Johan Swinnen is director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and global director for systems transformation at CGIAR (​​the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research). He earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University and holds honorary doctorates from the University of Göttingen in Germany and the Slovak University of Agriculture. He has published extensively on agricultural and food policies, international development, political economy, institutional reform, trade and global value chains. His body of work has been widely cited and received multiple awards.