Ann Tutwiler

Margaret Ann Tutwiler, sometimes referred to a M. Ann Tutwiler or, more simply, Ann Tutwiler, was born in Columbia, South Carolina in the United States. She obtained a bachelor’s degree from the Presbyterian Davidson College in North Carolina and a master’s degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She also has executive education certificates in agribusiness from Purdue University and INSEAD. Her studies included a period in Spain and she also worked as a teacher in a remote part of Western Kenya.[1][2][3]

From 1992 to 2002 Tutwiler was Director of Government Relations for the multinational agribusiness company Eridania Béghin-Say. From 2002 to December 2005 she was the President of the International Food and Trade Policy Council, based in Washington D.C.. At the beginning of 2006 she joined the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, where she created to Foundation’s agricultural markets program. She joined the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as the Global Food Security Coordinator in 2009, coordinating USDA’s participation in President Barack Obama’s 'Feed the Future' initiative. In January 2011 she took up the post as Deputy Director-General for Knowledge at FAO, Rome, moving to FAO’s Geneva office in late 2012 as a Special Advisor to the Director-General, Jacques Diouf. In July 2013 Tutwiler became Director General of Bioversity International, an organization based near Rome that is devoted to safeguarding agricultural biodiversity and is one of the 15 members of the CGIAR partnership.[1][2][4]

On leaving Bioversity Tutwiler became Chair of the Steering Committee of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE); a Senior Fellow at the Meridian Institute, a non-profit food and agriculture consultancy; a Senior Advisor at SYSTEMIQ and at the Access to Seeds Foundation; and an advisory board member of Foodshot Global.[4][5]

Ann Tutwiler received the John W. Kuykendall Award for Community Service in 2005. This is an award given annually to alumni of Davidson College.[6]