“Founders can struggle to step down but instead I am very excited to have Richard Rogers apply his exceptional strategic ability to guide an expanding COSA,” says Daniele Giovannucci.

We are delighted to welcome our first new Board Chair since the founding of COSA. Richard Rogers is the Managing Director of Rogers MacJohn and former Sr. Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and prior to that he was at McKinsey and Kraft Foods.

Outgoing Chair Daniele Giovannucci states “Founders can struggle to step down but, with Richard, I am both confident and excited about his exceptional strategic ability to distill what is important and to pragmatically guide the vision of organizations by leveraging diverse insights and experience from his decades in leadership positions. Other new Board Officers include Secretary Mark Halle, Treasurer Carli Rosencranz (WalMart), and Vice-Chair Han deGroot (ex-Rainforest Alliance).

While at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Richard developed and managed a $400m portfolio of grants and co-investments. He has advised multinational corporations such as Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, and Mars in addition to government agencies such as USAID, BMZ, DFID, and the Nigerian, Ethiopian, and Tanzanian Ministries of Agriculture. He has also worked closely with social-sector organizations such as the Rockefeller Foundation, GIZ, TechnoServe, Sustainable Food Lab, and the Shared Value Initiative led by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer of Harvard Business School. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago.