Tom Arnold | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | |
| Occupation(s) | Director General of IIEA, former CEO of Concern Worldwide and special representative for hunger. |
Tom Arnold is an Irish agricultural economist and public policy advisor who has worked for the European Commission, the Irish Department of Agriculture and Food and Concern Worldwide. He has served on governmental and non-governmental bodies at Irish, European and international level, with a particular focus on sustainable food systems and nutrition.
Arnold has a degree in agricultural economics from University College Dublin, an MBA from the Université catholique de Louvain, and a masters in strategic management from Trinity College Dublin. [1]
Tom Arnold started his professional career as a stagiere (intern) in the Cabinet of Dr Patrick Hillery, European Commissioner for Social Affairs (September 1973 - February 1974). From 1974 to 1983, he served as an official in the European Commission; in the directorate general for agriculture (1974-77), the Commission delegations in the Ivory Coast (1977-78) and Malawi (1979), and in the directorate general for development (1980-83).
He returned to Ireland in 1983 to take up the role as Senior Economist with ACOT - the farm advisory, training and education service. [2] In 1988 he joined the Department of Agriculture and Food as Chief Economist and in 1993 was appointed Assistant Secretary General. In 2001, he was appointed Chief Executive of Concern Worldwide, Ireland’s largest humanitarian agency, a post he held until February 2013.
In October 2012, Arnold was asked to chair the Irish Constitutional Convention which was tasked with examining and making recommendations on a number of articles in the Irish Constitution which dated from 1937. The Convention consisted of 100 people, 66 of whom were citizens chosen as representative of the population, 33 were politicians reflecting the strength of the political parties in the Oireachtas (four of the politicians were from Northern Ireland). The Convention had its first official meeting in December 2012 and concluded its work in March 2014. [2]
Arnold was appointed Director General of the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), Ireland’s leading think-tank, a position he held until March 2017. [2]
In August 2014, Arnold accepted a request from the UN to coordinate the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement [3] (SUN Movement), which brings together governments, civil society and the private sector, to improve nutrition at national and international level. The request was made following the appointment by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of Dr David Nabarro, the current coordinator of the SUN Movement, to be the UN system's senior coordinator of the response to the Ebola virus disease. In Dr Nabarro's absence as SUN coordinator, Arnold was to provide strategic leadership to the SUN Movement, working closely with the existing SUN networks and the SUN secretariat, based in Geneva. The appointment was for a six-month period, starting 1 September 2014.
Arnold has served as chair or member on numerous boards/committees at Irish, European and international level. These include:
Sandra Kalniete is a Latvian politician, author, diplomat and independence movement leader. She served as Foreign Minister of Latvia 2002–2004 and as European Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries in 2004. Since 2009, she has served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the European People's Party.
Peter Denis Sutherland was an Irish businessman, barrister and Fine Gael politician who served as UN Special Representative for International Migration from 2006 to 2017. He was known for serving in various international organisations, political and business roles.
Sir David Nunes Nabarro is a British Special Envoy on Covid-19 for the World Health Organization. He has made his career in the international civil service, working for either the Secretary-General of the United Nations or the Director-General of the World Health Organization. Since February 2020, he has helped the DGWHO deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mairead McGuinness is an Irish politician serving as the European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union since October 2020. A member of Fine Gael, she previously served as First Vice-President of the European Parliament from 2017 to 2020. She served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for East from 2004 to 2014 and for Midlands–North-West from 2014 to 2020, making her Ireland's longest serving MEP. In the European Parliament, she sat with the European People's Party (EPP).
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is an international agricultural research center founded in 1975 to improve the understanding of national agricultural and food policies to promote the adoption of innovations in agricultural technology. Additionally, IFPRI was meant to shed more light on the role of agricultural and rural development in the broader development pathway of a country. The mission of IFPRI is to provide research-based policy solutions that sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) that provides independent scientific advice and communicates on existing and emerging risks associated with the food chain. EFSA was established in February 2002, is based in Parma, Italy, and for 2021 it has a budget of €118.6 million, and a total staff of 542.
Catherine Bertini is an American public servant. She is the 2003 World Food Prize Laureate. She was the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program from 1992 to 2002. She served as the UN Under-Secretary for Management from 2003 to 2005. Currently she is a distinguished fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Chair of the Board of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and the Chair of the Executive Board of the Crop Trust.
Hugh Redmond Brady is an Irish academic, the 17th President of Imperial College London, and a professor of medicine. He was the 13th President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol. He is also President Emeritus of University College, Dublin (UCD), having served as UCD's eighth President from 2004 to 2013.
Gerritje "Gerda" Verburg is a Dutch politician and diplomat of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and trade union leader
Catherine Day is a former European civil servant from Ireland. Appointed in November 2005 as Secretary-General of the European Commission, she served two terms with President Jose Manuel Barroso and continued with his successor, Mr Jean-Claude Juncker until she retired in September 2015. She was the first woman to hold the post of Secretary General of the European Commission.
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a non-profit foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland. GAIN was developed at the UN 2002 Special Session of the General Assembly on Children. GAIN’s actions include improving the consumption of nutritious and safe foods for all. They are supported by over 30 donors and work closely with international organisations and United Nations agencies. Their activities include improving consumption of nutritious food globally. The organisation has a 20 year history of food system programmes: focusing on adolescent and child nutrition, food system research, fortification, small and medium enterprise assistance, biofortification of crops and reducing post-harvest losses.
Rebeca Grynspan Mayufis is a Costa Rican economist who has been serving as Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) since 13 September 2021.
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman, is a Dutch businessman and author. He was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the British/Dutch consumer goods company Unilever. Polman is also the author of Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take.
Sun Dawen, known as Da-Wen Sun, is a Chinese-born professor who studies food engineering at University College Dublin.
Lawrence James Haddad, is a British economist whose main research focuses on how to make food systems work better to advance the nutrition status of people globally.
Sir Mark Andrew Lowcock is a British economist and accountant who served as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator between 2017 and 2021. Prior to his appointment by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on 12 May 2017, Lowcock was the Permanent Secretary of the Department for International Development (DFID) from June 2011 to September 2017. He is currently a visiting professor in practice at the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Distinguished Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC. He is also a Trustee/Director and vice-chair of The Howard Partnership Trust, a multi-academy trust of schools in Surrey.
Lindiwe Sibanda Majele (born 1963) is a Zimbabwean professor, scientist, policy advocate and influencer on food systems. She currently serves as director and chair of the ARUA Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Food Systems (ARUA-SFS) at the University of Pretoria in Pretoria, South Africa as well as founder and managing director of Linds Agricultural Services Pvt Ltd. in Harare, Zimbabwe. She is currently a board member of Nestlé where she is also a member of the Sustainability Committee.
Corinna Hawkes is a specialist in food systems. She is Director, Division of Food Systems and Food Safety for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Between 2016 and 2023 she was Director, Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London. She is also Co-Founder of the Next Gen(D)eration Leadership Collective.
Alison Jane Hanlon is an Irish veterinary research scientist who advocates for animal welfare, including that of companion animals, horses and farm animals. She is a professor at University College Dublin and has worked on a number of government advisory groups.
Joachim von Braun is a German agricultural scientist and currently director of a department of the Center for Development Research at the University of Bonn and President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.