Guido Gryseels

Dr Guido Gryseels is a Belgian economist and doctor of agricultural sciences who is the current chairman of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas based in Aleppo, Syria. Dr Gryseels, a national of Belgium, joined as a member of ICARDA Board of Trustees in 2003. Until he took over as Board Chair, he had been serving as a member of the Executive, Nomination and Program Committees of the Board.

An agricultural economist, Dr Gryseels is committed to ICARDA's mission of alleviating poverty and hunger in dry areas of the developing world. He is currently Director General of the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium, where he initiated a reorganization and renovation of the museum, which painted until then an uncritical picture of the colonial past of Belgium. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Federal Science Policy and of the Fund for Scientific Research in Belgium, and Chair of the Jury that annually awards the Development Cooperation Prize. Earlier, he served as Deputy Executive Secretary of the Technical Advisory Committee of the CGIAR, hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Italy. He also held other important positions in the CGIAR, including that of Executive Secretary of the CGIAR's Impact Assessment and Evaluation Group. From 1979 to 1987, he held various senior positions at the International Livestock Center for Africa, in Ethiopia