Tony Simons

Executive Director
CIFOR-ICRAF

Tony is a land-use specialist with business, scientific and strategic expertise in agriculture, biodiversity, restoration and forestry. He obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in New Zealand, and his PhD at Cambridge University. He has published over 160 research articles, and has more than 7500 scientific citations of his work.

Tony’s four decades of experience covers public sector, private sector and academia including Shell Forestry, Oxford University and UK Government (ODA/DFID). From 1995, he worked at ICRAF based in Kenya, and from 2011 was Director General there until October 2022. He holds honorary positions at Copenhagen University, and is Lifetime Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy. He is also currently an international curator of a new Exhibit on Land Restoration to be opening in December at the Federal Museum (BKH) in Bonn, Germany.

Tony is passionate about the transformative change that private sector corporates and investors can bring to international development having established partnerships with ADM Capital, Astanor Ventures, Barry Callebaut, BNP Paribas, Boehringer, CEMOI, Danone, MARS Inc, Nestle, OLAM, TO Group, UNEP-FI, Unilever, Veolia and several others.

Sessions