Director in Asia
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Ashok Gulati is currently IFPRI Director in Asia based in IFPRI's New Delhi Office, India. Prior to this position, he served as IFPRI's director of the Markets, Trade and Institutions Division (formerly called Markets and Structural Studies Division) from 2001 to 2006. His areas of research include issues related to agricultural markets; trade liberalization and its impact on producers and consumers; WTO and trade negotiations in agriculture; globalization and the small holders; vertical linkages between farms and firms; pricing and institutional reforms in input markets, power and canal irrigation, and their efficiency and welfare impact; and the role of infrastructure and institutions in making markets function efficiently.
Before joining IFPRI, Dr. Gulati was a NABARD Chair Professor at the Institute of Economic Growth in Delhi, India, and a member of the Economic Advisory Council of the Prime Minister of India. In 2004, he was named a fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. A citizen of India, Dr. Gulati received his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, India.
Principal Evaluation Specialist
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Dr. Hettige has been in her current position in ADB since 1997. Prior to that, she was an Economist at the World Bank, and an adjunct faculty member at American University's Department of Economics in Washington D.C. She received a Ph. D. in Economics and a Master of Arts degree in Political Economy, both from Boston University, USA.
Director, Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jikun Huang has been the director of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing since October 2000, where he is also a professor. He is a visiting professor of economics at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou and Nanjing Agricultural University and vice president of the Chinese Association of Agro-Technology Economics. He received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of the Philippines at Los Los Baños.
Special Advisor to the Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs, Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs
Senior Researcher and Professor, Institute for Economic and Social Affairs, University of Indonesia
Mohamad Ikhsan is the special advisor to the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs in Indonesia. He is concurrently an Associate Professor at the University of Indonesia. Before joining the government, he was the director for the Institute of Economics and Social Research University of Indonesia. He also serves as a non-executive board member at several state owned enterprises and private companies. He has Ph.D in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA and a Master's Degree in Economics from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN USA.
College of Humanities and Development
China Agricultural University, People's Republic of China
Professor Li is a prominent participant in several internationally aided development initiatives in China. Before his academic career he was a research officer in the State Council's Research Centre for Development, immediately after completing his Ph.D at Beijing Agricultural University in 1987.
Vice Chairman
The State Council Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development
People's Republic of China
Mr. Liu Jian is the Vice Chairman of the State Council Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development. In 2003, Mr. Liu Jian was concurrently appointed as the Vice Chairman of the State Council Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development. Mr. Liu Jian has been the Director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development since February 2004 and in charge of overall poverty alleviation and development work. Mr. Liu Jian was Vice Governor of the Jiangsu Province from February 1998 to December 1998 and was in charge of work pertaining to commerce, material and goods, sales and supplies, grains, securities and economic restructuring. Mr. Liu Jian was the Vice Minister of China's Ministry of Agriculture from December 1998 to July 2004 and was responsible for agricultural development planning, rural economic policy, international agricultural cooperation, crop farming and township and village development. In 2003, Mr. Liu Jian did an outstanding and effective job in China's fight against SARS. Mr. Liu Jian graduated from the Agronomy Department of North Jiangsu Agricultural College in 1966.
Chairman, Innovative Development Strategy (IDS)
Advisor, Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, Pakistan
Sohail Jehangir Malik is the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan Professor of Economics at the University of Sargodha. He is also Chairman of Innovative Development Strategies (Pvt.), Ltd., a private sector economic policy consulting group, and Advisor to the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF).
With over thirty years of international experience in policy-oriented research in development problems and poverty alleviation, Dr. Malik has worked in the areas of agriculture and rural development policy, technology choice, biodiversity conservation, rural finance, food security and nutrition, and social safety nets. He was a Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington DC during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was the Poverty Cluster Coordinator for the Operations Evaluation Department of the World Bank in Washington DC during the late 1990s. He obtained a Ph.D in Econometrics from the University of New England, Australia and Masters degrees from Australian National University, Australia and the Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan.
Director, Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Division
Southeast Asian Department, Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Urooj Malik is the Director for Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources in the Southeast Asia Department of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). His service to the Asia-Pacific region spans over two decades. He entered the ADB in early 1985 under a highly competitive Young Professionals (YP) Program. Upon completion of the YP Program in 1987, Mr. Malik was assigned as Project Economist in the ADB's former Industry and Energy Department (1987-1993). In 1993, Mr. Malik was appointed as Country Economist for Mekong countries. During 1993-98, Mr. Malik rose to becoming Senior Economist and then Principal Programs Economist for the Mekong region. In this capacity, he was instrumental in helping to shape the Bank's regional flagship initiative on the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Economic Cooperation Program.
Mr. Malik has held managerial position in the Bank since 1999, starting with his assignment in Cambodia as Resident Representative and later as Country Director (1999-2004). In this capacity, Mr. Malik was involved in the country's socioeconomic development planning process, and worked on a key ADB publication entitled, Enhancing Governance for Sustainable Development.
Mr. Malik has a graduate degree in Natural Resource Management and a post graduate degree with doctoral studies in Natural Resources Economics with a concentration in Development.
Secretary
Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation, India
P. K. Mishra has been the Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation since December 2006. Prior to coming to the Ministry of Agriculture, he served as the Secretary of National Disaster Management Authority under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Dr. Mishra has also serves as Member Secretary, National Capital Region, Planning Board under the Ministry of Urban Development and has also been the CEO of the Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority and Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Dr. Mishra holds a Master's Degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and in Development Economics from the University of Sussex. He was also awarded a Doctorate in Development Studies/Economics by the University of Sussex in 1994.
Rural Development Economist
Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Social Services Division
South Asia Department, Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Marzia Mongiorgi is an economist with more than 10 years of professional experience in the field of international development. She has a MSc in Economics from Bocconi University and in Development Studies from the London School of Economics. She completed postgraduate studies in Rural Development from SOAS in 2002 and in Agribusiness from Wageningen University in 2005.
National Business Manager
Federation of Free Farmers Cooperatives, Inc (FFFCI), Philippines
Raul Montemayor is the National Business Manager of the Federation of Free Farmers Cooperatives, Inc. (FFFCI, a nationwide network of small-farmer based agricultural cooperatives in the Philippines. The FFFCI is the economic arm of the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) of the Philippines, one of the largest and most reputable peasant organizations in the country. Mr. Montemayor is also a Vice-President of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), to which the FFF is affiliated and a member of the Board of the International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council (IPC).
Chief, Policy Assistance Branch for Asia and the Pacific
FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Thailand
Purushottam K. Mudbhary is the Chief of FAO's Policy Assistance Branch for Asia and the Pacific. He leads a group of professionals providing assistance to developing countries in the region in food and agriculture policy and strategy development and identification of field programs to address constraints to agricultural development and food security.
Dr. Mudbhary is an agricultural economist and has served in FAO's Policy Analysis Division in Rome and its Regional Office in Bangkok for nearly 17 years. He has a Masters degree in Agribusiness Management from University of the Philippines at Diliman and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University.
Director, Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development (FASID) Graduate Program
Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Japan
Keijiro Otsuka is a professorial fellow at the Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development (FASID) in Tokyo and the director of GRIPS/FASID Joint Graduate Program. Prior to this he worked for the Economic Growth Center of the Yale University as a post-doctoral fellow for one year, served as an associate professor and a professor of economics at the Tokyo Metropolitan University, and worked with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) from 1986 to 1989 and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) from 1993 to 1998 as a visiting research staff. He is president-elect of the International Association of Agricultural Economists, the chairman of the board of trustees of IRRI from January 2004, and an associate editor of the Economic Development and Cultural Change, leading journal in development economics. He has published seven coauthored books and more than 80 articles in leading journals of development economics, agricultural economics, and environmental economics. He has been working extensively on cluster-based industrial development, the Green Revolution, land tenancy, property rights and natural resource management, and the poverty dynamics in both Asia and Africa. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago.
Senior Water Resources Management Specialist
Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Division
Central and West Asia Department, Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Thomas Panella is a Senior Water Resources Management Specialist for the Asian Development Bank in their Central and West Asia Department, Agriculture, Environment, and Natural Resources Division. His work includes irrigation and integrated water resources management, and his current countries of focus include Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan with prior work in India, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Prior to ADB, he worked in the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Department at the World Bank. He was a charter officer of the California Urban Water Conservation Council and served as its convener in 1997. He has conducted research and consulted for California water and energy utilities, UN agencies, and other academic, private, and public organizations. His research interests include irrigation governance and institutional reform; environmental flows; water rights; and river basin management. He received a PhD and MPP in Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley and received an MS from the Energy and Resources Group at Berkeley with an emphasis on water resources.
Former Member of the Planning Commission, Nepal
Champak Pokharel is the Campus Chief of Mahalaxmi College in Lalitpur in Nepal and is a consultant to ADB for the project on "Mainstreaming Managing for Development Results in Support of Poverty Reduction in South Asia". Dr. Pokharel served as a Senior Advisor from 2000-2001 to the National Planning Commission of Nepal where he was responsible for the overall portfolio. He was an advisor to the same agency from 1990-2000 where he was responsible for the areas of agriculture development, project screening and macro planning.
Dr. Pokharel received a Ph.D in Agriculture and Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota and a Master's Degree in Development Economics from Williams College, Massachusetts, USA.
Senior Research Fellow, Food Consumption and Nutrition Division
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Agnes Quisumbing, a research fellow, co-leads a research program analyzing the factors that enable individuals, households, and communities to move out of poverty over the long term. Her past work at IFPRI focused on how resource allocation within households and families affects the design and outcome of development policies. Her research interests include poverty, gender, property rights, and economic mobility. She led a study on intra-household allocation and development policy in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Guatemala, and South Africa. She has also worked on women's land rights in Ghana, the Philippines, and Sumatra. She is currently involved in longitudinal studies in Bangladesh, Guatemala, and the Philippines. A citizen of the Philippines, Dr. Quisumbing joined IFPRI in 1995. She received her Ph.D and M.A. in economics from the University of the Philippines in Diliman. Before joining IFPRI, she worked at the University of the Philippines, Diliman and Los Baños; the World Bank; Yale University; and the International Rice Research Institute.
Director General
East Asia Department, Asian Development Bank (ADB)
H. Satish Rao serves as the Director General of the East and Central Asia Department (ECRD) of ADB. Prior to this position, Mr. Rao was Deputy Director General of ECRD. He has been working in ADB since 1984. Earlier, Mr. Rao served in the Government of India and in the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI). Mr. Rao has a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and a Postgraduate Degree from the Indian Institute of Management.
Professor
Michigan State University, USA
Thomas Reardon joined the Department of Agricultural Economics at MSU in 1992, where his work is half research and half teaching. Before 1992 he was Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington D.C. (1986-91), Rockefeller Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow in Burkina Faso at ICRISAT and the University of Ouagadougou (1984-86), and the Central Reserve Bank of Peru (1983-4). In the fall semester he teaches the upper-level Food Industry Management/Agribusiness Management course "International Agrifood Markets and Industries" (ABM/FIM 427), and the graduate course "Agriculture in Economic Development" (AEC 861).
He obtained his Ph.D in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984 and his Master's in International Affairs from Columbia University, New York.
Director, Environment and Production Technology Division
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Mark W. Rosegrant is the Director of the Environment and Production Technology Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Dr. Rosegrant has 28 years of experience in research and policy analysis in agriculture and economic development, with an emphasis on water resources and other critical natural resource and agricultural policy issues as they impact food security, rural livelihoods and environmental sustainability. He developed IFPRI's International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT), which has become a standard for projections and scenarios for global and regional food demand, supply, trade and prices; and IMPACT-WATER, which integrates a detailed water supply and demand model with the food model. He currently directs research on climate change, water resources, sustainable land management, genetic resources and biotechnology, and agriculture and energy. Dr. Rosegrant received his Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of Michigan.
Head, Agriculture Policy Unit
Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka
Parakrama Samaratunga is a Research Fellow and the Head of the Agricultural Economics Unit of the Institute of Policy Studies in Sri Lanka. From 1998 to 2003 Dr. Samaratunga served as the Director of the Socio Economics and Planning Centre of Sri Lanka's Department of Agriculture. He received a Ph.D in Agricultural and Resource Economics from La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia and an M.S. in Agricultural Economics from the University of the Philippines at Los Baños.
Vice President, BASIX, India
As Vice-President of Group HR at BASIX, Mr. Sattaiah is responsible for building systems and organizational capacities.
He has been with BASIX for the last 11 years and was one of the first 10 employees joining BASIX at beginning of its operations in 1996. He worked as a Line Manager for 5 years and had been instrumental in developing operating systems in BASIX for delivery of Micro Credit in BASIX. He started working on insurance in 2001 soon after opening up of insurance sector and building business relationship with various insurance companies. He has been instrumental in developing an exciting, fruitful and sustainable working relationship between BASIX and Aviva.
Mr. Sattaiah is a Graduate of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry and has a Master's degree in Business Management.
Director
Indonesian Center for Agriculture Socio Economic and Policy Studies, Indonesia
Tahlim Sudaryanto is the Director of the Indonesian Center for Agriculture Socio Economic and Policy Studies in Indonesia's Ministry of Agriculture. Since 2006, he has served as a Technical Committee member of the UN-ESCAP CAPSA, reviewing the center's R&D and dissemination program.
He has completed numerous research projects on food policy, international trade, agribusiness, and rural economies. In addition, he has also served as an editor of professional journal and various conference proceedings within the Ministry of Agriculture and participated in various committee or working groups related to agricultural policy and program formulation. He regularly advises the Ministry of Agriculture on agricultural policy making and actively coordinates a working group conducting analytical work on trade related issues, which involves preparing background papers and serving as a member of negotiating mission to various WTO forums in Geneva, and various G-33 initiatives.
Former Minister of Finance, Bangladesh
M. Syeduzzaman is chairman of several companies and institutions in Bangladesh. These include the BOC Bangladesh Ltd., a subsidiary company of the BOC Group in the United Kingdom; Bank Asia Limited; Bangladesh Rice Foundation; Bangladesh Chapter of the Policy Analysis Network for South Asia (PANSA); and Credit Rating Agency of Bangladesh. In addition, he serves as member of the Advisory Council for the IFPRI 2020 Initiative and vice chairman of the Infrastructure and Industrial Development Finance Company involved in financing private sector projects. Prior to this, Mr. Syeduzzaman served as joint secretary of the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Pakistan in 1970, as secretary to the Government of Bangladesh in the Ministries of Finance & Planning from 1973 to 1977, as Finance Secretary in 1982-1983 and as Principal Finance Secretary in charge of the Ministry of Finance and External Relations Division with concurrent appointment as advisor for finance and minister for finance from 1984-1987. He has also served as an alternate executive director in the World Bank and was member of the bank's Audit Committee. For several years between 1975 and 1987, he held the positions of governor and alternate governor of the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. In 1984-1987, he was governor of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Mr. Syeduzzaman served as a mentor of the IFPRI Board of Trustees. He was the founding chair of PKSF, a pioneering foundation set up on a new model as an apex financing organization for micro-credit operations by local NGOs for creation of rural employment. Mr. Syeduzzaman obtained degrees of Master of Science in Physics from Dhaka University and Master of Arts in Development Economics from Williams College, Massachusetts, USA. He also holds a Diploma in Public Administration from the University of Cambridge, UK.
Regional Economist
Asia and the Pacific Division, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Ganesh Thapa is the Regional Economist of Asia and the Pacific Division of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) based in Rome, Italy. Prior to working for IFAD, he worked as Country Director/Programme Leader for Winrock International in Nepal and as Senior Agricultural Economist for the Ministry of Agriculture, Nepal. He has undertaken research and published journal articles, monographs and books on a number of topics related to agriculture and rural development, rural poverty, sustainable natural resource management, food security, and agricultural marketing. As a development economist, he has also worked as an expert for a number of international organizations such as the World Bank, FAO, IFPRI, IRRI, and IWMI. Dr. Thapa has a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University, USA, and a Master's Degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of the Philippines in Los Baños.
Director, Indian Institute of Dalit Studies
Chairman, University Grant Commission, India
Dr. Thorat's areas of specialization include agricultural development, poverty, labor studies, caste and economic discrimination, with special focus on discrimination in the labor market and the economic problems of Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes. He has written extensively on a variety of contemporary issues such as rural poverty, rural development, child labor, caste-discrimination and urban slums. Dr. Thorat received his Master's and Ph.D degrees in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Senior Fellow
Center for Global Development, USA
Peter Timmer is a Senior Research Fellow for the Center for Global Development. He has over 35 years of experience in food and agriculture policy in Asia and is a leading research scholar in food security and agriculture issues. He served as an economic advisor on food policy and poverty alleviation to the Indonesia National Planning Agency in 1970-71, and has been a senior advisor to the World Bank on food and nutrition policy. In 1992, he was presented with the Bintang Jasa Utama (Highest Merit Star) by the Republic of Indonesia in recognition of his work in food security and poverty alleviation in that country. Dr. Timmer held tenured professorships at Stanford and Cornell Universities before serving on four faculties at Harvard University. He left Harvard in 1998 to become Dean of the Graduate School of International Relations and Professor of Development Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He received his Ph.D, M.A., and B.A. in Economics from Harvard University.
Director General
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Joachim von Braun has been Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) since 2002. He guides and oversees the Institute's efforts to provide research-based sustainable solutions for ending hunger and malnutrition. Before coming to IFPRI, Dr. von Braun was director of the Center for Development Research (ZEF) and professor of Economics and Technological Change at the University of Bonn. He was also professor of Food Economics and Policy at Kiel University, Germany.
Dr. von Braun serves on the boards of several academic journals, as well as on the international advisory boards of a number of research and policy organizations. From 2000 to 2003 he was president of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE). He has published research on international development economics topics, including science and technology; on policy issues relating to trade and aid, famine, health, and nutrition; and on a wide range of agricultural economics research issues. He received his Ph.D in agricultural economics from the University of Goettingen, Germany in 1978.
Rector
Angiang University, Vietnam
Vo-Tong Xuan is president of Angiang University in Long Xuyen, Viet Nam. He is also director of the Mekong Delta Farming Systems Research and Development Institute. Dr. Vo-Tong has a long career in the development of Vietnamese agriculture. Since serving as a research fellow at the International Rice Research Institute from 1969 to 1971, and then as chairman of the Department of Bio-Agronomy at the University of Cantho from 1971 to 1975, Dr. Vo-Tong has worked at the grassroots, national, and international level in the governmental, private, and non-governmental sectors to transform the Vietnamese agricultural economy from a net rice importer to the world's second largest rice-exporter. Dr. Vo-Tong has received numerous awards and is a member of various boards and committees, including the National Advisory Council of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the National Advisory Council on Science and Technology, the Rockefeller Foundation Board of Trustees, and the Asian Forum on Development Research Advisory Council. He received a M.Sc in agricultural chemistry from the University of the Philippines and a Ph.D. in crop science from Kyushu University in Japan.
Professor Emeritus
Institute of Development Studies, India
Vijay S. Vyas is an Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur, from where he retired as Director in 1996. He has taught in the Bombay University, Sarden Patel University and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA). Dr. Vyas has served as a member of the Agricultural Prices Commission of the Government of India, Director of IIMA and Senior Advisor in the Agricultural and Rural Development Department of the World Bank. He was Team Leader of the Second Asian Agricultural Survey, Chairman of the External Management Review of Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Chairman of the External Programme and Management Review of International Irrigation Management Institute (IMMI). He served as member of the Board of Trustees of the International Food Policy Research Institute and the Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of CIAT, and a member of the Governing Board of the Institute of Development Studies of Sussex University. He is a member of the National Commission on Integrated Water Planning, and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Cabinet in India. He has written extensively on key issues of Agricultural Policy and Rural Development, and has been honored by the academic community in India and abroad for his contribution to the profession. Dr. Vyas is the President of the Asian Association of Agricultural Economists. Dr. Vyas has a Ph.D. in Economics.
Deputy Director
Environmental Concerns Action Network of Solomon Islands (ECANSI)
Morgan Wairiu is Deputy Director of Environmental Concerns Action Network of Solomon Islands (ECANSI), a local NGO, which promotes eco-forestry and community forest management in collaboration with Solomon Islands Development Trusts (SIDT) eco-forestry and forest certification program. He has served as Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Solomon Islands) and Manager of Secretariat of the Marau Communities Association (MCA) involved in promoting sustainable livelihood projects. Dr. Wairiu served as head of Kolombangara Forest Products Limited's (KFPL) Technical Services Department and directed its forest silvilcultural operations and Environmental Monitoring. He collaborated in the initial process towards FSC certification of KFPL plantation in 1998. He completed his Ph.D from Ohio State University in 2001, having studied erosion and land use effects under subsistence agriculture on sloping lands in Solomon Islands.
Professor, Agricultural Economics
Director, Poverty Research Centre, Division of Economics
Australian National University
Peter Warr is the John Crawford Professor of Agricultural Economics and founding Director of the Poverty Research Centre at the Australian National University, and has published extensively on economic issues in Southeast Asia, especially Thailand. His books include The Thai Economy in Transition (Cambridge University Press, 1993) and Thailand's Macroeconomic Miracle: Stable Adjustment and Sustained Growth, 1970 to 1990 (World Bank and Oxford University Press, 1996). His recent research has included studies of the Determinants of Poverty Reduction in Thailand, using a General Equilibrium Framework, and studies of the Relationship between Poverty Reduction and the Sectoral Composition of Economic Growth in India, Taipei, China and Southeast Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia). He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University.
Secretary
Department of Agriculture, Philippines
Secretary Arthur C. Yap was appointed as the head of the Department of Agriculture on October 18, 2005, a secretary-level position he holds for the second time. He was the 15th head of the Presidential Management Staff (PMS). His first government job was with the Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC) of the Department of Trade & Industry in 2001. Thereafter, he served as the Administrator of the National Food Authority, after which was a brief stint as the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture. In December 2005, Sec. Yap was appointed Presidential Adviser for Job Creation, which he continues to hold now that he is the Director General of the PMS. Before his appointment as President and CEO of the PITC, Sec. Yap was affiliated with the Yap, Jacinto, Jacob Law Office as Co-Founding Partner. He was also an associate lawyer of two more law firms namely: the Axucna, Yorac, Sarmiento, Arroyo & Chua Law Offices and the Balane, Barican, Cruz & Alampay Law Offices. He was once the National President of the Philippine Association of Paint Manufacturers.
A lawyer by profession, Sec. Yap holds a Juris Doctor's degree at the School of Law of the Ateneo de Manila University. He took up an A.B. Honors Degree in Management and Economics at the same university where he was fortunate to have had President Arroyo as his economics professor.
Director General
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
Robert (Bob) Zeigler is an internationally respected plant pathologist with more than 20 years experience in agricultural research in the developing world. Dr. Zeigler assumed his position as IRRI's director general in 2005. Dr. Zeigler had worked as a plant pathologist from 1992 to 1998 at IRRI. During this period, he led the Rainfed Lowland Rice Research Program and the Irrigated Rice Research Program. After graduating in 1972, he joined the Peace Corps and spent two years as a science teacher in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa and later joined the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia as a visiting research associate working on cassava. In 1982 Dr. Zeigler went to Burundi to work for three years as a technical adviser for the African nation's maize program at the Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi. He then returned to CIAT, eventually becoming the head of the rice program. After six years Dr. Zeigler left IRRI to become professor and head of the Department of Plant Pathology and director of the Plant Biotechnology Center at Kansas State University in the US, before briefly working as director of the Generation Challenge Program of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) based in Mexico.
Dr. Zeigler earned his Ph.D in plant pathology from Cornell University in 1982, his Masters in botany (forest ecology) from Oregon State University in 1978, and his BSc in biological sciences from the University of Illinois in 1972.
