BOARD OF
DIRECTORS
CHRIS ARMITAGE
DIRECTOR, SECRETARY & CEO
CHRIS ARMITAGE
DIRECTOR, SECRETARY & CEO
Christopher Armitage is a business development specialist, with demonstrated skill in designing and coordinating collaborative multi-sectoral approaches to large-scale land restoration and sustainable agricultural development. He played a key role in establishing both the EverGreen Agriculture Partnership and the Africa Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance. In the 18 months prior to the establishment of the Global EverGreening Alliance, he coordinated the development of an 8-country GCF proposal for UNEP which sought to support 1.25 million small-scale farmers to adopt EverGreening practices, and he managed the European Commission-funded, ‘Reversing Land Degradation in Africa by Scaling-up Evergreen Agriculture‘ project through its inception phase, a collaborative program to scale-up EverGreen Agriculture to 500,000 farming households across 8 Sahelian countries. He is also a Senior Advisor to Landcare International, and a Board Member of The Wilderness Society (Vic)
DR DENNIS GARRITY
DIRECTOR AND BOARD CHAIR
DR DENNIS GARRITY
DIRECTOR AND BOARD CHAIR
Dr. Dennis Garrity is a systems agronomist and research leader whose career has focused on improving small-scale farming systems in the tropics. He has been serving as Drylands Ambassador for the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, emphasizing the role of agroforestry, evergreen agriculture and landcare for sustainable land management. From 2001 to 2011, he served as Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre. He is currently Chair of the Board of the Global EverGreening Alliance, a partnership of nearly all of the major development and conservation organizations around the world, working together to restore hundreds of millions of hectares of degraded land and enhance the livelihoods of millions of the least-favored smallholder farm families in the tropics. He also chairs Landcare International, a worldwide effort to support grassroots community-based natural resource management.
LYNN HAIGHT
DIRECTOR
LYNN HAIGHT
DIRECTOR
Lynn Haight has had two main streams of activity in her career. For many years she was a senior or the Chief Financial Executive in three international financial or insurance companies headquartered in Canada (Scotiabank, Manulife Financial, Foresters Financial). And during that time, she pursued voluntary appointments on Boards of Directors relating to international development organisations, often chairing them (Canada Standards Organisation, World Agroforestry Center, Consortium Board of International Agricultural Research Centers, Management Oversight Committees of UNHCR and UNESCO), as well as other professional governance interests. She has an MA from Oxford University, is a FCA in Canada and England, a fellow of Canadian Management Consulting Association, and a certified Canadian Director. She lives in Toronto, Canada and London, UK, and has a sense of humour.
PROF JUDI WAKHUNGU
DIRECTOR
PROF JUDI WAKHUNGU
DIRECTOR
Prof. Judi Wakhungu EGH is Kenya's Former Ambassador to France, the Holy See, Portugal, Serbia and Monaco. From 2013 to 2018, she served as Kenya's Minister (Cabinet Secretary) of Environment & Natural Resources. Her legislation during her tenure as Minister is globally unmatched. These include banning single-use plastic bags in Kenya in 2017; leading the burning of Kenya's ivory & rhino horn stockpiles in 2016 to curb illegal wildlife trade; enacting the Wildlife & Conservation Act 2013; Climate Change Act 2016; Water Act 2016; amending the Environment Act 2015 & Forestry Act 2015; Leading the Waste Management Bill and many other Environment & Conservation regulations. Prof. Wakhungu is a recipient of many Awards including Honorary Doctorate of Science from University of Reading, Oceans Award 2018, Clark R. Bavin Award 2016 and Distinguished Alumni Awards from Penn State University and St. Lawrence University. As Kenya's first woman pioneer in Geology, she has the distinction of mentoring many STEM students.
LAKSIRI ABEYSEKERA
DIRECTOR
LAKSIRI ABEYSEKERA
DIRECTOR
Laksiri Abeysekera is a Senior Fellow of the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. In this role, Laksiri is supporting ICRAF with establishing a country office as well as support its ongoing projects in Sri Lanka. Until June 2020, Laksiri served as the Vice-Chair of the Audit Committee of the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF), based in San Francisco, USA. Laksiri has over 45 years of broad-based international experience in strategic financial management, corporate services, risk management, change management and governance in Asia, Africa and the Middle East in the not for profit agricultural research, banking, manufacturing and service delivery sectors, drawing senior level management experiences from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), ICRAF, International Center for Research in Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) as well as in other public and private sector companies. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, United Kingdom and is a Chartered Global Management Accountant.
KAREN FAWCETT
DIRECTOR
KAREN FAWCETT
DIRECTOR
Karen Fawcett is a Portfolio Non-Executive Director, advisor and entrepreneur, focusing on Financial Services & Digital Transformation, Education and Climate Change Mitigation. Formerly CEO Retail, Brand and Marketing for Standard Chartered Bank and currently serves as Board Member of several global organisations.
PROF JOHN DIXON
DIRECTOR
PROF JOHN DIXON
DIRECTOR
From a farming background in Queensland, Australia, John took up international research and development with FAO commencing in Iran, then Ethiopia (FSR), Rome as Chair, Agroforestry Working Group, Nepal (farming systems national survey), Thailand (sustainable development of marginal communities across 8 Asian countries) and Zimbabwe (innovations in research and extension methods in 9 east and southern African countries). Later, he was Director at CIMMYT, with responsibilities for targeting, impact assessment and systems agronomy/conservation agriculture, then Principal Regional Coordinator for Africa and South Asia and Principle Adviser Research at ACIAR. He also has honorary positions with the University of Queensland, Australian National University and he is a Board Member of the USAID-funded Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab.
ANDREA PINK
DIRECTOR
ANDREA PINK
DIRECTOR
Andrea Pink is a people management specialist. She has most recently held senior Human Resources (HR) roles in two significant global humanitarian organisations, World Vision International (WVI) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (CICR) - leading the development of leaders and the growth engagement and performance of staff. Her skills and focus are on people and leader development; finding and developing talent and creating talent and succession and career pathways within organisations; as well as change management and organisation development. She has also held generalist Human Resources roles across all HR disciplines, in both the not-for-profit and the corporate sectors. She holds a BA in Psychology and a Master of Arts in International Relations. She works now as an independent consultant providing support to leaders, teams and Human Resources/People and Culture practitioners.
TIM CHRISTOPHERSEN
DIRECTOR
TIM CHRISTOPHERSEN
DIRECTOR
Tim Christophersen joined Salesforce as VP, Climate Action in May 2022. Within the global Impact Team, he is focused on climate action and in particular the role of nature-based solutions to climate change. Tim is based in Denmark. Before joining Salesforce, Tim was Head of the ‘Nature for Climate’ Branch at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and led a growing global movement backed by all UN Member States and over 200 partner organizations to ‘prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide’: the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030. He holds a degree in Forestry and Forest Conservation Engineering from Dresden University of Technology. He previously worked for the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), where he led the portfolio on the conservation and sustainable use of forest biodiversity. From 2017-2019, he was elected Chair of the Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration. From 2002-2007 he was Regional Programme Coordinator for Europe, the Caucasus and the Commonwealth of Independent States at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He also worked for the Danish Ministry of the Environment, and for the European Commission.
ERIC ZIMMERMAN
DIRECTOR
ERIC ZIMMERMAN
DIRECTOR
Eric is a humanitarian and civic professional with 20 years of experience leading large-scale NGO and government climate action programs. Eric serves in dual roles as Senior Director of Foundation and Corporate Partnerships at World Vision and as an elected Mayor in the United States with oversight of a USD $100 million annual granting fund for land conservation. Eric's technical background includes climate-smart agriculture and natural resource management.