Previous positions
- Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) Rome, Italy 1997-2006:
- -Assistant Director-General - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2000-2006
- -Director Research, Extension and Training Division - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 1997-1999
- -Member - Strategic Advisory Board of the Director General - FAO, UN - Rome 2012-2014
- University Professor - University of Amsterdam - Amsterdam - The Netherlands - 2006-2014
- Member - Nederlands-Franse Samenwerkingsraad - the Hague 2011-2014 *
- Member - The Dutch Safety Board - the Hague 2011-2014
- Member - Advisory Council - The Hague Institute for Global Justice - the Hague 2011-2014
- Member - Board of Trustees - Unisca - Amsterdam 2011-2014
- Member- Executive Committee (2011-2014) and Crown Appointed Member (2008-2014)
The Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER) - the Hague
- Chair - Nationaal Platform Rio+20 * - the Netherlands | website: UNCSD-Rio2012
- Member - Board of Trustees - Shell Foundation - United Kingdom 2011-2014
- Initiator - "Film & Food" Spui 25 - Academic Cultural Center - Amsterdam 2009-2014
- Member - The AtoZ Forum, The Reading & Writing Foundation - the Hague 2008-2014
- Lid redactieraad AAA/ABC, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2008-2014
- Visiting professor Institute of Earth Sciences, Stanford University and Packard Foundation Palo Alto 2007-2014
- Chair - Compagnie Fonds and its Board of Professors - Maritime Museum - Amsterdam 2007-2014
- Member - Supervisory Board - Rabobank Nederland - Utrecht 2006-2014
- Honorary professor - Wageningen University & Research 2001-2014
- Vice-chair - Council - United Nations University - Tokyo 2007-2013
- Member - Scientific Advisory Committee - Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) - Madrid, Spain 2009-2012
- Trustee - Roosevelt Academy - Middelburg, the Netherlands 2008-2011
- Columnist - Folia - weekly magazine, University of Amsterdam 2008-2011 *
- Member - Jury - Libris Literature Award - the Netherlands 2011 *
- Member - Committee to Review the IPPC - InterAcademy Council - the Netherlands 2010
- Chair - Jury - 'Bouwfonds Design Competition' - NIROV 2008
- Member - Delta Commission - the Netherlands 2007-2008 (ongoing)
- Comité d'organisation du Colloque sur la recherche agronomique -
INRA-CIRAD - Paris, France 2007-2008
- Chair - Review Committee - Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) - Paris, France 2006-2007
- Member - Meta Evaluatie Commissie (MEC) - KNAW 2004-2008
- Honorary Cleveringa Chair - University Leiden, the Netherlands 2005-2006
- Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, Netherlands 1990-1997:
- - Professor - Plant production systems with special reference to the (sub-)tropics
- - Chair - Department of Agronomy
- - Senior Lecturer - Department of Tropical Crop Science
- - Founding member - Graduate School of Production Ecology
- Founding member - International Geosphere-Biosphere Land Use and Cover Change Project (IGBP) -
- Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR):
- Member - Board - Asian Vegetable Research Center - Taiwan
- Member - various committees - Dutch Foundation for Literature - Fonds voor de Letteren -
- President - National Advisory Council for Research on Nature and Environment (RMNO)
- Former literary critic and publicist in Dutch leading newspapers
- Board member/advisor to international agricultural research institutes in France, Africa, South America and Asia
- Long term field position as FAO project manager in Zaire (Congo)
- UN Volunteer PNG
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- * website not available in English