Éliane Ubalijoro

Bio

Éliane Ubalijoro, PhD is Chief Executive Officer of the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) and Director General of ICRAF. An accomplished leader with a background in agriculture and molecular genetics, she serves on several boards and has been recognized for outstanding contributions to innovation, gender equity and sustainable prosperity creation.

Dr Ubalijoro has been a Professor of Practice for public-private sector partnerships at McGill University since 2008. From 2021 to March 2023, she was the Executive Director of Sustainability in the Digital Age and the Canada Hub Director for Future Earth. She is a member of Rwanda’s National Science and Technology Council and Presidential Advisory Council, the Impact Advisory Board of the Global Alliance for a Sustainable Planet, the Science for Africa Foundation, the Capitals Coalition Supervisory Board, the External Advisory Committee to the Chief Statistician of Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada on Canada’s first Census of Environment, Digital Green and Genome Canada, among others. She is also a fellow of the International Science Council.

Prior to returning to academia, she was a scientific director in a Montreal-based biotechnology company in charge of molecular diagnostic and bioinformatics discovery programs. This work led Dr Ubalijoro to undertake consulting work in Haiti and in Africa related to sustainable climate-resilient economic growth.