Executive Team
Country Directors
Board of Trustees
Dr. Abdou Tenkouano is Executive Director of CORAF, the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Research and Development, based in Dakar, Senegal. His academic background is in plant breeding and genetics and he has a PhD from the Texas A&M University.
He has worked across sub-Saharan Africa with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT, 1994–1996, Mali), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA, 1996–2008, Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana) and The World Vegetable Center (AVRDC, 2008–2016, Tanzania and Mali). Dr. Tenkouano also served as a member of the research for development council at IITA, and as deputy chair of the institutional research and development committee and a member of the institutional management committee at AVRDC.
Prof. Abubakar was the pioneer executive secretary of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (2006–2016) and is currently a visiting professor at the University of Abuja. Previously, he has served internationally as: a member for the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research [CGIAR] ExCo & Fund/System Council representing sub-Saharan Africa (2008–2016); chairman of the governing board of the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (2010–2012); a member of the governing board of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (2010–2012); and an expert panel member on the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa (2013). Currently, he is an executive board member of the Technical Center for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (2013–2018). He has Master’s and PhD degrees in Animal Breeding and Quantitative Genetics from Cornell University and has written over 160 publications.
Gareth Johnstone is the Director General for WorldFish. He holds a bachelor’s degree in zoology from Sheffield University, a master’s degree in environmental economics from London School of Economics and Political Science and a PhD from King’s College London on rights-based management. He is a member of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC).
A UK national, Gareth is a geographer with 25 years of professional experience in natural resource management and research, with an emphasis on governance issues, policy development, capacity building and institutional development. He is an advocate for cross-disciplinary and participatory research approaches in environment and development, and he specializes in integrated coastal management, ecosystem approaches to fisheries, sustainable livelihoods, food security and co-management, particularly within small-scale fisheries and aquaculture.
Gareth has undertaken numerous assignments in Africa (Sudan, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia) Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand), the Pacific (Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea) and Australia. He joined WorldFish in 2011 as a scientist and went on to lead the CGIAR Research Program in Cambodia on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) and develop the Myanmar Country Program.
Prof. Dr. Ayman Ammar is the director of the Central Laboratory for Aquaculture Research (CLAR). He holds a master’s degree and a PhD from the Moscow Agricultural Academy in aquaculture (1994). With more than 30 years of experience, Ayman has extensive knowledge of aquaculture. He recently became a member of the Ministry of Agriculture Commute for the development of Egyptian lakes and previously had been an expert for an EU-funded project to monitor and evaluate in Egypt for promoting sustainable development in aquaculture. Before becoming director of CLAR, Ayman worked as a consultant for many private sector firms and several government projects.
Dr. Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio is an independent consultant working primarily for the Global Commission on Adaptation where she serves as an Action Track Co-Manager leading the development of several action tracks related to action on adaptation including food security and agriculture. Previously, she was the Regional Program Manager for Action on Climate Today, a DFID-funded project helping to mainstream climate change resilience measures within budgetary planning and policymaking across South Asia. Her previous positions include Senior Associate Director at The Rockefeller Foundation in New York, where she developed the execution strategy for an eight-year, USD 100 million initiative to build resilience for poor and vulnerable people who will be affected by climate change.
Cristina has a doctoral degree in ecology from the University of Colorado. She was a Mass Media Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement Science and blogs and tweets regularly on resilience, climate change, smart urbanization, equity, impact investing and other issues.
Mr. Ahmad Tarmidzi bin Ahmad who is the Director General of Department of Fisheries (Malaysia) who has been appointed as our center specific (WorldFish) board member by the Minister of Agriculture.
Michael Akester joined WorldFish in February 2017 as the WorldFish Country Director for Myanmar. Michael is a bio-geographer from Cambridge, England, with over 35 years’ experience in fisheries sector development programmes worldwide. Before joining WorldFish, Michael was the Regional Project Coordinator on the Global Environment Facility (GEF) co-funded Humboldt Current Large Marine Ecosystem project based in Lima with work in Peru and Chile. He has also worked for organizations such as the United Nations, Danish International Development Assistance (Danida) and the UK Department for International Development. Michael has experience working in many countries including Bangladesh, Viet Nam, Chile, Peru and Mexico.
Languages: English, Spanish
Location: Myanmar
Contact: M.Akester at cgiar.org
Delvene Boso is Country Manager, Solomon Islands. She joined WorldFish in May 2007 as a Research Analyst. In this role, she assisted WorldFish scientists in developing and conducting socioeconomic surveys and contributes to publications on community-based resource management. As Country Manager, she provides leadership for staff in three offices, maintains partnerships with national institutional stakeholders and coordinates country-based project development efforts. She holds a B.S. in Marine Science and Management from Southern Cross University.
Languages: English, Solomon Islands Pidgin
Location: Solomon Islands
Contact: d.boso at cgiar.org
Gareth Johnstone is the newly appointed Director General for WorldFish. He holds a bachelor’s degree in zoology from Sheffield University, a master’s degree in environmental economics from London School of Economics and Political Science and a PhD from King’s College London on rights-based management. He is a member of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC).
A UK national, Gareth is a geographer with 25 years of professional experience in natural resource management and research, with an emphasis on governance issues, policy development, capacity building and institutional development. He is an advocate for cross-disciplinary and participatory research approaches in environment and development, and he specializes in integrated coastal management, ecosystem approaches to fisheries, sustainable livelihoods, food security and co-management, particularly within small-scale fisheries and aquaculture.
Gareth has undertaken numerous assignments in Africa (Sudan, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia) Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand), the Pacific (Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea) and Australia. He joined WorldFish in 2011 as a scientist and went on to lead the CGIAR Research Program in Cambodia on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) and develop the Myanmar Country Program.
Christopher Price is country director for WorldFish in Bangladesh. He is responsible for liaising with key government and donor counterparts in the country and overseeing the WorldFish research portfolio in Bangladesh. Christopher’s international development career began over 35 years ago with the UK Department for International Development, formerly known as the Overseas Development Administration (ODA).
Christopher has worked in several countries, directing or managing large and complex donor-funded projects. Before joining WorldFish, he served as the Head of the Bangladesh Aquaculture and Fisheries Resource Unit in ODA and was instrumental in developing, together with the Government of Bangladesh and NGOs, an overall strategy for fisheries programming across the country.
Contact: c.price at cgiar.org
Dr. Victor Siamudaala is WorldFish’s country director for Zambia and Southern Africa. He is in charge of overseeing key strategic government and donor relationships in Zambia and the Southern Africa region.
Victor is an experienced leader in environmental and sustainability policy. Over the past 23 years he has led several environmental efforts in the public sector as well as international organizations.
Prior to joining WorldFish, Victor served as country director for The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Zambia. He worked initially as program manager and later as the executive director for the Secretariat of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) in Botswana.
Victor comes with substantial experience in research and has previously held the position of Director for Research, Planning and Information with Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA).
Tana Lala-Pritchard is the Executive Director for Strategy, Innovation and Communications at WorldFish, a non-profit research and innovation institution that creates, advances, and translates scientific research on aquatic food systems into scalable solutions with transformational impact on human well-being and the environment.
A graduate of the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics and Political Science, she works at the intersection of science, policy, social entrepreneurship, and advocacy with actors across the public and private sectors to shape evidence-based investments, innovations, and policy on food security and nutrition, climate action, ocean governance, blue economy, gender equality, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability.
She is a dynamic transformational change leader, who has spent the past 18 years developing and implementing strategies at corporate, business and functional levels to advance the goals of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, while working for a host of development agencies, think tanks, and international organizations across Africa, Asia, Middle East, Europe, and the Pacific. In 2015, her strategy and advocacy work in support of the global Economics of Land Degradation initiative led to the adoption of specific evidence-based targets on Climate Action (SDG13) and Land Degradation Neutrality (SDG15.3) in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the UN General Assembly.
Often described as a powerhouse of strategic and creative ideation and innovation, Tana is a creative and passionate storyteller who loves to combine data, emotion, cool design, and innovative technologies to create and communicate big transformational ideas that inspire and deliver innovations that are socially and environmentally responsible.
In 2020, she was the recipient of the prestigious fellowship on Strategy and Innovation by the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, awarded to Exceptional Women Leaders. She is also the recipient of the 2020 Distinguished Alumni Award by the American Alpha Chi National College Honor Society, which recognizes academic excellence and scholarship in public service and leadership. Tana is passionate about pushing boundaries, breaking down silos, and challenging biases and limitations in current systems to find common ground and forge innovative solutions that work for all people, and the future sustainability of our planet
Montgomery Simus, appointed Executive Director, Business Development and Partnerships is a global executive who spent much of the past two decades on the deployment of catalytic philanthropy, innovative social finance, and equity investment capital to high-growth, purpose-driven enterprises that serve millions of stakeholders in emerging markets worldwide.
A native of Canada, Simus is passionate about impact philanthropy in the fields of the environment, health, education, and enabling infrastructure, and has developed his inclusive business-driven emerging market development experience in more than 100 nations around the world. A graduate of Yale and Harvard, he served as a Senior Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow at Harvard from 2015 – 2017 focusing on research related to the water-energy-food nexus.
Prof. Eddie H. Allison is an interdisciplinary scholar with over 30 years of academic and policy experience, who works closely with researchers across social and natural sciences and the humanities, as well as a steward of natural resources in communities, civil society organizations, development actors, governments and the private sector.
Allison’s influential livelihoods and food systems work spans the globe thanks to his research, teaching, and policy experience in fisheries and aquaculture with links to sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Oceania, Latin America, North America, and Europe.
A native of Italy and the UK and in 2020 was listed by Clarivate/Web of Science in the top 0.1 percent most cited of the world's researchers in the cross-disciplinary category.
Allison currently advises the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, a global initiative headed by 14 world leaders on a mission to transform the way in which we can protect and use the ocean.
He is also a science advisor to the non-profit Oceana and has honorary and visiting professorships at Lancaster University's Environment Center, UK, and the University of Washington's School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, Seattle, USA.
Marion Barriskell, appointed Executive Director, Corporate Services, is a global executive who has held a number of senior leadership roles in strategic and operational finance and IT at WorldFish, the British Council, KMPG and Transparency International.
A native of Kenya, Barriskell is a graduate of the University of Dundee, as well as a qualified chartered accountant and an accredited counter fraud specialist. She is highly skilled in shaping structural and operational reforms and passionate about delivering transformational organizational change in support of research, innovation, and social impact.
Michael Phillips is Director of Aquaculture and Fisheries Science at WorldFish. Recognized as a global leader in aquaculture research, Michael joined WorldFish in 2008 where he has since developed a wide portfolio of research on sustainable aquaculture. Previously, he served as Program Manager at the Network of Aquaculture Centers in Asia-Pacific (NACA) where he managed the organizations’ aquaculture research and development programs. Michael holds a Ph.D. in Aquaculture and Fish Behavior from the University of Stirling and a B.S. in Biological Sciences from University of Lancaster.
Languages: English, French, Thai
Location: Malaysia
Contact: m.phillips@cgiar.org
