About CIP / Board of Trustees /  Composition

Peter VanderZaag (Canada) obtained his PhD in Agronomy & Soil Science from the University of Hawaii.  He and his family currently operate a large potato farm in Ontario, Canada.  Peter has a small, on-farm research program developing potato varieties tolerant to scab and insects; that also have low reducing sugars after long-term storage.  He is also studying how to grow Asian sweet potatoes in the temperate climate of Ontario.  Previously, Peter was employed by CIP in Central Africa (Rwanda) and as Regional Director in South East Asia.  He has consulted with numerous organizations and has been particularly active with the Canadian Food Grains Bank in providing expertise needed in North Korea, Ethiopia, Burundi and Bangladesh.  He began his overseas career in Bangladesh with a crop diversification program sponsored by the Mennonite Central Committee.  Peter is excited to be on the CIP Board at this time of global food insecurity.  His farming business knowledge coupled with overseas experience brings a unique perspective to the CG system.

Dr. Best is a serial entrepreneur who built 3 substantial ventures as founding CEO between 1991 and 2005 – Zeneca Plant Science, Roslin BioMed and Ardana. Since 2005, he has built a portfolio of Chair, Board and Advisory roles with Biotech Companies, Investors and Public Sector Bodies in Europe, the USA and India. In total, Dr. Best has helped raise over £130m from Public, Private and Corporate Investors in the past 15 years.

His most recent venture as founder was Ardana Plc., an emerging Reproductive Pharmaceutical company based in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Ardana listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE:ARA) in March 2005. Previous commercial experience includes roles at the leading edge of Cloning and Stem-Cells {as CEO of Roslin BioMed which he merged with Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) to form Geron BioMed in 1999} and GM Foods {as CEO of Zeneca Plant Science which launched the first and only consumer-accepted GM food in Europe in 1996}. 

Dr. Best is a non-Executive Director of Direvo AG and Entelos Inc. which he helped to float on the London AIM market in April 2006. (LSE:ENTL).  From April 2005 to April 2007 Dr Best was Chairman of Neuro3D SA in France and Chairman of ICRISAT and a Director of Avesthagen Pvt. Ltd. in India.

Dr Best was the Chairman of the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA) in 2006 and 2007 and is now Non-Executive Director.   From 2003-5, Dr Best was a member of the UK Biotechnology Leadership Council (BLC).  

Dr Best was the Vice-Chairman of BIO in the US from 1994-96 and a member of the Board and Chair of the Bioethics Committee from 1998-2005. Best served as a Governor of the Food and Agriculture Section of the World Economic Forum (WEF) from 1994-98. In 1999 he was nominated by the WEF as a Global Leader of Tomorrow and in 2000 as a Technology Pioneer of the Year. In September 1999, he was nominated as “Science and Technology Venturer of the Year” by the Financial Times.

In September 2001, he was appointed to the Board of ICRISAT, the CGIAR research center in Hyderabad, India which is responsible for the improvement of staple crops for the world’s poorest farmers in the semi-arid tropics. In 2003, he was asked to Chair ICRISAT’s Audit Committee and was elected as Chairman of ICRISAT’s Board from April 2006 to April 2008. ICRISAT was rated as “outstanding” by the World Bank in both 2006 and 2007.  

Dr Best is an Industry Adviser to BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH), spun out of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates and Rockefeller Foundations. BVGH is developing new resource mobilisation models to harness the biotechnology industry’s R/D capabilities to develop new health solutions for the developing world.

Dr Best is also Chairman of the Edinburgh University Technology Fund and is a Director of the Doyle Foundation, the Hebrides Ensemble and the Edinburgh Festival Council.

Dr Best is 51 and married with 3 children. He received his Bachelor of Music (B.Mus) Degree from the University of York in 1977 and his MBA from London Business School in 1985 where he was the first recipient of the Alan Patricof and Associates (APAX) Venture Capital prize. In 2004, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of York in recognition of his contributions to Music, Biotechnology and Medicine. In 2007, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE). In June 2008, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

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.

Edward Sayegh (Lebanon) 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.

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.

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).