In May 2016, the program made some changes to flagship leadership:

• Karen Marshall (ILRI) has taken up the leadership of the Animal Genetics flagship, replacing John Benzie from WorldFish given his major role in developing the 2nd phase of the Fish CRP.

• Isabelle Baltenweck (ILRI) is assuming leadership of the Value Chain Transformation and Scaling flagship replacing Acho Okike who leaves ILRI later this year.

I want to thank John and Acho for their contributions to shaping and implementing their flagships, and welcome Karen and Isabelle (brief biographic information is provided below).

photo credit: Genevieve Audet-Belanger

Marshall is senior scientist in the Animal Biosciences team at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

She has close to 10 years’ experience with the CGIAR, working on issues related to animal genetic resource use in developing countries, from upstream applications such as characterizing the genomics of disease resistance, to applied applications such as comparing different livestock breed-types in terms of cost:benefit to their keepers.

Her work has covered a range of species (cattle, sheep, goat, pigs, camel), production systems (from intensifying to pastoral / agro-pastoral), and geographical locations (both within sub-Saharan Africa and Asia). Prior to joining ILRI Karen was a senior lecturer in Animal Genetics and Breeding at the University of New England.

photo credit: Genevieve Audet-Belanger

Isabelle Baltenweck is program leader of the livelihoods, gender and impact program at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

An agricultural economist, she has fifteen years of post-doctoral experience in various aspects of smallholder livestock farming in Africa, South and South-East Asia, working on innovative institutional mechanisms to enhance farm level competitiveness in inclusive value chain development initiatives. Most of her work has a strong focus on gender.

In the current Livestock and Fish program, she coordinates activities on nutrition and value chain upgrading. She has a PhD in Development Economics from the Université d’Auvergne, an MSc in Development Economics from the Université d’Auvergne and a First Degree in Economics (“DEUG”) from the Université de Strasbourg.