As Senior Advisor to Dev.Global I am privileged to work with talented colleagues and clients spanning Africa, India, and the United States. Dev.Global brings a fresh and exciting approach to supporting clients that embraces democratizing technology, bridging divides and building coalitions for change, disrupting with intention to see a more sustainable and equitable world. David is focused on leveraging innovation and partnerships towards sustainable and more nutritious food systems that are more resilient to the impacts of climate change that has cascading impacts on health, finance, education and natural resources.

Be Sustainable by Design was established based on my own journey working at a range of organizations including the Gates Foundation, International Research Organizations and Companies passionate about delivering sustainable solutions for society.Today we also need to considering social, economic and environmental sustainability against the backdrop of climate change. While we remain hopeful of events like COP26 will galvanize commitments of countries and companies to reduce green house gas emissions, history shows that our progress toward reducing greenhouse gas emission has been limited. The reality is we must adapt to our emerging climate and having worked with a skilled weather data and analytics I have deep knowledge on how to operationalize resilience to climate change. Implementing sustainability plans is not easy but with the right partners we can make this a reality. I look forward to learning more about your organizations sustainability plans and together work towards a better and sustainable future.

Dr. David Bergvinson has applied his technical skills in crop improvement, agronomy, pest and disease management to lead teams towards integrated solutions to empower farmers and support sustainable agri-food systems - globally. David's passion to make farming profitable and resilient has lead to his catalytic role within the Digital Agriculture community. David's role at aWhere is to accelerate innovation and utilization of hyperlocalized weather data to drive insights for farmers, agribusiness, agri-food industries and policy makers to ensure that this weather-driven sector can adapt to climate change and deliver nutritional security now and into the future.

• Formulation and implementation of actionable plans to develop and deliver farmer-preferred products and services in the semi-arid tropics and developing world• Breeding improvement for ICRISAT’s mandate crops; sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, groundnut, chickpea and pigeonpea • Leveraging digital technology to accelerate development and deliver of farmer-preferred products and services to increase their productivity and profitability • Increasing the agency of the poor, especially women farmers, through inclusive market-oriented development

• Leveraging the use of digital technologies to accelerate the development and delivery of farmer- preferred products and services in the developing world• Accelerating the rate of genetic gains for staple crops and livestock through the promotion of modern breeding tools• Knowledge exchange for multi-channel communication between farmers, technology providers and markets to support productivity increases in the developing world• Geospatial resources to support ecological intensification and policies that increased productivity through location-specific recommendations

• Management of eight large crop improvement grants and two contracts for weather forecasting within the foundation to improve the lives of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia by increasing crop productivity in a sustainable manner• 6-year development and management of portfolio for high impact grants with strategic partners in excess of $250 million that fit within the foundation’s strategy to lift millions out of poverty• Crop improvement grants include maize, rice, groundnut, soybean, chickpea, pigeonpea, beans, and cowpea• Business model approach to project development and management; over 5 million farmers with high-yielding, stress-tolerant varieties by using participatory variety selection to identify varieties that meet the needs of smallholder farmers. • Core contributor to two strategies: Gates Foundation Strategy Development of strategies for both Agriculture Development and China in the areas of scientific innovation based on extensive field experience. • Technical support for the Foundation Leadership for trips to China, India, Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Ghana to help build excitement and strong support for agriculture by demonstrating the impact achieved through our grantees and partners. • Served on several technical panels to advance foundation thinking on agricultural innovation and related topics such as nutrition, climate change and open data for agriculture.

• Integration of insect resistance into elite lines for maize and wheat using a range of tools to support breeding programs both at CIMMYT and national research institutions in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.• Coordinator at Asian Maize Network (AMNet): delivering drought tolerant maize varieties to farmers in Southeast Asia (funded by the Asian Development Bank). Within two years, the network identified both new commercial and experimental varieties for SE Asia that yielded 30% more under drought than existing commercial varieties. • PI: Novel approaches to participatory plant breeding to increase profitability while conserving genetic diversity (funded by CONECYT, Mexico). • Development of Bt maize and product stewardship protocols for Kenya under the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) project funded by the Syngenta Foundation). In partnership with the national research program (KARI), we screened putative transgenic events and recommended gene constructs to control targeted maize stem borers. We also developed insect resistance management strategies based on mixed-cropping systems. Gene flow studies were also conducted to identify better seed recycling practices for small-scale farmers. • Conventional plant breeding for host plant resistance.Development of ten inbred maize lines and eight varieties with national program partners that combined good levels of resistance to stem borers and armyworm with high yield potential. Development of over one-hundred experimental lines from pedigree breeding and are now being used by national maize breeding programs in Africa, Latin America and Asia.