ertharin cousin BIOGRAPHY

Professional Background:
Since September 2019, Ms. Cousin has served as Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Food Systems for the Future Institute, a non‑profit organization to catalyze, enable and scale market‑driven agtech, foodtech and food innovations, and also as Visiting Scholar, Spogli Institute for the Study of International Relations, Center for Food and Environment at Stanford University. She has served as Distinguished Fellow of The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a global affairs think tank, since 2017. Ms. Cousin previously served as Payne Distinguished Lecturer and Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Spogli Institute from 2017 to 2019. From 2012 to 2017, Ms. Cousin served as Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, the food‑assistance branch of the United Nations. She was Ambassador 
and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agencies on behalf of the U.S. Department of State from 2009 to 2012.

Ms. Cousin previously served in a variety of executive roles between 1987 and 2009, including Founding President and Chief Executive Officer of The Polk Street Group, a management services company; Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of America’s Second Harvest; Senior Vice President, Public Affairs for Albertsons Companies; White House Liaison and Special Advisor to the Secretary for the 2016 Olympics for the U.S. Department of State; and Assistant Attorney General for The State of Illinois. 

Director Qualifications:
Ms. Cousin has more than 40 years of national and international non‑profit, government and corporate leadership experience, including leading the world’s largest humanitarian organization, the United Nations World Food Program, in Rome.

As U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome, she represented U.S. interests in global leader discussions regarding humanitarian and development activities, and she served as the U.S. Representative for all food, agriculture and nutrition‑related issues.
 
As Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Cousin led the national operations of the largest U.S. hunger relief organization, America’s Second Harvest (now Feeding America). She also has corporate leadership experience from serving as a member of Albertsons Companies, Inc.’s executive leadership team.

Ms. Cousin has public company executive, board and corporate governance experience. She is a director of Bayer AG and Borealis Foods.