Dr Mahmoud Mohamed Bachir El-Solh is the new Director-General Designate of ICARDA.

"It is a great delight and profound pleasure for me to announce that Dr Mahmoud Mohamed Bachir El-Solh will be the next Director General of ICARDA after the departure of Professor Dr Adel El- Beltagy in May 2006,” said Margaret Catley-Carlson, Chair, ICARDA Board of Trustees, announcing the appointment on October 16, 2005.

Dr. Solh, a Lebanese national, is Director of Plant Production and Protection (AGP) Division, FAO, Rome. He has a PhD in Genetics from the University of California, Davis, USA. No stranger to the CGIAR system, Dr. Solh was formerly ICARDA's Assistant Director General for International Cooperation. His distinguished career includes appointments at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the Arid Land Agricultural Development (ALAD) Program in the Near East, the predecessor of ICARDA.

Congratulating Dr. Solh on behalf of the CGIAR, Ian Johnson and Francisco Reifschneider said: “We believe this is an exciting time to join the CGIAR System as donor confidence is high and the CGIAR Centers are working hard, with measurable impacts, to promoting sustainable development and achieving the Millennium Development Goals.”

For more information, www.icarda.org