Dr. Namanga Ngongi has had broad management experience having served at the national and international levels in public and nongovernmental organizations for more than 50 years. He served in the Agricultural Extension Service of the Cameroon Ministry of Agriculture, Chief of Projects and later as representative of his country to the Rome-based UN Food Agencies. He joined the United Nations World Food Program in 1984 and became its Deputy Executive Director in 1994. He held that position until 2001, when he was appointed Special Representative of the UN Secretary General and Head of the Peacekeeping Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He retired from the United Nations in 2003. He returned to farming in Cameroon but in 2007 was called out of retirement to be the first President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. Dr. Ngongi retired from AGRA in 2012. In addition to being the Chair of ICED, Dr. Ngongi is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), the Board of Trustees of the African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) and the Board of the Seed Systems Group (SSG). He is a member of the Program Committee of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC). Dr. Ngongi obtained his MS and PhD in Agronomy from Cornell University and a BS in Crop Production from California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo.