Meet the Devex Authors

Juan Gonzalez-Valero

Juan Gonzalez-Valero

Juan Gonzalez-Valero is head of public policy and sustainability at Syngenta, where he leads all operations related to integrating sustainability aspects into core business practices, like the Good Growth Plan. He previously directed Syngenta's efforts on risk assessment, sustainable use and stewardship, and corporate social responsibility. Before joining the company, Gonzalez-Valero was head of ecotoxicology at Novartis. He also served as a board member of several nonprofits.
Juan Carlos Concepcion

Juan Carlos Concepcion

Juan Carlos is a former analyst at the Devex Manila Office. A strong advocate of civic education, he also teaches undergraduate courses on Philippine politics and governance.
Juan Carlos Thomas

Juan Carlos Thomas

Juan Carlos Thomas is the global director of entrepreneurship at TechnoServe, where he leads the development and deployment of best practices in the support of entrepreneurs and small-and-growing businesses in the organization’s projects throughout Latin America, Africa and India.
Juanita Rilling

Juanita Rilling

Juanita Rilling is a senior humanitarian advisor for Macfadden Associates, in support of the U.S. Agency for International Development Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance. She is the former director of USAID’s Center for International Disaster Information. Juanita’s career includes more than 36 years on professional staffs in the U.S. Senate and in USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance.
Juan Pablo Solís Víquez

Juan Pablo Solís Víquez

Juan Pablo Solís Víquez is Fairtrade’s senior adviser for climate and environment. Before joining Fairtrade, Juan Pablo worked for Hivos and was appointed manager of the InterAmerican Development Bank Lab’s SAFE platform. He holds an economic policies M.Sc. from the National University of Costa Rica, with emphasis on ecologic economy and sustainable development, complemented by specialized training in human rights, gender equity, value chains, green business, landscape restoration, microfinance, and sustainable development goals. More than 17 years in the sustainability sector have led him to work and live in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific.
Judd Devermont

Judd Devermont

Judd Devermont is director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He previously served as U.S. national intelligence officer for Africa, the CIA’s senior political analyst on sub-Saharan Africa, and National Security Council director for Somalia, Nigeria, the Sahel, and the African Union.
Judith Diment

Judith Diment

Judith Diment is the coordinator of the polio eradication advocacy task force at Rotary International and U.K. national advocacy adviser for polio. For more than 20 years, she has advocated for polio eradication and organized many polio advocacy and media events at the Houses of Parliament and the European Parliament.
Judith Robb-McCord

Judith Robb-McCord

Judith Robb-McCord is the director of PCI’s Every Preemie — SCALE program funded through USAID. Judith has twenty years of international public health experience with a focus on maternal, newborn and child health. She worked with USAID in Kenya, Eritrea, Côte d'Ivoire and Ethiopia. Judith was the director of Jhpiego's Maternal & Neonatal Health Program​; and was the regional director of PATH's Malaria Control and Evaluation Program in Africa. Learn more about PCI at www.PCIGlobal.org.
Judith Rodin

Judith Rodin

Judith Rodin is the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, one of the world’s leading philanthropic organizations. Prior to the Rockefeller Foundation, she was the president of the University of Pennsylvania, and provost of Yale University. She was the first woman named to lead an Ivy League Institution and is the first woman to serve as the Rockefeller Foundation’s president in its nearly 100-year history. Dr. Rodin is the author of more than 200 academic articles and has written or co-written 12 books and has received 18 honorary degrees and serves as a member of the board for several leading corporations and non-profits.
Judith Smit

Judith Smit

Judith Smit is the global lead for rice fortification at DSM. For the past seven years, her work has been around making rice more nutritious to improve public health. She does this by leveraging the available scientific expertise and DSM’s partnerships to reach three billion people globally who are in need of better nutritional provision and consume rice daily and suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. Before joining DSM Nutrition Improvement in 2015, she worked for the U.N. World Food Programmebased in Bangkok, with a focus on scaling up rice fortification activities in the region.