Sam Dryden
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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.[1]
Dryden led the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Agricultural Development strategy,[2] 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.[3][4][5][6] Dryden's appointment was seen as controversial,[7] 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.[8]
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).[9] 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. His strong leadership qualities will help the team deliver on our strategy to help small farmers improve their lives."[2]
Dryden used to be Managing Director of Wolfensohn & Company, a private investment and advisory firm founded by James Wolfensohn, former President of the World Bank. There he focused primarily on private equity investments in alternative energies. Until June 2006, he served as the Chair and Corporate CEO of Emergent Genetics, Inc. — a global leader in the development and marketing of biotechnology-enhanced seed products. Emergent Genetics' operations were based in Europe, the United States, Argentina and Brazil, and comprised one of the largest seed companies in India. The majority of the company was acquired in April 2005 by the Monsanto Company and its remaining operations were acquired in June 2006 by Syngenta AG. Prior to that Dryden had worked across the world in various capacities; he began his career at the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
A native of Mount Olivet in eastern Kentucky, he was born February 9, 1950. Dryden grew up on a small farm and went to Mason County High School. His parents- Hazel Lamb (Richardson) and Ray Nelson Dryden Sr. hosted volunteers, who were part of the Great Society programs, and one of them convinced Dryden to enroll in university.[10] 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.[10] (Dryden sponsors students who graduate from his hometown to go to college under the Hazel Dryden scholarship programme.)[11]
He began his career as an Analyst with the US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis, with responsibilities for modeling and forecasting selected sectors of the US economy. He was then employed by the Union Carbide Corporation from 1974 to 1980, with responsibilities for various aspects of new corporate ventures.f12c0d1a-88af-11e0-806a-001cc4c03286.html [permanent dead link] These transactions involved extended assignments in Japan, Europe, and South America.
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.[12] He died of multiple systems atrophy on August 10, 2017, at the age of 67.[13]
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.