Wale Adekunle - Wale Adekunle currently works with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa as the Director for Partnerships and Strategic Alliances and also as the Coordinator for the Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Program (SSA CP). He started his career in agricultural research and development on a World Bank Project in Nigeria. He later coordinated this program before joining the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Wale was with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture for about two decades during which period he worked in different areas of the agricultural research for development framework. He started with farming systems agronomic research in IITA with commodities like maize and cassava and alley farming as the focus. In the later years of his stay in IITA, the main focus of Wale's work was in the area of innovation systems approach for research and development.

Since 2007, when Wale started to work in FARA, his main focus has been the coordination of the SSA CP which has been tasked to prove the concept of IAR4D. This proof is being done through a network of researchers working in eight different countries across Africa. He coordinates nine multi-stakeholder projects on themes that range from productivity improvement, to natural resource management, policies, and markets. These projects are implemented under Task Forces which are regrouped into three Pilot Learning Sites.

Wale has a PhD in Agronomy and has benefitted extensively from post graduate studies in a number of other correlated areas. He had been an adjunct Professor of agriculture and rural development with the Bowen University in Nigeria

Aden Aw-Hassan - Aden A. Aw-Hassan is a senior agricultural economist and has holding MSc in Agricultural Economics from Utah State University and PhD from Oklahoma State University; worked as Rockefeller Post Doctoral Fellow on impact assessment before becoming a senior scientist in Agricultural economics at ICARDA. Dr. Aw-Hassan is a Director of Social, Economics and policy Research Program at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). He has over 15years of international research experience. His research interests include technology evaluation, agricultural research impact assessment, rural livelihood analysis, poverty assessment, micro finance and market access to small holder farmers. He has wide experience in research and development including social, economic and policy research, agricultural extension services and participatory research approaches. Dr. Aw-Hassan has close to 100 publications including refereed journal, book chapters, periodicals, and conference proceedings and has authored numerous research projects.

Charles Crissman - Carl is the Deputy Director General for Research at the International Potato Center, a post he has held since 2005. He has worked for CIP since 1986, joining the center as a post-doc. He has been based in Lima '86-'89, Quito '89-'01, Nairobi '01-'05 and back in Lima since 2005. After a start in international living in Asia (student in India 1970, Peace Corps in South Korea '75-'77, dissertation research at IRRI in Los Banos '83-'84), he is still surprised to have spent so much time in Latin America. He is an agricultural economist with his PhD from UC-Davis. Prior to becoming an administrator, his research examined the environmental and human health impacts of pesticide use in potato production, seed potato systems, and impact assessment. A US citizen, he is married with two daughters; one in university and one still at home in Lima.

Peter Cronkleton - Peter Cronkleton is an Anthropologist with the Forest and Governance Program of Center for International Forestry Research. Dr. Cronkleton is a specialist in community forestry development, forest social movements and participatory approaches for research and capacity building. Since 2009 he has served as Domain Leader for CIFOR's Smallholder and Community Forestry Research Domain. Currently based in Bolivia, he has worked as a researcher and development practitioner in Latin America for more than 15 years, concentrating on the western Amazon but also developing comparative research with lowland forest areas of Central America. A graduate of the University of Florida (M.A. 1993, Ph.D. 1998) he has recently focused on institutional change in forest communities during periods of policy change.

Prior to joining the Secretariat, she worked with IRRI as a Senior Finance Manager (2001-2006) and WorldFish Center as a Finance and Management Information Manager (1998-2001).

A bean counter by profession, Lori has a bachelor's degree in Accounting and is a CPA. Over all she has 22 years of experience as a finance professional, 13 years of which in management.

Carmen de Vicente - Carmen holds a PhD in Plant Breeding and Genetics from Cornell University, USA, as well as an MSc in Plant Breeding from the Instituto Agronómico Mediterráneo de Zaragoza (IAMZ) and a first degree in Biology from the Universidad de Navarra, Spain.
Since the first job, Carmen had leadership and managerial responsibilities, together with hands-on research. After a postdoc at Cornell, she joined the Dept of Plant Genetics at the Institut per la Recerca i Tecnologìa Agro-alimentària (Barcelona, Spain), where in less than a year she was requested to lead and manage the molecular marker team. Under her leadership the team grew from 2 to 14 people (postdocs, PhD and MSc students and technicians) in four years. During this time, in addition to public research, she successfully pioneered the transfer of molecular marker technology to the vegetable seed and fruit tree industries in the region, an effort that was recognized by the Technical Award "Ciudad de Barcelona" in 1994 to the collaborative project between her laboratory and a private partner. Her performance was recognized in several instances with promotions that won Carmen after five years of work the highest of any scientist in the institute.

When she became the Head of the Laboratoires de Biotechnologies et Pathologie Végétale at Clause Semences (Group Limagrain), she led a team of experienced scientists (12) in genetic transformation, plant pathology and genetics, managed research, operations, staff and facilities. Then, Carmen moved to Bioversity International, and worked in Syria, Rome and Colombia providing Institute-wide leadership on molecular genetics and biotechnology. Highlights of her work at Bioversity are her initiative to promote DNA banking in the CGIAR centers and a book on geneflow published by the Johns Hopkins University Press (2009). Carmen carried out her GCP SP5 Leader duties on a half-time basis since 2004 and joined GCP full-time in 2007. Based on her strong attraction to impact and output-driven research, she is proud of the success in imprinting the concept of "product delivery" on the GCP, which received praise from reviewers and donors, and shaped the framework of GCP portfolio and the workplan for Phase II. Other important accomplishments in this job are the pioneering of the concept of "services" and "communities of practice" to sustain the usability of research products, the development of a suite of tools to assist Program-wide project management, and laying a framework to support decision-making and priority-setting.

Ernest Gatoru - Manager, Budgets, Reporting and Regions
World Agroforestry Centre. I am 44 Years old, married with 2 children; a young man aged 17 and a Daughter aged 11. Joined ICRAF 21 years ago and have been in the Financial Services Unit since then. I am a CPA holder and a member on the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya. Currently I occupy the position of corporate finance manager in charge of budgets, donor and management reporting and financial management support to the regional and country offices. I lead a team of 3 other qualified CPA's in the preparation and consolidation of the centre annual budgets and financial data for the centre medium term plan (MTP).

Prior to joining ICRAF, I worked in the banking sector and the professional firm of accountants as an audit assistant.

Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton gained his first degree in Applied Biology from the University of Cambridge in 1975. He has been working on plant genetic resources ever since, starting with a PhD on genetic diversity in a native UK plant species. Primarily a scientist with training in genetics, ecology, statistics, computer programming and data management, he has gained extensive experience in policy, law and intellectual property rights related to genetic resources. His core interest is the conservation of diversity as the cornerstone of sustainable development.

Internationally, Ruaraidh worked in the bean genebank at CIAT 1984-1986 and has been head of the rice genebank at IRRI since 2002. Since 1980 he has undertaken numerous consultancies in Italy, Korea, India, Syria, Yemen and Austria, for FAO, for IBPGR (as it was in 1980, subsequently IPGRI and now Bioversity International), and more recently for the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. In the UK he was a postdoc in the University of Wales at Bangor 1980-1983 and 1986-1990. From 1990-2002 he was in charge of the UK national forage genebank and the Biodiversity Research Group at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research in Aberystwyth, Wales - his first managerial position.

His real passion is to celebrate and promote diversity - of food, of people, of other animals, and of plants.

Maria Iskandarani currently works as Technical Specialist at the CGIAR Secretariat/Fund Office, World Bank, Washington DC. She joined the CGIAR Secretariat in 2003. Her work at the Secretariat focuses on monitoring and evaluation as well as partnerships and corporate governance in the CGIAR.

Before joining the Secretariat she worked as a research fellow at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) in Bonn, Germany. Her research expertise is in household water security and river-basin management with field experience in Jordan and Ghana.

She holds a Master's Degree in Economic Geography and a PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Bonn. German is her native language.

Dr. Segenet Kelemu is Director of the BecA Hub. Under her leadership since 2007, BecA Hub research capacity, staff, facilities, funding, partners and training programs have expanded at an ever accelerating pace.

Segenet is a molecular plant pathologist with extensive experience in molecular determinants of host-pathogen interactions; development of novel plant disease control strategies including transgenics, biopesticides; pathogen population genetics and dynamics; and endophytic microbes and their role in plant development.

Segenet finished at the top of her undergraduate class with great distinction in Plant Sciences in 1979. She taught Plant Protection and conducted research on cereal disease resistance from 1979-1982 in Ethiopia. She was awarded a MSc degree in Plant Pathology/Genetics from Montana State University, USA, and earned her PhD in Molecular Plant Pathology at Kansas State University, USA. From 1989 to 1992, she conducted postdoctoral research in molecular bacteriology at Cornell University. Dr. Kelemu joined the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) as Senior Scientist in charge of tropical forage pathology in 1992. She was later appointed Leader of Crop and Agroecosystem Health Management at CIAT until her departure in August, 2007, to become Director at the BecA Hub. CIAT recognized her numerous contributions to the centre and its mission with the Outstanding Senior Scientist Award.

Segenet is an innate teacher and has supervised and mentored numerous BSc, MSc, and PhD students. Chinese citizens were among her outstanding students at CIAT, and in 2006, she received the Friendship Award granted by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, authorized by the State Council of People's Republic of China. The award is granted to foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to China's economic and social development. She was the only scientist from the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), Africa or Latin America, to win this prestigious award that year.

Segenet's research has been highly productive throughout her career and has resulted in a number of excellent, notable research achievements. Her professional services include: Member, Editorial Board, Plant Pathology Journal; Member, Steering Committee, System-wide Program on Integrated Pest Management; Member, American Phytopathological Society Ad Hoc Committee on the Future Education of Plant Pathologists; Member, Governing Board, International Association for the Plant Protection Sciences (IAPPS); Member, Science Advisory Panel, TSBF-CIAT for a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded project on new chemical and biological commercial products.

Through her leadership at the BecA Hub, Dr. Kelemu is helping to foster the next generation scientific community in eastern and central Africa, and beyond.

Rosana Mula - Much of my professional life as a faculty member in a state university in the Philippines was an enriching experience because there was also the opportunity to do research and extension as well. Good performance, output, and relations to include family support enabled me to propel my career and for what I am today. I completed my education; starting my secondary and graduate levels through scholarships.

My PhD on Household Studies was obtained from Wageningen Agricultural University in The Netherlands. In 2005, I did post doctorate at ICRISAT where it also opened the opportunity for employment. To date, I am working as the Coordinator of the Learning Systems Unit and currently involved in research works on impact assessment of integrated watershed projects and the hybrid parents research consortium.

I am a mother of three boys with twin grandchildren.

Vish Nene - Vish Nene joined the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) as the Director of the Biotechnology Theme on 1st April 2009. He previously worked at the Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland and The Institute for Genomic Research & the J. Craig Venter Institute, USA.

He has a broad range of research interests that converge on developing improved or novel methods of disease control and in the use of whole genome sequence data and genomics technologies to underpin research in biosciences.

Vish has more than 20-years' experience in molecular parasitology and 8 years in genomics research. He obtained his graduate and PhD degree and post-doctoral training in the UK. He has published extensively, participated in several training workshops, presented research findings at many conferences and mentored high school, graduate and post-graduate students.

Maya Rajaskeharan - Maya Rajasekharan is a Program Officer at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). She works with Program Leaders and the Centre Management to coordinate development and implementation of strategic research directions. She supports ongoing research planning process including planning and preparations for external reviews. Previously, she supported coordination of research projects of the CGIAR Challenge Program for sustainable development of food and water resources in tropical regions. She also had a brief stint with ATREE, a non-governmental organisation in India coordinating ecological informatics group. Her core interests are in effective collaboration among development organisations and strategic planning.

Maya has a background in ecology and fisheries. She trained at the Kerala Agricultural University, Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) in India. She completed PhD at University College Dublin, Ireland. Her long-standing interest in agriculture science along with a broad scientific knowledge, open-mindedness and the ability to communicate with an audience of researchers and financial officers set a career path into research management.

Joan Sawe joined ILRI as the Director, Finance and Operations on 1st May 2009. She previously worked with ActionAid International (AAI) at the international office in
Johannesburg, South Africa, as the International Head of Financial Performance and Standards and at ActionAid International Africa Regional office, then based in Harare, Zimbabwe, as the Regional Finance Coordinator. She has also acted as Country Director for ActionAid International in Uganda.
Joan holds a Masters degree in Business Administration with honors from Tel-Aviv
International School of Management (TISOM) and a Bachelors degree in Business
Administration with honors from Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada. Joan acquired her certification as a certified public accountant in 1991.

Maira Souza is a psychologist graduated at University of Brasília - UnB. In 2006, she has got masters degree which was related to Organisational Psychology specifically to team performance at work. She is a young professional that currently works at Embrapa -Brazilian Research Agricultural Company in Human Resource Department, where she is involved in activities such as training and development, career succession and management training.

Since the graduation she works with people management, initially in IT teams helping the project manager recruit and select more appropriate professionals to work. As a human resource specialist in a IT company, she developed the area of people management and its process. At the same time, she started teaching in some colleges where she could develop communication skills. Furthermore, during this period she could have a lot of contact with managers and companies directors that gave her the opportunity to improve her negotiation and political abilities and learn about business world.

Her life trajectory helped her to be an obstinate and a proactive person. She was involved in different projects and worked with different professionals that taught her the importance of working in interdisciplinary teams. She is an easygoing person, sometimes shy and a good team worker, although she works very well when alone.

Marco van den Berg has worked for the CGIAR (with some, eh, 'sabbaticals') since the 1980s. After working as a software developer for Philips and IBM he joined CIMMYT, where he worked on a large crop breeding database system. At IRRI he continued this work and became IT manager, a role he continued at the World Agroforestry Centre (formerly known as ICRAF). After some work in the private sector in the Netherlands in 2000-2001 he moved to the Balkans (Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo) to work for the UN, and back to the Netherlands to assume the role of global IT manager for Greenpeace International in Amsterdam. Since 2006 he's 'back to the future' at IRRI in the Philippines. Marco has a passion for open source software, particularly Linux. He's not too keen on Twitter, Facebook, or the social notworking scene in general.

David Williams - David Williams was trained as an ethnobotanist, specializing in the domestication and diversification of crop plants in traditional farming systems, which led to his lifelong career in genetic resources conservation and use. David is currently the Coordinator of the CGIAR System-wide Genetic Resources Programme, hosted by Bioversity International in Rome, Italy. His duties include coordinating and facilitating collective activities among CGIAR Centres and with external institutions, promoting the adoption of common policies and practices for managing and using genetic resources, and providing CGIAR-level representation, public awareness, technical inputs and reporting to key international fora in the field of genetic resources for food and agriculture.

From 2003-2007 David worked for the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service in Washington, DC, managing bilateral research and technical cooperation programmes between the US and Egypt, Taiwan, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Guyana, and Ecuador. From 1995-2003, he served as a Senior Scientist for Bioversity International's Regional Office for the Americas, located in Cali, Colombia, where he led and coordinated the implementation of Bioversity's mission throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to that, David worked as a Plant Explorer for USDA's Agricultural Research Service, based in Beltsville, Maryland, where he planned and led numerous international plant collecting expeditions designed to fill gaps in the National Plant Germplasm System's genebanks.

A field biologist at heart, David has led plant explorations to some of the most remote corners of Latin America, and has lived and conducted fieldwork in some two dozen countries. He holds a BA in anthropology and an MSc in ethnobotany (both from Mexican universities), and received his PhD in plant sciences from the City University of New York while a Graduate Fellow at The New York Botanical Garden's Institute of Economic Botany.

Allen Hard

Beverly J. Wann

Beverly J. Wann works as a leadership development consultant, executive and life coach, and group facilitator. She has over 24 years of experience offering consulting, training, and coaching services to public sector organizations at the federal, state and local levels and to non-profit organizations. She specializes in leadership development, team building, change management and applications of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

She is a member of the Federal Executive Institute's adjunct faculty, where she teaches courses on coaching and group commitment, facilitates teams, and designs customized training programs. Her clients include Federal Agencies (USAID, FAA, NOAH, IRS etc), the University of Virginia Leadership Development Center, the World Bank and the many local governments and non-profits.

In addition she enjoys teaching Nia, a body-mind movement technique. Bev offers workshops and retreats that bring together the transformational practices of coaching and movement. Bev holds a M.Ed. in Counseling from the University of Virginia, is certified as a Professional Co-Active Coach, a Blue Belt Nia instructor and as an MBTI instructor.

Before joining the World Bank in 1979, Özgediz was Assistant Professor at Bogazici University, Istanbul. While in Turkey he co-managed a nation-wide pre-election public opinion study and a pre-school child development and education project. Selçuk is a graduate of Middle East Technical University, Ankara (B.Sc., Economics and Statistics) and Michigan State University (M.S. in Mathematical Statistics, M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science).

Yvette Delph, a physician from the Caribbean, has more than 15 years of experience as a consultant/advisor for numerous national, regional, international organizations and governments. She has participated in landmark international conferences on social justice and human rights. Currently, she is the director of the operations center for the world's largest clinical trials network, the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), which conducts HIV therapeutic research. She manages a staff of nearly 60 persons and a budget of over $35M from NIH, as well as additional funds from pharmaceutical companies.

For the last 10 years, Yvette has organized training programs, developed material and led training for managers, professionals and volunteers. She relies on the Listening-Inquiry-Feedback model and has found the MBTI a remarkable platform for improving teamwork.

Her main interests are: coaching, performance management, negotiations and workplace diversity. She is married and has two adult children.

Patricia Ross is the Administrator of the Center for Leadership in Agriculture of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). Patricia has more than 25 years experience in the administrative, financial, and logistics areas in international organizations in Costa Rica such as CARE, Organization of American States (OAS), and IICA. In 1998 she joined the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) as Administrative Head of Office, and helped opening the regional office for ISNAR, based at IICA Headquarters in Costa Rica. In 2004, when ISNAR became a part of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), she was recruited to continue as Administrator of the new IFPRI-ISNAR Office. As Administrator her main responsibility was the administrative and financial management of the office's operations in the Latin American region. As of January 2007, when IFPRI's Office was closed, Patricia rejoined IICA as Administrator of the Center for Leadership in Agriculture.

Patricia Ross is a Costa Rican national. She has a university degree in Business Administration and completed an MBA (Major in International Business) at the Post-graduate Studies Foundation (FUNDEPOS) of the University of Costa Rica. Patricia speaks Spanish, English, French and Portuguese.