Interim Executive Director appointed at the Global Alliance for the Future of Food
NOTICE
Monday, 09 May 2022 – Oliver Oliveros has been appointed interim Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food. This is an interim post for up to nine months.
Oliveros, previously Engagement Lead of the United Nations Food Systems Summit and Deputy Director, Partnerships and International Relations at Agropolis Fondation, the French foundation for scientific cooperation in agriculture and sustainable development, steps into the role as Executive Director held by Ruth Richardson until a full-time Executive Director is recruited.
Bringing a wealth of experience to the role, Oliveros will take on the fixed term role from, today, 9th May 2022 providing a strong leadership focus on the delivery of the Global Alliance’s new strategy 2022-2025, implementing strong governance processes at this time of organizational transition, and supporting member engagement as the Global Alliance maintains momentum on critical priorities.
The Steering Committee of the Global Alliance is also pleased to announce that Lauren Baker has been appointed Deputy Director. Having joined the Secretariat of the Global Alliance in 2016, Baker will continue to lead the delivery of programmes, member relationship management, and strategy development, alongside team direction.
We will provide further details on our plans for a permanent appointment to the role of Executive Director in due course.
Biography:
Prior to joining the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, Oliver Oliveros was the Engagement Lead of the United Nations Food Systems Summit where he was in charge of stewarding its Champions network composed of more than 100 network leaders from global North and South across the full breadth of the diverse constituencies promoting food systems transformation. Before this, he worked as the Deputy Director, Partnerships and International Relations at Agropolis Fondation, the French foundation for scientific cooperation in agriculture and sustainable development. He was previously the Global Coordinator of the DURAS Project (2004-2008) which aimed to promote dialogue between the scientific and civil society communities and transform such process into research collaboration. He was formerly with the Secretariat of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) in FAO in Rome (1999-2004) where he worked on issues related to research partnerships and civil society organizations.
Before coming to Europe in 1999, Oliver worked for five years at the Ministry of Socio-economic Planning in Manila (Philippines) where he was extensively involved in project evaluation and investment programming in the agriculture, rural development, and natural resources sector as well as in the formulation of the country’s Agenda 21 and Medium-Term Development Plan. He is a member of various committees (e.g., Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement Scientific Committee, AGER Programme (Agrifood Research Programme) Advisory Board, and the African Women on Agricultural Research and Development Steering Committee. He is among the co-founding Steering Committee members of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, co-founded the Young Professionals Platform on Agricultural Development (YPARD), and co-facilitated the emergence of Prolinnova (Promotion of local innovation on agro-ecology and natural resources management) initiative.
Oliver is from the Philippines and holds both Filipino and French citizenships. He lives in Nairobi (Rome by July) with his wife, together with their 10-year-old son and 3-year-old dog.
