Ertharin Cousin

Ms. Cousin has served as Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Food Systems For The Future Institute, a non-profit organization to catalyze, enable and scale market-driven agtech, foodtech and food innovations, since September, 2019 and has also served at Stanford University as Visiting Scholar, Spogli Institute for the Study of International Relations, Center for Food and Environment since September 2019. She has served as Distinguished Fellow of The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a global affairs think tank, since June, 2017. Ms. Cousin previously served at Stanford University as Payne Distinguished Lecturer and Visiting Fellow, Spogli Institute for the Study of International Relations, Center for Food and Environment from September 2017 to June 2019. From April 2012 to April 2017, Ms. Cousin served as Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, the food-assistance branch of the United Nations, and she served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agencies on behalf of the U.S. Department of State from August 2009 to April 2012.

Ms. Cousin previously served in a variety of executive roles between 1987 and 2009, including Founding President and Chief Executive Officer of The Polk Street Group, a management services company; Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of America's Second Harvest; Senior Vice President, Public Affairs for the Albertsons Companies, Inc.; White House Liaison and Special Advisor to Secretary for 2016 Olympics for the U.S. Department of State; and Assistant Attorney General for The State of Illinois.