Center Directors General

Jimmy Smith became director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in October 2011. He was raised on a small mixed crop-livestock farm in Guyana, in the Caribbean.

Before joining ILRI, Jimmy spent five years at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., leading the Global Livestock Portfolio. Jimmy has also held senior positions at the Canadian International Development Agency and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute. Earlier in his career, Jimmy Smith spent 10 years at ILRI and its predecessor, the International Livestock Centre for Africa, working to improve smallholder livestock farming. He led the CGIAR System-wide Livestock Programme for three years.

Jimmy graduated from the University of Illinois, at Urban-Champaign, United States, where he completed his PhD in animal sciences.