In recent years, the reduction of postharvest losses has been increasingly identified as a significant and
important way to improve food security around the world, without using additional resources that are
in limited supply. Global awareness campaigns such as that of the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization’s SAVE Food Partnership or the United Nations Environmental Programme’s Think.Eat.Save
have ushered this issue onto the agricultural development agenda. As stakeholders convene on
strategies for prevention, lessons are emerging on how to form effective, innovative partnerships that
lead to impact for farmers, managers, and consumers worldwide.
The ADM Institute for the Prevention of Postharvest Loss is pleased to host the panel discussion,
“Partnerships and Collaboration for Global Postharvest Loss Prevention” featuring distinguished experts,
Dr. Robert Easter, President of the University of Illinois; Mr. Dennis Fisher, Director of the Office of
Compliance and Ethics at the Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM); Mr. CD Glin, Associate Director
at The Rockefeller Foundation, and Ms. Charlene McKoin, Senior Project Officer at the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation. Panelists will discuss their involvement with ongoing postharvest loss initiatives, and
share their perspectives on reducing losses globally.
Panelists:
Dennis Fisher, Compliance Director, Ag Services and Corn Processing, Archer Daniels Midland Company
Mr. Fisher is the Compliance Director for the Ag Services and Corn Processing business units at Archer
Daniels Midland Company. He joined ADM in 1984 and has held various positions in Transportation/
Logistics, Systems Development and Integration and Compliance. He led the initial development
and coordination of ADM’s Sustainability program and has conducted a global supply chain integrity
assessment for multiple feedstock’s with a focus on environmental and social impacts. Mr. Fisher has
worked with various internal and external stakeholders to understand the opportunities and challenges
facing the agricultural processing industry. Mr. Fisher holds a B.S. in Business from Iowa State University and is a graduate of the University of Illinois Executive Development Program. Mr. Fisher currently serves as the ADM representative on the ADM Institute’s Steering Committee and
the External Advisory Board.
CD Glin, Associate Director, The Rockefeller FoundationMr. Glin is an Associate Director based in the Africa Regional Office of The Rockefeller Foundation in
Nairobi, Kenya. He serves as the regional champion for the Foundation’s initiatives in strengthening food
security through increasing smallholder farmer’s agricultural productivity and the building of resilience
to the devastating effects of climate change to enable real, sustainable and equitable economic growth
throughout Africa. Prior to joining the Rockefeller Foundation, Glin was a White House appointee to
the U.S. Peace Corps where he served as the agency’s first Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and
Partnerships. Mr. Glin holds a Master’s degree in Business Management from Tulane University. The ADM Institute has worked closely with Mr. Glin on The Foundation’s Reducing Global Food Waste
and Spoilage Initiative, for which the institute received a $500,000 grant to perform contributing
research on PHL innovations.
Ahmed Kablan, PharmD, PhD., International Nutrition and Public Health Adviser Dr. Kablan is a program manager at Agriculture Research and Policy/Bureau of Food Security/USAID. At USAID, Dr. Kablan manages the Postharvest Loss and the Soybean Innovation labs. Dr. Kablan’s work at USAID centers on integrated value chain development and nutrition. His major focus is on the factors that lead to negative nutritional outcomes and ways to achieve nutrition integration into the various research programs (innovation labs) funded by USAID. From 2012-2014 he was an AAAS Science Policy and Technology Fellow. During his fellowship he was the champion of having a broader look at malnutrition and what factors contribute to it including Postharvest loss (due mainly to mycotoxins); food security; WASH and gut health.
Dr. Kablan is a pharmacologist with a biotechnology and drug discovery background. He has over 12 years of postdoctoral research, teaching and science policy and regulatory experience. Dr. Kablan’s research focused on metabolic syndrome, malnutrition and the health consequences of obesity and overweight. He was a member of the USAID nutrition technical working group that is tasked with writing the USAID Nutrition Strategy, a member of the working group that wrote USAID research policy.
Dr. Kablan earned his PhD in Biotechnology & Pharmacology from the University of Bologna, Italy, and his PharmD from Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan.
Charlene McKoin, Senior Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationCharlene McKoin is a Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where she works
on the Access and Markets team focusing on integrated value chain development and postharvest
loss. Before joining the Gates Foundation in 2012, Ms. McKoin spent more than eight years working as
“Chief of Party”, managing a variety of USAID funded agri-business, financial, nutrition and HIV/AIDS
projects for Abt Associates, Cardno Emerging Markets and AFRICARE. Prior to her years in international
development, Ms. McKoin spent 20 years in corporate, international structured trade, and project
finance working for Bank of America, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo. She has lived and worked in Africa and
Latin America with specific expertise in Lusophone countries including Brazil, Mozambique, Angola and
Guinea Bissau. She holds an M.A. in International Affairs, Economics, and International Development
from John Hopkins University. Ms. McKoin currently serves as a member of the ADM Institute’s External Advisory Board. She led efforts for the co-hosted experts convening “Post-Harvest Loss Metrics, Measurement, & Mitigation: Resolving Unmet Needs” in May 2014, and is supporting the development of potential longer-term opportunities at BMGF for PHL prevention initiatives.
