David Cavagnaro www.naturalight.net
Board

Board meeting 6

Download documents from the fifth meeting of the Executive Board:

Board meeting 5

Board meeting 4

Board meeting 3

Board meeting 2

Board meetings

Next Board Meeting
Executive Board Meeting 9 (EB9): October 25-26 2011

Previous Board Meetings
Board meeting 8
Board meeting 7
Board Teleconference July 2010
Board meeting 6
Board meeting 5
Board meeting 4
Board meeting 3
Board meeting 2
Board meeting 1


Download (PDF) documents from the eighth meeting of the Executive Board, June 7-8 2011
1. Summary Report
2. Agenda
3. Minutes and Actions Arising from EB7 Meeting
4. Finance and Investment Report

Download (PDF) documents from the seventh meeting of the Executive Board, November 2010
1. Summary Report
2. Agenda
3. Election of Vice-Chair
4. Minutes and Actions Arising from EB6 Meeting
5. Program Report
6. Our Work in the Wider Context
7. Finance and Investment Report
8. Fundraising Report
9. Communication Report
10. Risk Management Statement
11. Board Business



Download (PDF) the EB Teleconference Summary Report, July 2010
Teleconference Summary

Download (PDF) documents from the sixth meeting of the Executive Board, November 2009:
1. Summary Report
2. Agenda
3. Election of Vice-Chair
4. Actions Arising
5. Fund Disbursement Strategy
6. Programme Report
7. Fundraising Report
8. Communication Report
9. Board business
10. Risk Management
11. CGIAR Change Initiative


Download (PDF) documents from the fifth meeting of the Executive Board, April 2009:
1. Summary Report
2. Agenda
3. Actions arising
4. Members Report
5. Forward Planning and Mid-Term Issues
6. Finance and Investment Report
7. Overview of First Quarter


Download (PDF) documents from the fourth meeting of the Executive Board, November 2008:
1. Summary Report
2. Agenda
3. Actions arising
4. Fundraising Report
5. Communications Report
6. Programme Report
7. The Road Ahead Report
8. Finance and Investment Report
9. Risk Management Report


Download (PDF) documents from the third meeting of the Executive Board, April 2008:
1. Summary Report
2. Agenda
3. Minutes and Actions
4. Headquarters Agreement
5. Programme Report - Global System Project
6. Programme Report - Long Term Grants
7. Finance Report
8. Fundraising Report
9. Communication Report
10. Accommodation and Staffing Report
11. Next Meeting Report


Download (PDF) documents from the second meeting of the Executive Board, October 2007:
1. Summary Report
2. Agenda
3. Minutes from EB1 Meeting
4. Rules of Procedure
5. Systems
6. Long-term Grants
7. Strategies
8. Budget
9. Finance and Investment
10. Fundraising
11. Communications
12. Accommodation and Staffing


Download (PDF) documents from the first meeting of the Executive Board, April 2007:
1. Summary Report
2. Agenda


The Executive Board has primary responsibility for the policy, programme and operations of the Trust. The Board comprises eleven to thirteen members who are appointed by key Trust stakeholders:
  • four members appointed by the Governing Body of the International Treaty


  • four members appointed by the Donors' Council


  • one non-voting member appointed by the Director General of FAO


  • one non-voting member appointed by the Chair of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research


  • the Executive Secretary of the Trust, ex officio, and


  • two additional members to be appointed by the Executive Board as appropriate to ensure membership balance



Board Members

Wangari Mathaai
Wangari Maathai
(1940-2011)
It is with great sadness that we learnt of Professor Wangari Maathai's passing away on 25th September, in Nairobi. Professor Maathai was a Member of the Trust's Executive Board, and served as our first Vice-Chair. We are grateful for her dedication and commitment to our cause, for which she found space in a life full of important works.
.....................

Margaret Catley-Carson
Chair: Margaret Catley-Carlson (Canada)
Chair of the Global Water Partnership, and the International Advisory Committee for Group Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, Ms. Catley-Carlson is a member of the UN Secretary General's Advisory Board, the Rosenberg Forum, and of the Council of Advisors of the World Food Prize. She serves on the Boards of the Biblioteca Alexandria, IWMI (the International Center for Water Resource Management); the IFDC (Fertilizer Management) and IIED - the International Institute for Environment and Development. She has been chair of the ICARDA and CABI Boards and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, Vice Chair of the IDRC Board and a commissioner of Water for the 21st Century. She was President of the Canadian International Development Agency 1983-89; Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF in New York 1981-1983; President of the Population Council in New York 1993-98; and Deputy Minister of the Department of Health and Welfare of Canada 1989-92. Ms. Catley-Carlson is an Officer of the Order of Canada.

• Member of the Executive Board of the Global Crop Diversity Trust since 2007
• Executive Board Chair since 2007
• Member of the Headquarters Committee

Lewis Coleman
Lewis Coleman (USA)
Mr. Coleman was appointed President of DreamWorks Animation, a NASDAQ company, in December 2005 having served as a director of the company since October 2004. As of March 2007, he was re-elected to the Board of Directors and has taken on the position of Chief Financial Officer as well. Previously he was the President of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation from its founding in November 2000 to December 2004, and currently serves as one of the Foundations trustees. Prior to that, Mr. Coleman was employed by Bank of America Securities, formerly known as Montgomery Securities where he was a Senior Managing Director from 1995 to 1998 and Chairman from 1998 to 2000. Before he joined Montgomery Securities, Mr. Coleman spent ten years at the Bank of America and Bank of America Corporation where he was Head of Capital Markets, Head of the World Banking Group, and Vice Chairman of the Board and Chief Financial Officer. He spent the previous thirteen years at Wells Fargo Bank where his positions included Head of International Banking, Chief Personnel Officer and Chairman of the Credit Policy Committee.

Mr. Coleman currently serves as lead director of Northrop Grumman Corporation. He also serves on several private company and civil boards.

Mr. Coleman was one of the pioneers of debt-for-nature swaps, which involves agreements between developing nations in debt and one or more of their creditors who agree to forgive debt in return for environmental protection.

• Member of the Executive Board of the Global Crop Diversity since 2007
• Member of the Finance and Investment Committee

Peter Crane
Sir Peter Crane (UK)
Professor Sir Peter Crane is Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. He is a Fellow of The Royal Society, UK and former Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He is also a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Sir Peter Crane has previously served as Director of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. In 2004 he was knighted for his services to conservation and horticulture. Sir Peter stepped down from his post at the Royal Botanic Gardens-Kew in 2006 to become the John & Marion Sullivan University Professor at the University of Chicago.

• Member of the Executive Board of the Global Crop Diversity since 2007
• Vice Chair of the Executive Board 2011
• Member of the Headquarters Committee

Cary Fowler
Cary Fowler, Executive Director (ex officio)
Prior to joining the Trust as its Executive Director, Dr. Cary Fowler was Professor and Director of Research in the Department for International Environment & Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. He was also a Senior Advisor to the Director General of Bioversity International. In this latter role, he represented the Future Harvest Centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research in negotiations on the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources.

Cary's career in the conservation and use of crop diversity spans 30 years. He was Program Director for the National Sharecroppers Fund / Rural Advancement Fund, a US-based NGO engaged in plant genetic resources education and advocacy. In the 1990s, he headed the International Conference and Programme on Plant Genetic Resources at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which produced the UN's first ever global assessment of the state of the world's plant genetic resources. He drafted and supervised negotiations of FAO's Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic Resources, adopted by 150 countries in 1996. That same year he served as Special Assistant to the Secretary General of the World Food Summit. He is a past-member of the National Plant Genetic Resources Board of the U.S. and the Board of Trustees of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico. Cary is the author of several books on the subject of plant genetic resources and more than 75 articles on the topic in agriculture, law, and development journals.

• Member of the Executive Board of the Global Crop Diversity since 2007
• Member of the Finance and Investment Committee
• Member of the Headquarters Committee

Emile Frison
Emile Frison (Belgium)
Dr. Emile Frison is the Director General of Bioversity International. A plant pathologist by training, Dr. Frison served as a Senior Scientist with Bioversity where he held special responsibility for the health of samples of crop diversity. He then served as Director of Bioversity's regional office for Europe and, until his appointment to the top position at Bioversity, was Director of the organization's International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain in Montpellier, France, promoting research on bananas and plantains, the world's fourth most important staple crop. As Director General of Bioversity, Dr. Frison recently lead the organization, its stakeholders and partners in the formulation of a new strategic vision for Bioversity, in which nutrition and agricultural biodiversity will play an important role in the overall goal of reducing hunger and poverty in a sustainable manner. He is author and co-author of over 150 scientific publications and is a member of several scientific societies.

• Appointed by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
• Member of the Executive Board of the Global Crop Diversity since 2009

Walter Fust
Walter Fust (Switzerland)
After his studies in public administration/international relations at the University of St. Gallen, he commenced his diplomatic career serving at the Swiss Embassy in Baghdad and Tokyo. He subsequently assumed various functions in the Federal Administration and in the private sector, including the role of personal assistant to the President of the Confederation. He was then Managing Director of the Swiss Trade Promotion Office (OSEC) and Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior (Research, Environment, Culture, Health etc.).

Ambassador Fust headed the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) for 15 years. Since his retirement, he holds mandates in the UN (Broadband Commission ITU/UNESCO, Committee of Experts on Public Administration). He furthermore serves on the Board of a number of international institutions (Coalition for a Dialog on Africa (CoDA); International Risk Governance Council (IRGC); Library of Alexandria) in addition to Philanthropy Foundations and Funding Funds.

Ambassador Fust served as a member of the Interim Panel of experts, which acted as the interim Board of the Global Crop Diversity Trust prior to the establishment of the Executive Board.

• Member of the Executive Board of the Global Crop Diversity since 2010
• Member of the Finance and Investment Committee

Åslaug Haga
Åslaug Haga (Norway)
Ms. Haga is the Director of Renewable Energy of the Federation of Norwegian Industries. She is also the Head of the governing board of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA). Ms. Haga has held senior positions in the Norwegian embassies in New York and New Delhi. Ms. Haga served as a Member of Parliament from 2001-2005 and again in 2008. She was elected Chairman of the Centre Party in 2003. Ms. Haga held three Ministerial positions: Minister of Cultural Affairs from 1999-2000, Minister of Local Government and Regional Development from 2005-2007, and Minister of Petroleum and Energy from 2007-2008.

• Member of the Executive Board of the Global Crop Diversity since 2010
• Member of the Headquarters Committee

John Lovett
John Lovett (Australia)
Professor John Lovett is the Chairperson of the Cooperative Research Centre for National Plant Biosecurity, Australia. He has held professorships at the University of Tasmania and the University of New England, of which he now is a Professor Emeritus. Professor Lovett has previously served as Chairperson of the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting and of the Oilseeds Research Council, as Managing Director of the Grains Research and Development Cooperation and as President of the Australian Society of Agronomy.

• Member of the Executive Board of the Global Crop Diversity since 2007
• Member of the Finance and Investment Committee

Wangari Mathaai
Wangari Maathai (Kenya)
(1940-2011)
Professor Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace. In 2009, the UN Secretary-General designated her as a United Nations Messenger of Peace. She is the founder of the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots environmental organization which has assisted women and their families in planting more than 35 million trees across Kenya to protect the environment and promote sustainable livelihoods. She is a Member of Parliament and a former Assistant Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Kenya. Among the many honors and awards Wangari Maathai has received are the Right Livelihood Award (1984); the Global 500 Roll of Honor (1991); the Goldman Environmental Prize (1991); the Africa Prize (1991); the Edinburgh Medal (1993); the Sophie Prize (2004) and the Legion d'Honneur (2006).

• Member of the Executive Board of the Global Crop Diversity since 2007
• Vice-Chair of the Executive Board from 2007–2009


Ibrahim Mayaki
Ibrahim Assane Mayaki (Niger)
Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) functioning as the Interim African Union (AU) Office in South Africa, headquartered in Midrand, South Africa.

Dr. Mayaki served as Prime Minister of Niger (1997-1999), which followed his appointment as Foreign Minister of Niger between 1996-1997. In January 1996, he also served as a Ministerial Delegate in charge of the African Integration and Cooperation. In August 2000, he set up the Analysis Centre for Public Policy. In 2004, he served as the Executive Director of the Platform in support for Rural Development in West and Central Africa, the Rural Hub, based in Dakar Senegal.

• Member of the Executive Board of the Global Crop Diversity since 2011

Roberto Rodrigues
Roberto Rodrigues (Brazil)
Roberto Rodrigues has served as Brazilian Minister of Agriculture (2003-2006), Co-chairman of the Interamerican Ethanol Commission (IEC), Coordinator of the Getulio Vargas Foundation Agrobusiness Center (GV Agro) as well as President of the Superior Agriculture Council of São Paulo’s Federation of Industries (FIESP). He is an agricultural producer and an agricultural engineer by training and is also a Professor (currently on leave), holding the Chair of Rural Economics at the São Paulo State University in Jaboticabal.

A strong supporter of the cooperative movement Minister Rodrigues chaired the Brazilian Cooperatives Organization, the World Committee on Agricultural Cooperatives and the International Cooperative Alliance. He has traveled the word in that capacity, visiting 80 countries while performing his duties.

A well-known agribusiness leader, Roberto Rodrigues served as President of the prestigious Brazilian Rural Society and the Brazilian Agribusiness Association. He is also a member of the Board of dozens of Brazilian producer’s associations. In that capacity, Minister Rodrigues represented the Brazilian agribusiness sector in several advisory committees established by the Government, such as the National Agricultural Policy Council, the National Monetary Council, and the National Foreign Trade Council. He also chaired the National Agribusiness Forum.

• Member of the Executive Board of the Global Crop Diversity since 2011

Modibo Traore
Modibo Tiémoko Traoré (Mali)
Dr. Modibo Tiémoko Traoré, a former Minister for Rural Development with the Government of Mali, is the FAO Assistant Director-General charged with the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department. He joined FAO as Regional Representative for Africa after heading the African Union's Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources for three years. A veterinarian and livestock expert, Dr. Traoré was also Mali's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China between 2000 and 2005. Mr Traoré, a former National Director of Mali's Livestock and Veterinary Services was his country's Minister for Rural Development (Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries) between 1994 and 2000, and also held responsibility for the Environment and Water Resources.

• Appointed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
• Member of the Executive Board of the Global Crop Diversity since 2009

Interim Board reports