OUR TEAM

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Directors

Ariana Constant - is the Director of Community Agribusiness Partners (CAP) in the United Kingdom. CAP is a network of autonomous local non-profit organizations collaborating globally to drive agribusiness development in partnership with farming communities. CAP partners with, and works for, farming cooperatives, unions and associations focused on marketing, finance, production and governance in agriculture business. CAP works to develop a unique, sustainable, ecosystem of production groups linked to financial hubs, marketing cooperatives, business unions and alliances across Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania.

Between 2009 and 2012, Ariana served in the United States Peace Corps as an Agroforestry Extension Agent in Senegal. In 2014, Ariana joined the Clinton Development Initiative, an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, where she worked for a decade. Ariana holds both a B.S. in Natural Resource Policy and Management and a Masters in International Agriculture and Rural Development from Cornell University.
Since 2016, Ariana has served on the Board of Trees for the Future, a non-profit focused on ending poverty and hunger through revitalizing degraded landscapes in Africa. Ariana also serves on Cornell University’s Advisory Committee to the Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Hart Jansson is President of Malnutrition Matters and active in its daily operations. Hart is a former executive in telecommunications software (25 years), who also has over 18 years of experience with NGO work, including Child Haven International and the Ottawa Friends of Tibet. In the early 1990’s he helped establish and manage the SoyaCow development project within Child Haven International, a Canadian NGO with childrens' and womens' centres in Nepal and India. The SoyaCow project was co-funded by the former CIDA (Canadian government). Hart has been instrumental in establishing partnerships and managing Malnutrition Matter’s projects in India, Liberia, Ghana and Malawi, among others. He is now focused on scaling up MM’s most recent innovation, the SoyaKit. Hart is fluent in German and has a working knowledge of French.

Iain MacGillivray, MSC (Ag Economics), Agronomist/Ag Engineer, is a naturalized Canadian who was born and raised in Argentina. His education and experience combine physical and social sciences applied to agriculture, rural development, food security and nutrition within complex institutional environments. His experience includes farm management in Argentina, farming in the Sudan, rural development in the Americas and marketing and consultative work for private and public sectors. At CIDA, his work included program management and scientific, technical and policy advice. Iain represented Canada on the CGIAR, at the FAO, IFAD and the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP). More recently he was Special Advisor in Rome to the President of IFAD (2013-2016) focusing on embedding the SDGs and mainstreaming nutrition throughout the institution. He was also Senior Advisor to David Nabarro, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General, UN High Level Task Force (HLTF) on Global Food Security and Nutrition. Iain is a strong supporter of food-based approaches to micronutrient malnutrition and of bridging the divide between agriculture, nutrition and health. He is also fluent in Spanish and has working knowledge of French and Portuguese.

Taylor Quinn – is the Executive Director of Tailored Food; at Tailored Food, female entrepreneurship is a core tenet of their work, building long-term partners with women who are leading food system change in the world's most complex economies. Nutritious, delicious, affordable, local food. These 4 principles guide Taylor’s work across sectors and geographies (20 active countries today) as he works towards the UN Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger by 2030, having worked inside UNICEF, the World Food Programme, the World Bank, Save the Children, Mercy Corps, Unilever, and others over the last 8 years. Taylor works in countries like Liberia, Haiti, Somalia, Canada, and the United States to build coalitions of local entrepreneurs, farmers, industrial manufacturers, and multilateral development institutions to design and take-to-market food products for people living in poverty.
Taylor uses his academic background as an anthropologist to build food systems and new routes to market, spending his days everywhere from smoky kitchens to the board rooms from where those that control the biggest actors in the food system make decisions.

Lizz Welch - Lizz became CEO of iDE in January 2019, after spending five years as COO, when she led the organization through a period of growth, deploying her skills around management, business development leadership, and a commitment to financial integrity. "iDE brings the best in development, combining impact and value for money with an entrepreneurial approach that powers the rural poor." An expert on gender-empowerment, monitoring and evaluation, finance, and economic growth, Lizz has more than 20 years of experience with designing solutions for challenging markets in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Lizz has travelled and worked in more than 22 countries. She holds a master’s degree with a specialization in international non-profit management from Rutgers University and a BA in history and global development studies from Grinnell College. She served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco, and has been consistently recognized for her passionate commitment to developing those she works with. In addition to serving as chair of the board for the Posner Center for International Development, she also serves on the iDE UK Board of Trustees, and on the boards dedicated to the Hydrologic social enterprise, Hilltribe Organics (a Thai social enterprise), the iDE International Foundation in Switzerland, and iDE Ghana.

Professional Associates

Tom Agalo, is an agricultural engineer with seventeen years of experience. He has been doing installations and training with MM in Kenya for VitaGoat and SoyCow projects since 2007. Based in Nairobi and Bungoma, he also operates "Western Appropriate Technology", which involves the promotion of mechanization and agro processing technologies. This includes design, fabrication and adaptation of technologies to suit the needs of farmers. His extension work in agricultural engineering includes: Peanut butter making machines, animal feed grinders, banana ripening chambers, egg incubators, conservation equipment, cassava chippers, and solar dryers.

Carl Bielenberg, inventor and philanthropist, is the founder of the "Better World Workshop" based in East Calais, Vermont. Carl has a Master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), but honed his skills at adapting appropriate technologies for Africa by founding a metal fabrication and machine shop in Cameroon in the late 70's and creating technologies that were adapted to local needs. Carl is well-known in the development community as the creator of a hand-operated oilseed press and foot-operated irrigation pump, and is an expert in sustainable energy and power-generation systems. He designed the VitaGoat boiler and is currently designing a vegetable and fruit dryer to run off the same boiler.

Rick Chase graduated from Trinity Western University with an MA in Cross Cultural Leadership. Rick’s background includes 15 years in the private sector, 8 years in Church ministry and 4 years in the non-profit sector. He has been living in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma) since 2010 and helped Malnutrition Matters to establish soymilk programs with NGO’s such as GraceWorks, World Concern and local orphanages and non-profit enterprises. He has also established VitaGoat enterprises in India and Thailand. Rick provides business training and consulting services, as well as installation and operational training and support for VitaGoat and SoyCow projects.

Frank Daller, co-founded Malnutrition Matters in 2000 and was previously its Vice President, and President before that. After retiring as VP and from the Board of Directors, he remains as an ongoing consultant to MM, focusing on technology development, fabrication, sourcing and implementation / training. He was formerly the President and partner of ProSoya Inc., a soymilk technology company. His experience includes work in Russia, Western Europe, India, Cuba, Latin America, North Korea, China and the US. He speaks English, French and German and has a working knowledge of Spanish. Together with Danilo Callewaert, he also provides consulting service to medium-scale and larger soymilk and derivative food projects with the SoyaDairy consultancy.

Henry Davies has worked closely with MM for many years, on VitaGoat and SoyCow installations and training in most countries in the Southern African region. Based in South Africa, he is a Qualified Millwright and Mechanical Engineer. Henry has also successfully launched and managed his own food and animal feed businesses, as well as the Eden Social Development Foundation, an NGO focussing on improving soy awareness of potential soy farmers and communities, through a specialised mobile on-site training unit.

Don Mercer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Food Science, University of Guelph. He has a Doctorate in Chemical Engineering and is a Registered Professional Engineer. His main area of interest is food process engineering, with particular emphasis on dehydration and drying. Don spent fourteen years in the food industry as Senior Research Engineer with General Foods Canada, and ten years as a Special Advisor on Food and a Commercialization Officer with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

He also has had considerable international experience, having worked on projects in Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Malawi, Tanzania, Honduras, and India. He is currently working with the Distance Education Task Force of the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) in the development of training courses for food industry workers in Sub-Saharan Africa. He is also a member of IUFoST's Food Security Task Force. Don has designed and built several prototype solar and forced-air dryers for use in fruit and vegetable drying. He acted as a volunteer consultant to Malnutrition Matters on the optimization of the SolarFlex dryers.