Charles Iyangbe

Dr. Iyangbe is a leader in the agribusiness space with vast experience in supporting partnerships for enhancing value chains, food security, and livelihoods amongst smallholder farmers. He enjoys more than 21 years of professional experience in the project planning, designs and management, partnership building, working on agricultural enterprise development projects, and promoting climate-smart agriculture that is environmentally friendly. Dr. Iyangbe recently joined Heifer International as the Regional Business Development Director for West Africa. In this role, he provides strategic direction in agricultural value chain development and leadership to help grow Heifer’s funding and partnerships within the West Africa region. Dr. Iyangbe leads regional collaboration, engagement, linkages, relationships, partnerships with Government, and other critical strategic regional partners to support the achievement of Heifer's vision in Africa of ending poverty and hunger whilst caring for the earth. Prior to joining Heifer International, Dr. Charles Iyangbe worked with the United State Agency for International Development (USAID/Nigeria) for 4.5 years as the Senior Agriculture Economist. In this role, he undertook a variety of USAID’s economic cooperation programs in West Africa with a portfolio covering agriculture, food security/livelihoods, trade, and investment. At some point in USAID, Dr. Iyangbe was the USAID lead for Feed the Future (FTF) Agribusiness Investment; Integrated Agriculture; Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services; Livelihoods; West Africa Trade and Investment Hub; Partnership for Inclusive Agricultural Transformation in Africa (PIATA); and Rural Resilience activities; and co-lead for the FTF Nigeria Agricultural Policy Activity. He also managed other FTF Initiatives in Nigeria. Previously, he served at leadership positions with Catholic Relief services (CRS) where he oversaw program designs, implementation and investments in agriculture, research, economic strengthening, and livelihoods projects for five years, growing the agriculture portfolio of CRS to an amiable height. As the Agriculture Value Chain Specialist with the Chevron Partnership Initiative in the Niger Delta (PIND), Nigeria, Dr. Iyangbe worked to promote linkages amongst key value chain actors. Before joining PIND, he was the Agribusiness Development Specialist with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) from 2009 - 2011, where he managed and attracted private sector funding for several agribusiness projects in Nigeria, Benin Republic, and Sierra Leone. Dr. Iyangbe is a certified Project Management Professional (PMDPro 1 & 2) and holds a Doctorate Degree (Ph.D) in Agricultural Economics. He is originally from Nigeria and speaks English fluently.