Governing board

Lawrencia Adams is a rural sociologist with an MBA in Entrepreneurial Management from the University of Ghana. She was Executive Director of the Pan African Organization for Sustainable Development (POSDEV) and is team leader for the Ghana Research and Advocacy Programme. She has worked with national and donor organisations for more than 20 years on social accountability and the organisational development of small and medium enterprises, NGOs and civil society organisations. She is a gender specialist with a solid experience in grants management in compliance with USAID, European Union, CIDA, DANIDA and World Bank.

Rasheda K. Choudhury is the Executive Director of Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE), a coalition of more than thousand education NGOs, researchers and educator groups in Bangladesh. She is a Senior Fellow of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and Executive Committee Member of the Institute for Inclusive Finance and Development (InM). She is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), an independent think-tank that focuses on issues critical to developing countries, and is a regular speaker on the right to education and gender justice in national and international fora. Rasheda is Vice-Chair of Access Agriculture.

David Ngugi studied veterinary medicine at the University of Nairobi. He started his career with the Kenyan Government for seven years where he rose to head a district (now County), after which he has worked for the private sector for more than 25 years. He has helped develop the livestock sector to boost food production, food security and alleviate poverty in rural areas. He is a hands-on professional with a solid knowledge of marketing and management in the agricultural industry throughout East Africa.

Mary Kamau is chairperson of the Board of the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS) and a board member of the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS). She recently retired as Director of Extension Services and Training in Kenya, having worked since 1980 in agricultural development and extension.  She was involved in the development of the National Agricultural Sector Extension Policy and the National Agricultural Research System in Kenya. Urban and peri-urban farming are a particular interest, as is encouraging youth into agriculture as a business. Mary is Chairperson of Access Agriculture.

Alphan Njeru is an accountant and a management consultant with vast expertise in financial management, project management, audit and risk management, corporate governance, capacity building and assurance services for Government and Public Sector. Alphan was full-time employee for 36 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the largest international consulting and auditing firms. Since retiring from PwC, he has joined Boards of directors of several companies and organisations in diverse industries and NGOs. He also chairs Audit and Risk committees of various Boards. Alphan is Treasurer of Access Agriculture.