U.S. President Barack Obama announced Thursday (April 21) his appointees for the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development, or BIFAD: Brady J. Deaton for chairman and Gebisa Ejeta, Jo Luck and Marty McVey as members.
BIFAD is charged with advising the U.S. Agency for International Development administrator on U.S. agricultural development priorities. It was created in 1975 under the Foreign Assistance Act.
Deaton and Ejeta are known academics, with the former serving as chancellor of the University of Missouri and the latter being a professor at Purdue University and the executive director of the Purdue Center for Global Food Security.
Luck is from the nonprofit sector. She is currently the president of Heifer International, a global organization seeking an end to hunger and poverty, as well as co-recipient of the 2010 World Food Prize.
McVey, meanwhile, is the president of private equity firm McVey & Co. Investments and founder and chairman of renewable energy company Safi Energy.
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