Private Sector Committee (PSC) Members

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as of May 2007

A message from Bill Niebur, Private Sector Committee Chair:

On behalf of the CGIAR’s Private Sector Committee (PSC), it is with great pleasure that we announce five new additions to the committee: Gisele d’Almeida ( Senegal) from Interface; Ergilio Claudio da Silva Jr. ( Brazil) from Aracruz Celulose; Raul Montemayor ( Philippines) from the Federation of Free Farmers Cooperatives Inc.; Jan-Kees Vis ( Netherlands) from Unilever and S. Sivakumar ( India) from ITC . Along with myself, these new members join Peter Jeffries ( Great Britain) from Merial Limited and Bernward Garthoff ( Germany) from Bayer AG. This committee provides great diversity both in terms of the areas of expertise that each member brings (ranging from the seed sector to other areas such as food processing, livestock, and forestry) as well as the different parts of the world that the members come from. We are now a full Committee of 8 members.

I am proud to serve as chair of a committee with members of such high caliber, talent and diversity. I trust that with the current membership, the PSC will be able to forge stronger partnerships between the CGIAR and the private sector, helping to create mutual understanding and encouraging creative synergy.

Bill Niebur
Chair, Private Sector Committee

 

Bill Niebur (USA) - PSC Chair DuPont Vice President, Crop Genetics Research and Development Dr. Bill Niebur holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from Iowa State University. Bill earned his doctorate in plant breeding and cytogenetics from the University of Minnesota. He is DuPont vice president, Crop Genetics Research and Development, with responsibility for driving worldwide crop genetics research strategies to create new value for seed and agricultural value chain customers through advanced plant genetics. Bill began his career at DuPont subsidiary, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., in 1983 as a research station manager. He was named a Pioneer vice president in 2002. Bill has been instrumental in integrating new and proprietary technologies like gene shuffling and marker assisted selection into DuPont plant genetics product development.
Ergilio Claudio da Silva (Brazil) Corporate Technology Manager, Aracruz Celulose Dr. Ergilio Claudio-da-Silva, Jr earned a Bachelors of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in 1975 and a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from COPPE-UFRJ in 1976. He acquired his Doctorate in Paper and Science Engineering from SUNY-CESF at Syracuse in 1981 and an MBA from the Fundação Getulio Vargas in Brazil in 1994. Dr. Claudio-da-Silva joined Aracruz Celulose in 1977 where he developed his present career in the pulp and paper industry. His duties involve general management of the entire innovation process in the company, comprising all forestry technology Research & Development as well as product research, development and implementation activities.
Gisele d'Almeida (Senegal) Founder and Chair, Interface Ms. d’Almeida has a degree in marketing, entrepreneurship and imports management, with more than 25 years of experience in this field. She is the founder and CEO of Interface, a network of CEOs and investors from small and medium agribusiness companies in Africa, headquartered in Senegal. Through the Interface network, African entrepreneurs are investing in agricultural research, collaborating with farmers’ organizations (especially women groups involved in commercialization) and utilizing research results as business opportunities. Gisèle has also been an active member in various Agricultural Research and Development Committees and decision making bodies, including SPAAR, FARA, CORAF, the IAASTD, AFRICA HARVEST, AATF, and RESEARCH INTO USE (new DFID supported program for Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia).
Bernward Garthoff (Germany) Board of Management, Bayer CropScience Dr. Bernward Garthoff studied veterinary medicine at Hannover University, Germany. Following the award of his doctorate in 1975 and a period of scientific work, he joined Bayer in 1976. He has been responsible for Research & Development in the board of management of Bayer CropScience since July 2002. In the 30 years in which he has worked for Bayer, Dr. Garthoff has made a crucial contribution to shaping the company’s research activities both in pharmaceutical biotechnology and in plant biotechnology. He was appointed Chairman of the DIB (Deutsche Industrievereinigung Biotechnologie/German Association of Biotechnology Industries) and Chairman of AgriFood Council/EuropaBio since 2006. As Member of the Board of these associations, he represents the interests of the association and their members in all areas of biotechnology.
Peter Jeffries (UK) Senior Director, Business Development, Merial Dr. Peter Jeffries graduated as a veterinarian from the University of Liverpool and subsequently pursued postgraduate studies in aquaculture and fish disease. He also earned a Diploma in Management from Henley Management College, UK.. As a qualified vet, he initially focused on dairy practice in England, before moving to Zambia to establish an animal health company involved in the manufacture and distribution of veterinary products. Later, in Kenya, he joined a forerunner to Merial and was responsible for technical marketing for Africa. Following almost 10 years in Africa, Peter moved to France where roles in strategic marketing and technical services preceded his position with Merial, where he focused on production animals. As Senior Director of Business Development at Merial, Peter is responsible for making investment decisions to expand Merial’s future pharmaceutical, vaccines and genomics businesses. Peter retains an active involvement in developing world issues through his responsibilities as a trustee of the Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed).
Raul Montemayor (Philippines) National Business Manager, Federation of Free Farmers Cooperatives, Inc Mr. Raul Montemayor has a Bachelors of Science degree in Management Engineering from the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines. He is currently the National Business Manager and Program Officer of the Federation of Free Farmers Cooperatives, Inc. (FFFCI) and its mother organization, the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) of the Philippines. He was recently elected as Vice-President of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP). He is also at present a member of the board of the International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council (IPC). Raul is a private sector advisor to the Philippine government in the WTO and other negotiations involving agricultural trade.
S. Sivakumar (India) Chief Executive, Agribusiness Division, ITC Limited Mr. S. Sivakumar is the Chief Executive of ITC’s Agri Business Division, an US$800 million Division that deals with a wide range of products from agriculture, aquaculture, horticulture and plantation crops. Sivakumar has conceptualized the path-breaking eChoupal model, which aims to increase incomes and improve the quality of life in rural India while delivering sustainable shareholder value. He is on the Boards of Indian National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and US-India Agricultural Knowledge Initiative. He topped the Class of 1983 from Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA). He served a farmers' cooperative for six years before joining ITC in 1989.
Jan Kees Vis (Netherlands) Sustainable Agriculture Director, Unilever Dr. Vis studied Chemistry at Leiden University in The Netherlands and earned his PhD in chemistry at the Technical University in Eindhoven in 1984. In 1985 he joined Unilever, at the Unilever Research Laboratory in Vlaardingen. In 1991 he moved to the Unilever operating company in the Netherlands, where he worked on Environmental Life Cycle Analysis in the Environmental Department. During that time he developed a software programme for LCA, did a number of LCA studies on foods products and raw materials, and joined in a project on Integral Chain Management. In 1994, he moved to the Unilever Head Office in Rotterdam, to become the Unilever Foods Environmental Support Manager. Since 2001, he is Director of the Sustainable Agriculture for Unilever. This programme aims to secure long term access to sustainable agricultural raw materials for Unilever.