Frank Rijsberman

Frank Rijsberman is CEO of the CGIAR Consortium, an international agri-food research organization that integrates the strategic research of 15 CGIAR Research Centers worldwide. CGIAR is the world’s largest, publicly funded, international agriculture research partnership, with an annual budget of 1 billion US$, and approximately 10,000 employees in over 60 countries. Previously, he served as Director, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Global Development, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, USA, and Director, Program, Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google Inc in California.  Mr. Rijsberman also was Director General of the International Water Management Institute, a CGIAR Research Centre with headquarters in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He has authored over 60 scientific articles and book chapters. Mr. Rijsberman received his PhD civil engineering from Colorado State University in 1987 and his MSc and BSc from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.