David Cavagnaro www.naturalight.net
Board

Board meeting 5

Board meeting 4

Board meeting 3

Board meeting 2

Board meeting 1

Download documents from the first meeting of the Executive Board:

Click here to see the Summary Report, April 2007

Click here to see the Agenda, April 2007


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

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 Alexandrina, IMWI (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.

Vice-Chair: Wangari Maathai (Kenya)
Professor Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and 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).

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.

Sir Peter Crane (UK)
Professor Sir Peter Crane 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 in 2006 to become the John & Marion Sullivan University Professor at the University of Chicago.

Jorio Dauster (Brazil)
Ambassador Jorio Dauster is the Board Chairman of Brasil Ecodiesel. He is a former Ambassador of Brazil to the European Union, and Chief Negotiator of Brazil's foreign debt for the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Finance. Ambassador Dauster has also served as President of the Brazilian Coffee Institute and as Coordinator of the Project for the Modernization of Brazil's Patent System.

Adel El-Beltagy (Egypt)
Prof. Dr. Adel El-Beltagy is currently the Chair of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR). He is Chairman of the International Dryland Development Commission (IDDC) and Professor at the Faculty of Agriculture/Ain Shams University He was Director General of the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) (1995-2006); Director/Board Chairman of Agricultural Research Center, Egypt (1991-1995); Fellow of the University of Wales (1993); Chairman for the Scientific Technical Council of the International SAHARA and SAHEL OBSERVATORY (SSO) (1993-2002); First Under-Secretary of State for Land Reclamation, Egypt (1986-1991). Foreign Member of the Russian academy of Agricultural Sciences, Moscow; Academician (Foreign Member) of the Tajik Academy of Agricultural Sciences; and Honorable Academician of Kyrgyz Agrarian Academy; He is Honorable Professor of the Scientific Council of Azerbaijan Agricultural Academy; Fellow of Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), and has been awarded Al-Istiklal Medal by His Majesty King Abdullah II bin Hussein of Jordan; He has authored/co-authored more than 140 scientific publications.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Interim Board reports