About CIP / Board of Trustees /  Composition

Jim Godfrey, has a Bachelor’s degree in agriculture from the University of Reading, he is a director of family farming companies growing a range of arable crops in the United Kingdom including potatoes together with breeding and rearing pigs.  He is a Trustee of the Roslin Research Institute, a Council Member and chair of the audit committee of the Royal Agricultural Society of England and a member of the Court of the University or Reading.  He is a former chairman of The Scottish Crop Research Institute, The Potato Marketing Board, Sentry Farming Group plc and Dream Direct Group plc; and a former member of The Centre for Agricultural Strategy (University of Reading), The Rural Economy Group of the House of Lords and a former adviser to the University of Warwick HRI.  In 2002 he was awarded the OBE for services to agricultural research in Scotland, in 2006 the World Potato Congress Industry Award for his contribution to the development of the global potato industry and in 2007 an honorary DSc by the University of Reading.  He is a Fellow of both the Royal Agricultural Societies and the Institute of Directors.  From 2006 to 2007 he was chair of the Alliance Board of the centers supported by the CGIAR.

Alexander Boronin (Russia) obtained his degree in Biology from Moscow State University, a Ph.D. in Biology (Genetics) and a D.Sci. in Biology (Genetics) from the Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms of Russian Academy of Sciences (IBPM). He is currently Director and Head of Department for Molecular Biology and Genetics in the Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms of Russian Academy of Sciences (IBPM), Rector and Lecturer in genetics of microorganisms and environmental biotechnology in the Pushchino State University, member of the Bureau Presidium and Vice-President of the Russian Biotechnology Academy. In 2002 he was honored by the President of the Russian Federation for his outstanding contribution in the field of education.

Ruth Egger (Switzerland), PhD in economy and econometrics from the University of Zurich, Switzerland is working since 30 years in rural development in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. As deputy director of Intercooperation, a Swiss foundation for development and cooperation, she leads the team of Finance, Enterprise and Markets. She is a member of the Board of ICIMOD, International Centre of Integrated Mountain Development. Several years of her life she has spent in Nepal and Bolivia, working together with natural and social scientists.

Song Jian (China) obtained his engineering degree and Ph.D. from MBTY, Moscow and a Doctorate in Sciences from Moscow National Technical University. He is a distinguished scientist in research and engineering of control mathematics and astronautics, and a Science and Technology policy-maker of China as Minister of Science and Technology (1984-1998), State Counselor (Vice-Premier, 1986-1998). He led the program for the system design, launching and positioning of the country’s first telecommunication satellite. He initiated and successfully carried out the “Sparks Program” aiming at alleviating rural poverty and developing rural/township enterprises throughout China. He has also initiated guided and implemented the “Torch Program,” which spearheaded the development of high-tech industries in China. Dr Song is currently an academician of both the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE); Honorary Chairman of Presidium of CAE, Professor of Tsinghua University, Fudan University, and Harbin University of Technology; Research Professor, Institute of Information and Control; Chief Science Advisor to State Council. He is an active foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering and Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Engineering, USA.

Pauline Kuzwayo (South Africa) is presently an Associate Professor and Acting Head of the Department of Human Nutrition at the Medical University of Southern Africa (MEDUNSA). She obtained a BSc degree in Dietetics and a Postgraduate Diploma in Hospital Dietetics from the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, and Honors degree from MEDUNSA and a Masters Degree in Public Health Nutrition from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in the United States of America. Her major interest is advocacy for nutrition as an intersectorial outcome and inputs. To this aim, she has been active in the National Rural Development Forum, as the coordinator of the Nutrition Task Force, a member of the RDP Council and the Board of Directors for the Land and Agriculture Policy Centre. She worked into incorporation of nutrition and health objective into development policy frameworks. She has worked extensively in the area of nutrition policy development, with specific focus in Primary Health Care programs targeted at children. In 1996, she was awarded the First Mildred Kaufmanns Visiting Scholar for her outstanding contribution in the field of Public Health Nutrition in the fifty years of existence of the Department of Nutrition in the UNC-CH School of Public Health. She is a member of the International University of Nutrition Sciences.

Born in Lima, Peru on December 26, 1956 and raised in a dairy farm 20 km east of Lima. He lived in the farm, studied elementary school in Lima and in 1974 he started university undergraduate studies at the Universidad Nacional Agraria – La Molina in Lima where he graduated in April 1980. In October 1980 he started graduate studies in Cambridge University and got an M.Phil degree in February 1982 and a Ph.D. in June 1986.

Dr Risi has work experience and knowledge of issues regarding several aspects of agriculture: research and extension, farming systems, genetic resources, project development and fundraising. Along his professional career, he has been head of the Legume Programme in INIA (National Agriculture Research Institute) after which he worked for IDRC as a Crop Production Systems Programme Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean between 1989 and 1992. Then he became a long-term consultant of Euroconsult and worked between 1992 and 1998 in Bolivia as advisor of the Quinua Programme, of the National Seed Council and of the Ministry of Agriculture, where he worked as a consultant preparing government of Bolivia’s proposal to the World Bank to finance its agricultural research and extension system. In 1998 he returned to Peru to work in the preparation of the government’s proposal to the World Bank to establish a competitive grant mechanism that finances agriculture research and extension activities. The project was approved in 2000 and is now in its second phase. In 2001 he worked on the implementation of an extension programme for small farmers in the Peruvian coast and then became General Director of Technology Transfer of INIA where he worked until his designation as the Ministry of Agriculture’s General Director of Agricultural Promotion in July 2003. After leaving the ministry in 2006, Dr. Risi worked in short consultancies but in June 2007 was appointed by the Minister of Agriculture as Executive Director of the INCAGRO, the competitive grant project that he helped to develop some years before. A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Risi was appointed by the President of Peru as Head of INIA.

Dr. G. Edward Schuh

G. Edward Schuh (USA) holds a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Education from Purdue University, a Master’s of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University, and a Master’s of Arts and a Ph.D. degree in Economics from the University of Chicago. He has received five professional awards from the American Agricultural Economics Association. He was named Professor Honoris Causis at the Federal University of Vicosa in 1965 and received the degree of Doctor of Agriculture, honoris causis, from Purdue University in 1992. He has been elected a Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In the spring of 1998 Schuh was elected a Regents Professor, the highest academic honor that can be bestowed on a faculty member at the University of Minnesota. He was recently named Legendary Member of the Brazilian Society of Rural Economics.

Schuh has held a variety of positions in academic, governmental, and non-governmental organizations. Just prior to assuming the Orville and Jane Freeman Professorship in 1997, Schuh had served as Dean of the Humphrey Institute for ten years.

Schuh has contributed internationally as an educator, administrator, consultant, and author in the areas of economic development, international trade, exchange rate policy, and food and agricultural policy. His work has included extensive travel throught the world, with particular emphasis on Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. He is the author or co-author of six books, had edited an additional six books, and has over 150 technical and scientific papers to his credit.

Edward Sayegh

Edward Sayegh is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of the Center for Non-Profit Governance, Lebanon and USA. His expertise is in international relations, governance, planning, general management and financial and human resources management.

He is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, USA (1994); has an MSc in Management (Sloan Fellow), London Business School (1986) and a BBA, American University of Beirut (1968).

Mr Sayegh founded the Center for Non-Profit Governance in 2004, with the mission of advising non-profit organizations and governments on strategic matters including strategy development, long term planning, organizational restructuring and streamlining policies and operations. The Center has undertaken consultancies with development banks, international organizations and governments. Mr Sayegh has also participated in external management reviews and organizational review and restructuring in a number of CGIAR Centers.

Mr Sayegh was previously Associate Director General and Board Secretary of the WorldFish Center of the CGIAR. He took the lead in negotiating the Center's headquarters agreement with the Malaysian Government, and in strategies and operations that relocated the Center from the Philippines to Malaysia. He supervised the building of the Center headquarters in Penang, Malaysia and recruited staff for the Center's Corporate Services Division. He led the ISO 9001:2000 certification of the Center's corporate services functions.

From 1987 to 1997, Mr Sayegh was Treasurer and Director for Finance with Administrative Functions at the International Rice Research Institute. From 1978 to 87, he was the Station Financial Officer for the main station at Aleppo ICARDA (1978-1981) and Financial Controller and Treasurer including administration and the building program of the headquarters, ICARDA (1982-1987).  From 1966 to 1977, Mr Sayegh was Senior Finance Officer/Acting Comptroller at the American University of Beirut; and Partner in an auditing and accounting firm in Beirut. He was also a consultant to General Motors (1986), USA.

Over the years of his association with the CGIAR, he has given assistance to various CGIAR members and other donors on governance, general management and financial management (1978-2003). He was Vice Board Chair and Chair of the Audit Committee of the Association of International Agricultural Research Centers (1990-2002). He is a Member of the Institute of Management Accountants, USA, and a member of the American Management Association.

Madhura Swaminathan (India) completed a doctorate in Economics from the University of Oxford. She currently works at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, an advanced national research and teaching institution, funded by the Government of India. Her main areas of interest have been in the area of development economics, especially agricultural and rural development. She has worked in varying capacities in Universities in the U.K., Finland, U.S.A and Mexico. For several years, she has been associated with the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics and the International Association of Feminist Economics, serving on its board as well. From 2000 to 2002, she was a member of the Government of India’s (Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs), High Level Committee on Long Term Grain Policy.

José Valle-Riestra (Peru) has an Engineer degree in agriculture from the Universidad Nacional Agraria de La Molina, and a Masters and Ph.D. in the field of Nutrition from Cornell University. He has been a Full Professor at the National Agrarian University, and has ample international experience through his positions as Associate Director for Animal Science in the International Development Research Center of Canada (IDRC), Director of International Cooperation of the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), and Deputy Director General of the Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP). He retired from the latter institution in June 2000, and was conferred by its Board of Trustees the title of Deputy Director General Emeritus.

He is currently Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peruvian Foundation for the Conservation of Nature -ProNaturaleza -, member of the Board of the Instituto de Investigación Nutricional (IIN), and Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Project: Andean Agriculture of the ALtiplano of Peru and Bolivia (ALTAGRO).