Board of Directors
Joseph Kibe is the Africa Harvest Board Chair. He provides Africa Harvest with strategic financial and governance oversight. Kibe is self employed mainly dealing in Agricultural production both for export and for domestic use. Currently, he is a Director and Chairman of different organizations including Kenya Gatsby Charitable Foundation; Trustee of Gatanga Community Water Trust, BOC Kenya Limited, African Agricultural Capital, Tree Biotechnology Program Trust and Horticultural Crops Development Authority. Mr. Kibe has held different positions both in the Government of Kenya and in private sectors including; Permanent Secretary and Accounting Officer in six Ministries (Commerce and Industry; Economic Planning; Agriculture and Animal Husbandry; Water Development; Lands and Settlement and Tourism and Wildlife.
Andrew Fish is the Board Secretary and provides strategic advice on governance issues. He is also the Senior Vice President of Legal and Government Affairs for the Consumer Healthcare Products Association in Washington, DC. A former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs in the Clinton Administration, Mr. Fish has extensive expertise in biotechnology regulation, conservation practices, and policy and government affairs. Mr. Fish has worked on a wide range of food, drug, agriculture, and human health issues in both government service and law practice. He is a graduate of Yale University and Stanford Law School.
Gisele d’Almeida is the Board Chair of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. She is the founder and CEO of INTERFACE, a network of CEOs and investors from small and medium agribusiness companies in Africa, headquartered in Senegal. She has over 25 years experience in entrepreneurship and imports management. As an entrepreneur, she has created several small and medium enterprises in various areas, and now she is promoting technologies transfer from Asia to Africa as profitable business in agriculture. Mme. Giséle is an active member of various agricultural Research and Development Committees and decision making bodies, including SPAAR, FARA, CORAF, and CGIAR Private Sector Committee (PSC).
Dr. Mary G. Alton Mackey is the Chair of the Audit Committee and also serving as the Acting vice Chair of the Board of Directors. She provides strategic advice on audit matters and on program formulation, design and implementation. She has special expertise in community development using health, nutrition and food security and income generation as components of the development process. She has been a technical expert to the Federal Environmental Assessment Review Organization of the Government of Canada, for the communities adjacent to major project developments and for the proponent related to a number of environmental assessment reviews. She worked in public health in Ontario, with the Faculty of Medicine Makerere University in Kampala, Memorial University of Newfoundland's Extension Service and at McGill University.
Prudence Ndlovu, Board Member, who is an Entrepreneur and the Managing Director of EPOD Global (Pty) Ltd; an organization that offers solutions in Human Resource and Organization Design & Development, Training and Recruitment. She has over 15 years experience in the HR field and has facilitated training for over 10 years in different institutions and organizations including Pricewater House Coopers, Gordon Institute of Business Science, Standard Bank, IBM, Investec, University of Limpopo, Health Professionals Council of South Africa and others. She is an active member of the Business Woman’s Association, Institute of Directors and Business Unity South Africa.
Professor Matin Qaim He is a member of the Program and Nominations committee. He is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Development Research in Bonn, Germany. He is a Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Goettingen in Germany and has extensive research experience related to the economics of agricultural technologies in developing countries.
Professor Shabd S. Acharya, Board Member & Chair of Program Committee, is Honorary Professor at Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur (India) having worked with different institutions and organizations as a professor and Director. Currently he heads different committees including being the Vice President of Indian National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS). Prof. Acharya has written extensively in the areas of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Marketing and Prices, Agricultural Development and Policy Analysis. He is currently Vice President of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (India). His field of research has been agricultural marketing, development and policy analysis.