We are very pleased to announce that Ousmane Boukar (pictured, profile here), of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), has accepted the position of Product Delivery Coordinator (PDC) for GCP cowpea projects in the Legumes Research Initiative. Phil Roberts of the University of California, Riverside, USA, has been the interim PDC, following the departure of Jeff Ehlers in mid-2012.

We also welcome Patrick Okori, of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). Patrick is the new GCP Product Delivery Coordinator for groundnuts, replacing Emmanuel Monyo, whose new duties as Tropical Legumes II groundnuts coordinator at ICRISAT do not enable him to continue his GCP PDC role.

We thank Phil, Jeff and Emmanuel for their exemplary service.

There will also be staff changes next month. Xavier Delannay, our Integrated Crop Breeding Theme Leader, Director of Research and Chair of the Integrated Breeding Platform Management Team, will be leaving GCP on 31 August 2013. Rajeev Varshney, our Comparative and Applied Genomics Theme Leader (on shared time with ICRISAT) will also be leaving GCP on 1 August 2013 to take on additonal responsibilities at ICRISAT.

We are grateful to Xavier and Rajeev, and we wish them both well in their new ventures.