Chris Hegadorn
Secretary, Committee on World Food Security
Chris Hegadorn is a retired U.S. diplomat whose career included 25 years as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State and earlier positions in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service. He led the U.S. Mission to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris as its Acting Ambassador. In Paris, Chris and his team designed and implemented two successful, multi-million dollar public-private partnerships - one to prevent violent extremism through improved education systems and the other to strengthen science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education for girls via enhanced teacher training skills. These partnerships benefited from the funding and expertise of partners Microsoft, Fitbit, and many other individuals and foundations.
Earlier, as Director of the Department of State's Office of Global Food Security, Chris helped design and lead the implementation of a multi-million dollar initiative to protect the food security and fisheries of Caribbean states through innovative insurance and finance tools. He also enlisted Mexico and Canada to devise a multi-million dollar project to jointly assist Central American states to mitigate the impact of climate change on their fragile food systems.