Jimmy Smith, a Canadian, is the director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), a position he assumed in 2011. Before joining ILRI, he worked for the World Bank in Washington, DC, where he led the Bank’s Global Livestock Portfolio. He has also held senior positions at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA), and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI). He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign, where he completed a PhD in Animal Sciences.