2015 Conference: Gabrielle Persley

SPEAKERS

Dr Gabrielle Persley AM
Research Study Director, The Crawford Fund

Gabrielle Persley’s distinguished career in international agricultural research and food security includes involvement both as a researcher, and as a senior leader, at some of the world’s leading agricultural and biotechnical agencies. Currently she is the Research Project Director at the Crawford Fund, working with the University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute and international private and public sector partners. She was also a senior advisor to the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi (ILRI), Kenya.

Having worked with the World Bank in Washington, the Australian Government’s overseas aid agencies, the International Service for National Agricultural Research based in The Hague, and the International Council for Science in Paris, Persley has forged strong links between the Australian and international biotechnology, science and development communities.

A passionate advocate of the importance of science and technology in developing countries, Persley was a key player in a team of African and international scientists and investors who established Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA), at ILRI in Nairobi, as a centre for excellence that is open to African and international scientists, including Australian scientists, who are working together to improve crop and livestock productivity and sustainability in African agriculture and food security.

Persley also established the Doyle Foundation, a Glasgow-based charity that advocates the role of science in international development by supporting young African scientists through the early stages of their careers and other initiatives concerned with animal health.