Good morning. I would like to welcome you to SAIS for this important
symposium organized by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture.
I am pleased that my first conference as Dean at SAIS is devoted to
the topic of agriculture in the developing world.
SAIS is truly an appropriate venue for exploring private-public collaboration.
We train leaders from around the world, most of whose careers are in
some way involved in bridging the private, public and nonprofit sectors.
Hailing from every corner of the world, our alumni staff foreign ministries,
international organizations, private corporations, and research institutes
around the globe. Like Syngenta, we have a global reach, and with today's
symposium we share a mission --to make a difference. Perhaps the most
important characteristic of those of us who are trained at SAIS is our
commitment to make a difference in a global context.
Though our graduates go on to contribute in a wide variety of public,
private, and nonprofit roles, the tie that binds us is a global perspective
- a perspective that includes a commitment to address international
problems through our work. And high on the list of pressing global issues
today is assuring food security. Just yesterday, the Sunday New York
Times featured a starving young woman from Malawi - hunger is once again
sweeping across Southern Africa.
Research at SAIS, like our teaching, is committed to the highest academic
rigor as it searches for conclusions that will make a difference in
the world. And it is the craft of balancing theory and practice applied
knowledge that has come to distinguish SAIS over the past half century
since our founding.
Our research strives to enlighten the doers while it works to inform
systematic thinkers about the intricacies of real world problems. It
is similar to the long relationship between CGIAR and the World Bank,
and I know Syngenta is now joining the CGIAR as an active corporate
member. In that spirit, today's symposium aims to contribute to our
stock of usable knowledge on how we an better collaborate to advance
agricultural research to benefit those who need it most.
This is summer, and I only regret that our full student body is not
present to benefit from, and contribute to, the proceedings. Our students
have mostly dispersed themselves throughout the world, beginning their
careers or pursuing summer internships. However, I do hope you will
have a chance to interact with some of our faculty staff who are in attendance
today.
At the World Bank, agriculture was a source of great optimism (the
green revolution) and terrible disappointment (the rural development
morass of the seventies). But the topic is always central.
Once again welcome to SAIS and to what promises to be a stimulating
symposium. I hope today's sessions spark debates, ideas, and initiatives
to which SAIS can continue to contribute long after today's gathering.
It is now my pleasure to turn the podium over to Heinz Imhof, Chairman
of the Board of Directors of Syngenta and the President of the Syngenta
Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture. As most of you know, Syngenta
is the world's largest agrochemical firm and is the corporate outcome
of efforts in the private sector to create "Life Sciences" companies,
which could span both the pharmaceutical and agricultural aspects of
biotechnology.
Heinz Imhof's long career with Sandoz and, after the merger with CIBA-Geigy,
his position as head of Agribusiness gives him enormous
experience as he guides Syngenta and the Syngenta Foundation
at the frontiers of knowledge that will probably define
the coming age. As many have said, the information age
will likely be followed by the biotech revolution -
and so perhaps I should say, Heinz Imhof is the Marco
Polo of our time!
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