Raphael Mrode joined ILRI as principal scientist in quantitative dairy cattle genetics on 15 September 2014. He holds a PhD in animal breeding and genetics and has been involved in the development and research underpinning genetic evaluations in dairy and beef cattle in the United Kingdom over the last 20 years. He has previously been a consultant for ILRI on capacity building. Mrode has published about 34 peer-reviewed papers, is an author of two textbooks and a reader in quantitative genetics. He is a member of a technical committee of the International organization (INTERBULL) in charge of dairy cattle evaluations, auditor of International Committee for animal recording (ICAR) and is a section editor for the journal ANIMAL and a reviewer for several international journals. His major role will involve developing and testing innovative genetic and genomic approaches to livestock genetic improvement that can deliver substantial improvements to poor farmers in low-input environments. Mrode is from Nigeria.

Asaah Ndambi joined ILRI as Livestock Scientist on 22 September 2014 in Livestock Systems and Environment Program (LSE). His work will focus on mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from livestock production systems. Prior to joining ILRI, he worked as a senior researcher at the International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) dairy research center at the department of agricultural economics in the University of Kiel, Germany. He holds a PhD in agricultural sciences with a specialty in livestock management and economics and has over 15 years’ research experience in different aspects of livestock production covering breeding, nutrition, food technology, health, environmental sustainability, rural extension and production economics. He first graduated with a diploma in agricultural engineering from the University of Dschang, Cameroon. He holds a master’s degree in agricultural sciences, food security and natural resources management from the University of Hohenheim, Germany and a PhD from the University of Kiel, Germany. Asaah is from Cameroon.

Workneh Ayalew joined ILRI as Livestock Program Director on 1 October 2014, seconded to the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) of Ethiopia. His main focus is the overall direction of the livestock value chains interventions, to identify and prioritize livestock interventions, engage and promote stakeholder participation, facilitate resources mobilization, assess major capacity gaps and monitor performance of interventions. Prior to this appointment, he was in Papua New Guinea where he served as the deputy director general of the Papua New Guinea National Agricultural Research Institute, as well as livestock research and development coordinator and principal livestock scientist. He had previously worked ILRI in Ethiopia. Workneh holds a PhD degree in animal production and breeding from the Georg-August University of Goettingen, Germany, an MSc degree in animal breeding from the Alemaya University of Agriculture, Ethiopia and a BSc in animal sciences, from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. His contributions to the scientific literature include 52 journal articles, five book chapters and 61 articles in conference proceedings.

Sikhalazo Dube joined ILRI as Regional Representative for Southern Africa on 1 November 2014. He is a full professor and was a research team manager in the Rangelands Management and Forage Program at the Agricultural Research Council (ARC)-Animal Production Institute (API), Pretoria, South Africa. Prior to joining ARC, he was a senior scientist (ecosystems modeling) at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria in the Global Change and Ecosystems Dynamics Research Group. He has extensive experience in research and training and policy inputs with a focus on rangelands ecology and gender including the dialogue between science, resources users and policy formulators, development of decision support tools and mapping of resources. He is a trainer at Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resources (WOCAN) Pretoria, South Africa and is a trustee, member and former president of the Grassland Society of Southern Africa. His publications include over 40 articles in scientific journals, proceedings, books and chapters in books and several several technical reports. He is also the chairman of the Lupane State University Management Committee in South Africa. Dube holds a PhD in rangeland ecology and management from Texas A&M University, USA and a number of professional qualifications. Dube is from South Africa.

John Recha joined ILRI as a Postdoctoral Fellow – Participatory Action Research for the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), on 1 November 2014. He holds a PhD in Soil Science with minor specialization in Hydrology and International Agriculture and Rural Development (Cornell University). He has an MSc in Soil Science and Land Management (Sokoine University of Agriculture), and BSc in Agriculture (University of Nairobi). After his studies, he worked as a Postdoctoral Associate with Cornell University’s Department of Crop and Soil Sciences for a semester, focusing on soil fertility management. He was also an ILRI consultant on climate-smart agriculture between 2011 and 2014. Previously, he worked with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) as a Research Technician, where he coordinated soil fertility management research in western Kenya. He has also worked with environmental non-governmental organizations, promoting climate smart agriculture for improving rural livelihoods, and has written research articles on climate change adaptation, soil fertility management and hydrology in the tropics.

Iain Wright has been appointed as Deputy Director General-Integrated Sciences, a position he had been holding on an interim basis since June 2014. Iain joined ILRI in 2006 as Regional Representative for Asia, coordinating ILRI’s activities in South Asia, South East Asia and China. From January 2012, he was the Director General’s Representative in Ethiopia and the Program Leader of Animal Science for Sustainable Productivity (ASSP). Prior to joining ILRI, he held a number of positions at the Macaulay Institute, Scotland, where he managed a number of research programmes, including the Institute’s research programme on Agro-Ecosystems, which included research on Land Use Change and Land Use Systems and their impacts. From 2003 to 2006 he was Chief Executive of Macaulay Research Consultancy Services Ltd., the Macaulay Institute’s knowledge transfer company.
Iain holds a PhD in Animal Nutrition, BSc in Agriculture and has 30 years’ experience of conducting and managing research and development.

Alok Kumar joined ILRI as post-doctoral scientist in Feed and Forage Bioscience Programme on 1 November 2014. Alok is plant virologist and he obtained his PhD in developing an expression vector using plant virus for the foreign gene expression in plant. Prior to joining the ILRI, Alok worked as a research associate in a NAIP funded plant virus diagnostic project at Advanced Centre for Plant Virology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India. Alok has also experience in Microbiology as he worked in microbial biotechnology lab at Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR), India. Alok is looking for germplasm health and post-entry quarantine of germplasm in the Forage Genebank. Alok is from India.