PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Marie K. Thompson
DATE: April 11, 2002
Ian Gregory
Named Director of IFDC’s Market Development Division
 Muscle Shoals, AL (U.S.A.)—“Scottish by heritage, British
by birth, Australian by choice, and American by adoption,” is a
slogan about his background that D. Ian Gregory likes to repeat.
But these are just a few of the nationalities with which Gregory has
become acquainted in his well-traveled career.
The international
development specialist with more than 38 years’ experience has
been named to direct IFDC’s Market Development Division.
Gregory, who holds a dual citizenship in Australia and England, will
assume his new duties on Monday, April 15, 2002. The native of
England has led and participated in numerous missions for the World
Bank and U.S. Agency for International Development-funded projects.
These missions and projects have taken him to most regions of the
world; in his work he has visited such countries as Albania,
Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kosovo, Mozambique,
Nigeria, Togo, and Turkey, to name a few.
Gregory has a clear
concept of his most immediate goal in his new position.
“Without a doubt, my most important goal is to ensure that an
increasing number of private sector entrepreneurs have access to
IFDC expertise in agribusiness development that is essential for
economic development in developing countries and countries making
the transition to market economies,” he says. “To
accomplish this goal will require assisting small and medium
enterprises to employ modern technology and business management, to
develop new products and new markets, and to gain access to credit
and pool their resources to influence policy decisions that are
favorable to agriculture and business development. In brief,
this is capacity building and encouraging the development of private
sector institutional frameworks and private/public partnerships.”
Most recently
Gregory served as Program Leader and Principal Agribusiness
Specialist in the Market Development Division. In that
capacity, he supervised IFDC’s institutional development projects
in Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Mozambique,
and Nigeria. With other colleagues, Gregory has been
instrumental in developing a template for agribusiness development
based on using trade associations as the vehicle for all project
interventions and sustainability that is recognized by donors as
extremely successful.
It has been said
that to be able to chart a path to the future you must first know
where you have been. Gregory knows where he has been, and he
has definite ideas about future directions in his new position.
“Over the past decade and more IFDC has built an enviable track
record on agricultural input market development and has more
recently moved into agribusiness output processing and marketing,”
the new Division Director says. “Market development and
economic development are complex issues, and although we have been
successful, I would like to see more research done on why certain
development activities work better than others. We need to
understand the complex processes more completely so that future
development programs can be designed with even greater chances of
successful outcomes.”
What about the
challenges ahead for IFDC and market development? Gregory has this
to say: “The most difficult challenge facing IFDC and
the Market Development Division is in Sub-Saharan Africa. Both
input- and output-marketing systems in that region exhibit few
sustainable winners. We will be attempting to rectify this
situation through our projects in the region by scaling up the
projects from Eastern Europe, combining the know-how from these
projects with our experiences in Bangladesh, and adapting to the
realities in Africa.”
In his early years
at IFDC, Gregory served as Coordinator of IFDC’s Agribusiness
Program; his duties included supervising agribusiness projects in
Albania, Bangladesh, Kosovo, and Mozambique. Prior to joining
IFDC in 1987, Gregory was employed by Incitec, Ltd., of Brisbane,
Queensland, Australia, for a period of 19 years. While
affiliated with the Australian fertilizer manufacturer, he served in
various capacities, including Business Analyst in the Corporate
Business Development Department, Market Research Specialist,
Fertilizer Product Manager, Market Development Manager, and
Technical Services Officer.
During his tenure
to date at IFDC, Gregory has developed, managed, or served as lead
faculty or faculty member for 17 training programs focusing on a
myriad of agribusiness topics; these programs were held in Egypt,
Indonesia, Jamaica, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the United
States, Zambia, and European countries. In addition to these
activities, he has presented papers and case studies at various
international meetings conducted by major fertilizer associations
and institutes.
The new Director of the Market Development Division holds a B.S.
degree in agricultural science, agricultural economics, and
agricultural botany and an M.S. degree in crop husbandry from the
University of Wales, United Kingdom; and a post graduate diploma in
farm management from Seale Hayne, United Kingdom.
With his background
and breadth of expertise, Gregory is well prepared to realize his
vision for the Market Development Division: to promote a
broader agribusiness approach to economic development while
maintaining a core competency in fertilizer and other agricultural
input market development.
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