Cathy Reade
CGIAR Board, Ex officio Voting Member
Cathy Reade, an Australian national, was until late 2025 the Director of Special Projects, Outreach and the NextGen Program at the Crawford Fund for Food Security. In over three decades with the Fund, she helped shape national and international discourse on food security and agricultural innovation.
At the 2007 CGIAR AGM in Beijing, she was presented with an award ‘in recognition of her outstanding and invaluable contributions to raising awareness of the work of the CGIAR Centers.” Cathy spent her early career working with a range of Australian advocacy groups. In addition to establishing the public awareness program for the Crawford Fund, her consultancy concentrated in the not-for-profit sector around agriculture, development, S&T and environment policy, issues and events. She developed and managed the Fund’s master class in communications for researchers and communicators in food systems transformation and its NextGen suite of activities to encourage the next generation in their studies and careers in agriculture for development. Ms Reade was on the Board and Executive Committee of the World Vegetable Center from 2014-2019, and chaired their Nominations Committee.
She joined ICRISAT’s board in 2021, and chaired its Corporate Governance Committee until taking on the role as board chair in mid-2025. She commenced her term on the CGIAR Board in June 2026 and sits on its Nominations Committee. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Crop & Food Innovation, Food Futures Institute at Murdoch University.
