Maya Rajasekharan

Maya Rajasekharan is the Managing Director for the Americas at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and Director General of CIAT. In this role, she leads the Alliance’s strategy, engagement, and operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, overseeing a team of over 1,000 staff members. Her professional journey reflects a deep commitment to leadership, fostering multidisciplinary teams and innovations to drive transformation in agriculture and food systems. With over 20 years of international experience, Maya has led the development and execution of research-for-development strategies across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, managing diverse program portfolios. She has extensive experience in building partnerships that bridge science, policy, and practice to enable systemic change.

Since joining CIAT in 2009, Maya has held several leadership positions, including Director of Global Program Management, Senior Advisor for Strategic Program Development, and most recently, Managing Director for the Africa Region at the Alliance. In Africa, she spearheaded program expansions focused on food and nutrition security and climate adaptation, spanning more than 15 countries. Her leadership was instrumental in shaping regional strategies, strengthening partnerships, and fostering team development. Within CGIAR, she co-led the development of the One CGIAR 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy and, as Senior Director of Integrated Systems and Scaling, played a key role in aligning regional initiatives under a unified scaling framework.

Earlier in her career, Maya held positions at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE). She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the UK-CGIAR Center and serves on the leadership team of the Periodic Table of Food Initiative (PTFI), which aims to standardize multi-omics platforms to advance the understanding of food composition and its applications. She has also contributed to multiple peer-reviewed publications.

Maya holds an MSc from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and a Ph.D. from University College Dublin, Ireland. She currently resides in Colombia, based at the Alliance’s Palmira Campus.