Peter Matlon, Ph.D. has pursued a career in international development, with a particular focus on African agriculture. He was privileged to live and work in Africa for more than 25 years. His work included teaching, research and research management within international agricultural research centers, directing food security activities for the United Nations Development Program, and serving as Managing Director for Africa Programs of The Rockefeller Foundation, based in Nairobi, Kenya, from which he retired in 2007. Since his retirement, he has been a member and chair of numerous boards for both US and African-based organizations and is currently an adjunct professor of Applied Economics and Management in Cornell University’s Dyson School.
Before his retirement, Matlon also served on a number of global advisory panels including the United Nations Millennium Program Hunger Task Force and the InterAcademy Council Panel on African Agriculture. He chaired the United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group on Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems and was Executive Secretary of the Impact Assessment and Evaluation Group of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
Matlon earned a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Cornell University in 1977, a Masters in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in 1971, and a BSFS degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1967.