Sam Dryden

Sam Dryden (February 9, 1950 – August 10, 2017) was a thought leader and advocate for food and nutrition security, with a particular focus on small-holder farmer led agricultural development in Africa and Asia. Lately Dryden was a Fellow at Imperial College, working on a project to promote digital technologies that can catalyse sustainable agricultural transformation across the food system in Africa.

Dryden led the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Agricultural Development strategy, making it the largest funding program along with polio, and re-oriented the program to focus on pro-poor staple crops, women farmers and local institutions. Dryden's appointment was seen as controversial, but his leadership and vision to promote pro-poor agricultural development interventions, linked with nutrition and women's empowerment, were lauded by critics and supporters, and earned him the Hunger Hero Award from the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on the nomination of World Food Programme.

Prior to the Gates Foundation, Dryden had a distinguished track record as an investor and developer of life-sciences ventures with extensive expertise in the scale-up and commercialization of early-stage agricultural technologies worldwide, as well as public-private partnerships like being the private sector representative in the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Sylvia Mathews Burwell, President of the Global Development Program at the Gates Foundation, summed up Dryden's track record:

"Sam brings a wealth of experience to the foundation—not only in agriculture, research, and business, but also in a wide variety of projects related to agricultural development and public-private partnerships." Dryden took on the advice, going to Maysville Community College in Maysville, KY for two years, before joining Emory University where he received his B.A. degree in economics 1973.

In 1980, Dryden led the spin-out of Union Carbide's biotechnologies and related business operations and was subsequently co-founder, President and CEO of Agrigenetics Corporation. The company grew to become one of the world's largest seed enterprises and was acquired in 1985 - it is now part of Dow AgroSciences. During this same period, he was also chairman of an affiliated partnership which managed and invested $60 million in proprietary plant sciences research conducted in leading universities, as well as private and public research institutions worldwide.

Dryden had a strong interest in music, culture and films, and was married to acclaimed documentary maker and director, Sandy McLeod. He died of multiple systems atrophy on August 10, 2017, at the age of 67.

Business ventures Following the sale of Agrigenetics, Dryden founded and was President of Big Stone Inc. — a private venture-investment and development company focused on the life sciences. The firm participated in founding over a dozen companies in areas such as biopesticides, novel nucleic acid-based therapeutics and diagnostic products, transgenic animals, fermentation based production of vitamins, pharmaceutical clinical trialing, environmental toxicological testing and bio therapeutics. He also served as the non-executive chairman of Celgro Inc., an independent venture of Celgene Corporation, a company focused on the development of novel, single-isomer, agricultural chemical compounds.

Public sector activities In addition to his for-profit activities, Dryden has extensive pro-bono involvement in efforts relating to agriculture, food security, nutrition and international economic development.

At the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in his role as director of the Agricultural Development Strategy, he helped develop a new strategic vision focused on pro-poor staple crops and small-holder farmers. The Guardian named him the most powerful figure in global agriculture, since under his leadership the Gates Foundation prioritized agriculture at the same level as its global health efforts, increasing annual payout to $400 million per year from $250 million per year. to achieve the global hunger and poverty goals, as listed in the Millennium Declaration. These efforts helped reform and rejuvenate global institutions, like the CGIAR (which underwent significant reforms and doubled its budget), and the Gates Foundation developed strong partnerships with FAO under its new leader Jose Graziano da Silva, WFP under its new leader Ertharin Cousin, and IFAD under Kanayo Nwanze. The Gates Foundation also made some of its most innovative grants, like Digital Green, One Acre Fund, during Dryden's directorship- he continues this work in his new capacity as Imperial College Fellow to promote digital technologies to improve African food systems by better linking small-holders in the value chain. This work builds on the convening led by Kofi Annan and AU Chair Zuma in Addis Ababa. the Global Crop Diversity Trust and served on the National Academies Panel on Science and Technology for Global Sustainability. In the past, he served as an advisor to the World Bank regarding rural development strategy. He also served on the Steering Committee for the Global Assessment on Agricultural Science and Technology, led by the World Bank. He was a member of the Executive Council, as well as chair of the Private Sector Committee, of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. He has been an advisor to the Rockefeller Foundation and a member of the Design Advisory Committee and Scientific Advisory Board of its African Agricultural Technology Foundation — an organization created for the advancement of African food security. In the mid-1980s, he chaired a Rockefeller Brothers Fund development initiative to benefit developing country food security. He also served on the Board of the South/North Development Initiative—a private Rockefeller Family foundation for alleviation of rural poverty in less developed countries through entrepreneurial development. He is a past member of the U.S. Government's Agricultural Sciences and Technology Review Board.

Dryden is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on its Advisory Committee on Intellectual Property and American Competitiveness. In the past he served on its Study Group analyzing trade issues between the United States and Europe surrounding genetically modified foods.

Dryden has written and lectured widely on the policy issues of food security, the evolving nature of global public goods and new mechanisms for public and private sector relations. In this regard, his travels have taken him on missions to the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Africa, and most countries in Latin America, including Cuba.