Ertharin Cousin

Ertharin Cousin is the Managing Director and CEO of FSF Ventures, an impact investment fund, and CEO of Food Systems for the Future Institute. Both organizations advance her vision of a world free from hunger and malnutrition. She is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a Bosch Academy Fellow, and a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Center on Food Security and Environment. From 2012 to 2017, Cousin served as Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), leading its 14,000-member team in providing life-sustaining assistance to over 80 million people annually. Under her leadership, WFP began championing and implementing sustainable solutions to global hunger. Previously, she was the U.S. Ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture (2009-2012) and played a key role in domestic hunger relief as EVP and COO of America’s Second Harvest, now Feeding America. Cousin’s private sector experience includes leadership roles at Albertsons and Jewel Food Stores. She currently serves on the boards of Bayer AG, Mondelez International, and Akademia2063 and is Board Chair of Allwyn-North America. A graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Georgia Law School, and the University of Chicago’s Executive Program in Finance, Cousin has been recognized on Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women list, Time’s 100 Most Influential People list, and as Fortune’s Most Powerful Woman in Food and Drink.