Effective 1^st July 2012, GCP’s Executive Board Chair is Dr Andrew Bennett, who has been an enthusiastic and active Board member since its foundation in 2008, contributing to Board decision-making and providing advice based on his vast  experience which spans expertise in agronomy, tropical agriculture, forestry, research, environmental management, international development, negotiation and governance.

Dr Bennett strongly supports the Board’s focus: GCP’s science and people, and always enjoys connecting with GCP’s wide range of scientists and partners at General Research Meetings, which he sees as a great knowledge forum to drive forward the role played by science in development.

In addition to his new role as Executive Board Chair, he is also President of the Tropical Agricultural Association, UK, chairs the SciDev.Net Board, and previously chaired the CIFOR Board. He was formerly Executive Director of the Syngenta Foundation and Director of Rural Livelihoods and Environment at the Department for International Development (DFID, UK).

Dr Bennett succeeds Prof Cal Qualset as Board Chair: Prof Qualset had been at the helm since the Board was established in 2008. In this time, he successfully steered the fully independent Board around several challenges, including the streamlining of GCP in its tricky ‘transition’ area of the chart. We thank Prof Qualset for captaining the Board and for continuing to use his specialist knowledge of plant genetics, breeding, variety development, genetic resources, distributions, and landraces of cereal crops. Prof Qualset will continue to serve as Board member.

Related links

• VIDEO: Andrew traces GCP from its founding to the present time
• The GCP community, its labour and joys (blogpost: learn more about Andrew Bennett, and his views on GCP and the Executive Board
• Executive Board