Consortium Board Members

Frank Rijsberman is a familiar face in CGIAR, as he served as Director General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), one of the 15 CGIAR Consortium Research Centers, from 2000 to 2007. At IWMI he initiated the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture and he developed and led the Challenge Program on Water and Food. He then moved to Google.org as Program Director of their philanthropic team. In 2010 he was appointed as the first Director of the Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – ramping up an investment program focusing on sanitation that works for the poor.

Frank has over 30 years’ experience as a researcher and consultant in natural resources management in developing, transition, and developed economies. He has consulted for numerous international and bilateral organizations and co-founded Resource Analysis, a research and consulting firm in his native Holland. In 1997 he was appointed full Professor at UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, in Delft, The Netherlands.

The new CEO obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands. He earned his multidisciplinary PhD in water resources planning and management and civil engineering from Colorado State University, USA.