Johan Swinnen

Johan Swinnen is Managing Director of Systems Transformation, CGIAR, and Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). He presently serves as a co-lead of the finance lever of the UN Food Systems Summit, is a Commissioner in the Food Systems Economics Commission, Co-Chair of the Think20 (T20) Task Force on Climate Change, Sustainable Energy, and Environment, and also a member of the Champions 12.3 Leadership Group to Reduce Food Loss and Waste (SDG Target 12.3) and the Africa Europe Strategic Task Force on Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems. Prior to joining IFPRI, he was professor of economics and director of the LICOS Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance at KU Leuven (Belgium) and senior research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. He has also served as a lead economist at the World Bank and economic advisor to the European Commission. He earned his PhD from Cornell University and holds honorary doctorates from the University of Göttingen and the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra. He is a fellow of the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association and the European Association of Agricultural Economists, and past president of the International Association of Agricultural Economists.