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.
Bongiwe Nomandi Njobe has a background in both the public agriculture sector (South Africa) and the private sector. For 10 years (1995-2005). She was with the South African Department of Agriculture with eight of those years as the Department’s Director General. One of her achievements in this period was leading the Department in taking up active membership and enhanced participation in the CGIAR. In addition to broad Board experience, for the past five year she has held senior positions in the in the South African private sector (South African Breweries/Miller and Tiger Brands).
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 ag policy groups.
With this appointment to the Consortium Board Carl will provide significant strength regarding organizational change, strategic leadership, and managerial experience.
The remaining six non-executive Board members will be announced at the end of December 2009.
For more information on the CGIAR, the Alliance of CGIAR Centers and the CGIAR Change Management Initiative visit http://www.cgiar.org/