New TAA International Chairman
TAAI welcomes Dr Mark Holderness as our new Chairman, and thanks Dr Paul Harding for his dynamic leadership over the last 3 years.
Following the 2025 Annual General Meeting TAAI President, Andrew Bennett, issued the following statement:
“At our AGM on 2 December Dr Mark Holderness was unanimously elected as our next Chairman, to succeed Dr Paul Harding, who is standing down after leading us through the last 3 dynamic and productive years of change and renewal.
Many of you will know Mark and will be aware of his stellar career with CABI and more recently leading the Global Forum for Agricultural Research and Innovation. He has been a strong supporter of the renewal of the TAAI and has led our Mentoring programme. His experience and wide network of contacts will make him an excellent Chairman“.
In accepting his election, Mark said “Thank you, I am honoured to be elected as your Chairman. I look forward to leading the Association and with your support meeting the challenges and realising opportunities we face. I am delighted that Paul has agreed to remain a member of our Executive Committee and to help carry forward some of the initiatives on which he has led“.
Dr Mark Holderness
Dr Holderness has extensive senior management experience, with 40 years work in international development across 60 countries, initially as an IPM specialist and research team leader, then as a Strategic Director in the international science and information organisation CABI and then at Director level in the UN FAO. His work has particularly focused on delivering farmer-centred change in complex systems, linking science and society, fostering multi-actor innovation and constructively guiding institutional change. For this, he was awarded TAAI Development Agriculturalist of the year in 2018.
Recent work has included leading the Meta-Review ‘Synthesis of Learning from a Decade of CGIAR Research Programs’, a forward-looking review of the value and role of the Association of International Research and Development Centres in Agriculture and as a Key Adviser on Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems to help transform Uzbekistan’s national innovation system.
As Executive Secretary of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research & Innovation for 11 years, he led a multi-stakeholder global forum of over 620 organisations, from farmers organisations to UN bodies, catalysing and mobilising collective and demand-driven actions on key agenda in agricultural innovation.
He served in the Fund Council/System Council of the CGIAR and led three successful Global Conferences on Agricultural Research for Development, bringing together thousands of representatives from public, private and civil society organisations to shape and develop international research processes and actions for greater development impact.
Dr Holderness has served on a range of public, private sector and civil society boards and in the governance of international programmes and networks on themes including sustainable agriculture, climate change and agricultural innovation.
Working with CABI for 16 years, he progressively fulfilled a number of roles, from scientific to managerial and then strategic programme Director, with many years of practical field research, advisory and capacity development experience around the world, addressing plant pathology and epidemiology, sustainable crop and pest management, agrobiodiversity, invasive alien species and Sanitary/Phytosanitary Systems. Prior to this, he worked for five years as plant pathologist for the Papua New Guinea Cocoa & Coconut Research Institute.
He holds a PhD in Plant Pathology and BSc in Horticultural Botany, both from the University of Reading.
