Management Committee

Barbara Wells Samarendu Mohanty Amalia Perochena Carla Lazarte Oscar Ortiz Lu Xiaoping Ginya A. Truitt Nakata Pietro Turilli Paul Demo James Stapleton Amanda Rodriguez Selim Guvener Michelle Rodrigo Graham Thiele

BARBARA WELLS

Area: Director General’s Office

Title: Director General

Citizenship: United States of America

Location: Lima, Peru

Profile Summary: Barbara H. Wells is an accomplished senior executive with extensive scientific and business experience in research, general management, strategic planning, regulatory processes, and the technical development and commercialization of products in agricultural and forestry markets throughout the world. She became Director General of the International Potato Center (CIP) in early 2014, an appointment in keeping with her ambition to improve the livelihoods of the world’s poor farmers and to advance CIP’s mission of improving food security and nutrition.

Prior to coming to CIP, Barbara was Vice President of Global Strategy at Agrivida, Inc., a firm that develops enzyme solutions for animal nutrition and feed-stocks for the production of biofuels and bio-products. She was responsible for planning and implementing the company’s global commercial development strategy and scientific collaboration activities with an initial focus on Latin America.

From 2002 to 2012 Barbara was President and Chief Executive Officer of ArborGen, Inc., a global forestry tree seedling, and tree breeding business. In this post she led the transformation of the organization from a start-up biotechnology company to a fully operational business with commercial sales of more than 250 million tree seedlings in the US, New Zealand and Australia. Prior to joining ArborGen, she was Vice President responsible for growth initiatives and investments in Latin America for Emergent Genetics, an agricultural investment firm.

She previously spent 18 years at Monsanto as Co-Managing Director of Brazilian operations and in several leadership roles in field product development across the world for crops including cotton, corn, soybeans, tree crops and other products.

Barbara grew up in Peru and Bolivia and spent much of her career based in Brazil. She received her PhD in Agronomy from Oregon State University, her MSs in Plant Pathology and her BSc with Honors in Horticulture from the University of Arizona.

Languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese

SAMARENDU MOHANTY

Area: Asia region

Title: Regional Director for the Asia region

Citizenship: United States of America

Location: Hanoi, Vietnam

Profile Summary: As the Asia regional director, Samarendu Mohanty provides programmatic oversight for the research and development portfolio; provides leadership in regional operational systems; and represents the International Potato Center (CIP) in the region. The countries in focus are: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

He brings over 20 years of experience to CIP, having developed skills in research management, fund raising, commodity markets, research funding, asset management, policy and trade analysis.

Sam, as he is known, joined CIP in July 2017 after working at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines as Principal Scientist and, prior to that, as the Head and Senior Economist of IRRI’s Social Sciences Division. Earlier in his career, Sam worked as Associate Professor and Associate Director for Cotton Economics Research Institute at Texas Tech University and as a scientist with the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at Iowa State University.

He holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a M.S. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a B.Sc. from the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bangalore, India.

Languages: English, Hindi and Oriya

AMALIA PEROCHENA

Area: Director General’s Office

Title: Chief of Staff

Citizenship: Peru

Location: Lima, Peru

Profile Summary: Amalia Perochena is an experienced, dynamic manager who has helped to make the International Potato Center (CIP) a more effective organization. As Executive Officer to the Director General, her primary responsibility is to support the implementation of the Strategy and Corporate Plan, with emphasis in several key institutional projects. Amalia served as CIP’s Finance Manager from March 2008 to June 2010, when she was responsible for leading an institutional project to re-engineer the cost structures of the organization, including Genebank conservation activities, in order to facilitate migration into a new financial model compatible with CGIAR Research Programs. She then assumed the responsibility of managing the Research Support Units, which include three Experimental Stations, Science Laboratories and the Research Informatics Unit in CIP’s Peru Headquarters. Prior to joining CIP, Amalia served as CEO and board member of APC Corporacion S.A. and APC Selva S.A., two Peruvian multiservice companies specialized in the oil and mining sectors. She has experience in financial management and corporate financial planning, including administration, quality assurance, risk management and corporate strategic planning. Amalia studied economics and has an MBA with a specialization in Corporate Finance from Universidad del Pacifico, Peru.

Languages: Spanish, English, French and Italian

CARLA LAZARTE

Area: People and Organizational Development

Title: Head

Citizenship: Peru

Location: Lima, Peru

Profile Summary: Carla Lazarte is a senior-level manager with more than 20 years of broad–based and progressively responsible experience in management and human resources for international development. She has a proven ability to work with senior management teams to integrate human resources into the overall business operating strategy.

Carla has been a human resources manager at the International Potato Center (CIP) since 2009. Before joining CIP, she worked as an HR Business Partner at the World Bank, in Washington DC. Her areas of expertise include collective leadership, employee relations, organizational development, training and development, operations management, international HR and strategic leadership.

Carla has a BA in communication from Marymount University, in Washington DC and an MA in organizational development from Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland.

Languages: Spanish, English

OSCAR ORTIZ

Area: Director General’s Office

Title: Deputy Director General for Research and Development

Citizenship: Peru

Location: Lima, Peru

Profile Summary: Oscar Ortiz has worked at the International Potato Center (CIP) for more than two decades, during which time he has made a major contribution to the organization’s research and programs. An agronomist by training, Oscar began his career at CIP in 1992 working on impact assessments of integrated pest management as a member of the Social Sciences Department. He was the leader of the Integrated Crop Management Research Division from 2004 to 2011, and was the leader of the Integrated Crop and systems Research Global Program in 2012, when he was appointed Deputy Director of Research for Regional Science Programs. In 2014, he was appointed Deputy Director General for Research and Development.

Oscar has spent a decade leading and managing interdisciplinary teams involving both biophysical and social sciences. He has extensive experience in participatory research and training related to integrated insect and disease control; integrated crop management; agronomy and seed management; impact assessment of research and extension activities; and the use of agricultural knowledge and information systems and innovation system approaches for research and development. He has a PhD in agricultural innovation and rural development from the University of Reading, United Kingdom. and has published extensively in peer review journals, book chapters and conference proceedings.

Languages: Spanish, English

LU XIAOPING

Area: International Potato Center-China Center for Asia Pacific

Title: Director

Citizenship: China

Location: Beijing, China

Profile Summary: Xiaoping Lu, holds a Master’s Degree in Agricultural Economics, is the head of the International Potato Center-China Center for Asia Pacific, and joined the organization in 2011 after a career in senior positions the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. He has spent 30 years in the field of international agricultural policy, project management, macro policy evaluation and bilateral/multilateral agreement negotiations. He also has served as an agriculture economist working with international organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Programme and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

Languages: Chinese, English

Ginya A Truitt Nakata

Area: Latin America and Caribbean region

Title: Regional Director for the Latin America and Caribbean region

Citizenship: United States of America

Location: Washington DC

Profile summary. Ginya A Truitt Nakata is the Director of Latin America and the Caribbean where she provides programmatic oversight, leadership and strategic direction for International Potato Center’s (CIP’s) research-for-development portfolio in the region, and represents the center at a range of fora.

Prior to joining CIP in May 2019, Ginya was the Latin America Director of Lands at The Nature Conservancy where she led the development and implementation of strategies that address systemic barriers to sustainable agricultural production and their impact on habitats critical to long-term growth and the planet’s health.

Truitt Nakata has more than 25 years of international development experience in agriculture and food security, largely at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), but she also spent time at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Agricultural Cooperative Development International.

At IDB she oversaw development of a comprehensive policy paper on the potential of Latin America’s agriculture sector in addressing the global food security challenge—harnessing expertise from a wide range of fields and interests.

The process catalyzed the publication of the 2014 report The Next Global Breadbasket: How Latin America Can Feed the World and the establishment of AgroLAC 2025—a multi-donor funding platform to identify and support sustainable agricultural practices and market systems in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Ginya holds an MA in International Development from the American University’s School of International Service and a BA in International Management/Spanish from Gustavus Adolphus College.

Languages: English, Spanish and Italian

PIETRO TURILLI

Area: Resource Mobilization

Title: Director

Citizenship: Italy

Location: Lima, Peru

Profile Summary: Pietro is currently the Director of Resource Mobilization for the International Potato Center (CIP), where he works to identify and pursue opportunities for partnership and funding for CIP globally, including multilateral, bilateral, private sector and innovative financing partners.

Before joining CIP in February 2016, he was a Partnership Officer at the CGIAR Fund Office at the World Bank, where he was part of the two-person team responsible for identifying, developing and stewarding partnerships and funding opportunities to mobilize resources for the CGIAR system. At present, CGIAR funding stands at approximately USD 1 billion per annum.

Previously, Pietro was the Vice President for Partnerships and Business Development at Heifer Project International in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he provided leadership in developing Heifer’s strategic global partnerships with the objective of enhancing the impact of Heifer’s work. In this role he focused on developing institutional business pipeline, as well as public private partnerships with the likes of Groupe Danone and other multinationals. Concurrently with his Partnerships portfolio, he was also Vice President for Central and Eastern Europe, managing a 10 country programmatic portfolio.

Earlier in his career, Turilli was an Evaluation Officer with the International Fund for Agricultural Development in Rome, Italy, where he carried our project evaluations and participated in country program, corporate and thematic evaluations for the Independent Office of Evaluation. Prior to his work as an evaluator, Pietro was a Country Programme Manager in the Near East and North Africa Division. In this role, he managed, developed and directly supervised an investment portfolio which reached more than USD 80 million in commitments in a number of different countries including Albania, Armenia, Georgia, Macedonia, Moldova and Romania.

Turilli received his bachelor’s degree in International Politics from the School of Foreign Service in Georgetown University in Washington DC, and his master’s in International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs in Columbia University in New York.

Languages: Italian, English and French

PAUL DEMO

Title: Regional Director for the Africa region

Citizenship: Cameroon

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Profile Summary: As regional director, Paul provides programmatic oversight for the research and development portfolio; provides leadership in regional operational systems; and represents the International Potato Center (CIP) in Africa, with a focus on Kenya, Malawi, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania and Cameroon.

A Cameroonian national, Paul holds a PhD. and an MSc in Agronomy from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and a BSc. (Engineer) in crop production from the University of Dschang in Cameroon. He has over 28 years of experience and skills in agricultural research, research management, fundraising, project management, capacity development and management of public-private sector partnerships.

Prior to becoming regional director, Paul worked for CIP as a senior scientist and country manager in Malawi and as a regional potato expert for sub-Saharan Africa (2003–2005). Before joining CIP, he worked as a scientist and leader of the Seed Potato Production Program at the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development Bambui Center in Cameroon (1990–2003).

Languages: English, French, Portuguese and Mboda’a

JAMES STAPLETON

Area: Communications and Public Awareness Department

Title: Head

Citizenship: Ireland; United Kingdom

Profile summary: James Stapleton is currently the Head of Communications at the International Potato Center (CIP) where he leads the design, implementation and oversight of the CIP communication strategy, raising the profile of CIP and the impact of the center’s research globally.

An experienced professional, James has spent more than 20 years working for various international and national non-profit organizations where he has gained extensive knowledge in the development, implementation and evaluation of a broad range of communications and advocacy strategies.

Prior to joining CIP, James worked as the team leader of the publishing team at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) Communications and Knowledge Management group. Enhancing knowledge management capacities, he ensured ILRI communications products were systematically documented, published to the highest editorial standards in many audience-orientated formats—video, photo and written stories, policy briefs, etc.—and shared widely internally and externally, in print, electronically and through the creation of engagement opportunities. Collaborating with a wide range of actors inside and outside of the Institute, James worked to embed communications strategies within the organizational ‘theories of change’, facilitating the framing and generation of high profile corporate outputs, the provision of support to partners and mobilization of resources.

Between 2004 and 2015, he oversaw the strategic development of communications at the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS). In addition to managing relations with the media and taking a hands-on approach to the development, design, editing, translation and publication of electronic content on the JRS multilingual websites and social media platforms, Stapleton also taught human rights at the Rome Campus of the Loyola University Chicago and was actively involved in advocacy networks on child soldiers, migrant detention and landmines. He also worked for the Irish Refugee Council as the policy officer for three years until 2003, where he was responsible for the development of policy and research papers, and relations with the media.

During the 1990s Stapleton worked for the African development NGO Environnement Développement Action dans le Tiers Monde, Amnesty International and the Institute of International and European Affairs. An Irish citizen, James has a bachelors degree in economics and mathematics, a masters in social policy from the National University of Ireland Maynooth and a certificate in managing non-profit organizations.

Languages: English, French, Italian and Spanish.

AMANDA RODRIGUEZ

Area: Finance

Title: Chief Financial Officer

Citizenship: United States of America; Colombia

Location: Lima, Peru

Profile Summary: As Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Amanda Rodriguez oversees the Finance, Information Technology, Risk Management and Security, Facilities and Maintenance departments at the International Potato Center (CIP). She is responsible for setting priorities, ensuring the development and implementation of efficient financial reporting and risk management mechanisms, and facilitating the digital transformation of across the center.

Amanda has more than 20 years of experience leading multimillion-dollar initiatives and multidisciplinary teams to achieve complex financial and operational objectives, particularly in the areas of risk management with major international development donors. Prior to joining CIP, she served as the Vice President of Finance and Contracts at Social Impact Inc, Finance and Operations Director at the United States Peace Corps, and CFO at the Development Innovations Group, among others. Amanda holds a MA in international development from SIT Graduate Institute and BSc in Business and Management Studies from the University of Maryland.

Languages: English, French, Portuguese and Spanish

SELIM GUVENER

Area: Legal department

Title: General Counsel and Board Secretary

Citizenship: Turkey; United Kingdom

Location: Lima, Peru

Profile Summary: Selim Erdil Guvener is the International Potato Center’s (CIP) General Counsel and Secretary of the Board of Trusties. He provides legal and governance oversight, leadership and strategic direction for CIP’s global operations and research-for-development portfolio.

Since joining CIP in September 2013, Selim has supported the organizational expansion in Africa and Asia, led the design and implementation of CIP’s intellectual property strategy, and played a key role in the CGIAR restructuring of governance in 2016. As one of CIP’s representatives in the Multilateral System of The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, he has also contributed to its functioning.

Prior to joining CIP, Selim spent over a decade at major law firms in London and Istanbul, where he advised clients on corporate governance, pharmaceutical, telecommunications and international law. He has advised international agricultural research centers on international law and intellectual property since 2008.

Selim was admitted to the Bar in Turkey and is a division member of The Law Society of England. He holds a Master of Laws from Cambridge University; Master of Arts in International Relations from the European Institute, France; and Maitrise en Droit from the University of Grenoble.

Languages: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Turkish, German.

MICHELLE RODRIGO

Area: Project Award and Implementation Office

Title: Head

Citizenship: Peru, the United States of America, and Chile

Location: Lima, Peru

Profile Summary: Michelle is the head of Project Award and Implementation Office at the International Potato Center (CIP) where she is responsible for the Project Award and Implementation Office.

Before taking up this position, Michelle was the head of the Grants and Contracts unit at CIP. Michelle’s latest position sees taking over this new Office which is a merger of the old Grants and Contracts unit with the Project Management Unit.

An experience project and finance manager, Michelle has more than 15 years of experience administering USAID-funded projects working from the headquarters, as well as from the field and on short-term assignments. She also has expertise in financial management, partner management, capacity building and designing and managing grants programs.

Specialties: Contracts and grants management, international development, partner management, capacity building, opening of new offices, financial management, proposals.

Languages: Spanish, English

Graham Thiele

Area: CGIAR Roots, Tubers, and Bananas program

Title: Director

Citizenship: United Kingdom

Location: Lima, Peru

Profile Summary: Graham Thiele is the Director of the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers, and Bananas (RTB), a multi-stakeholder initiative led by the International Potato Center (CIP). Graham is a social scientist and expert in targeting, priority setting, and impact and adoption studies of new agricultural technologies. Prior to taking up his current role, Graham spent 17 years with CIP, most recently as the Leader for Social and Health Sciences. Graham has worked in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Tanzania, Kenya, Benin, Rwanda, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

During his tenor at CIP, he has helped develop, implement, and assess several, novel participatory methodologies designed to link farmers with markets, inform research agendas, and promote innovation in policies, products, and technology uptake.

Graham holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from Cambridge University and an MSc in Agricultural Economics from the University of London.

Languages: English and Spanish