WorldFish’s Director General, Dr. Gareth Johnstone, advised the Board leadership of his intention to stand down over the holiday period, after working with WorldFish for 10 years including heading the organization for the past four years, during which time he has led WorldFish through a period of significant growth in terms of its capability to address the increasingly complex challenge of sustaining human well-being and the health of our planet.
“For the last 10 years, WorldFish has been my passion, as the WorldFish team and I have worked tirelessly with our many partners across the globe to ensure that the larger aspects of aquatic food systems are included in the 2030 systems transformation agenda for food, land and water systems,” Dr. Johnstone said. “I am immensely proud of what WorldFish has achieved, and I am pleased to have played my part in its evolution and success.”
“WorldFish has gone from strength to strength, and the 2020 launch of our Aquatic Foods for Healthy People and Planet: 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy reflects the focus that the WorldFish Director General and his team have brought to positioning aquatic foods systems within the SDG-focused global research and innovation agenda,” said the WorldFish Board of Trustees Chair, Prof. Baba Yusuf Abubakar. “I am grateful to Gareth for the alignment this new strategy delivered in respect of CGIAR’s 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy, so that aquatic food systems and WorldFish can play a central role in the transformative agenda that CGIAR will drive forward.”
Dr. Claudia Sadoff, CGIAR’s Managing Director, Research Delivery and Impact, and convener of CGIAR’s Executive Management Team, thanked Dr. Johnstone for his work over the past six months as One CGIAR’s Senior Director, Aquatic Food Systems, a title held concurrently by him. “In addition to delivering on the new WorldFish Aquatic Food Systems strategy, Gareth has worked over many years to enable a bold footprint for aquatic food systems research and innovation, including establishing an important, growing country office in Myanmar, which will undoubtedly support further regional growth of fish and other aquatic systems research for CGIAR.”
Recognizing the hard work everyone has put in to maintain high-quality research even as national borders, sites and offices were closed due to the pandemic, Prof. Abubakar added, “On behalf of the whole Board, I would like to thank Dr. Johnstone again for his tenure and commitment to delivering impact for those we support.”
