Tom Arnold became the Director General at the Institute for International and European Affairs and Special Hunger Representative in February 2013. He was previously the CEO of Concern Worldwide and Assistant Secretary General and Chief Economist in the Department of Agriculture and Food in Ireland. He worked for the European Commission for 10 years, three of which were in Africa. He was Chairman of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) committee for agriculture (1993-1998), served on the UN Millennium Project’s Hunger Task Force (2003-05), was a member of the Irish Hunger Task Force (2007-08) and the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund’s (CERF) Advisory Group (2006-09). He was Chairman of the European Food Security Group (EFSG) a network of 40 European NGOs engaged in food security work (2005-10) and a member of the Irish Government’s Commission on Taxation (2008-09).

Mr Arnold was elected in 2010 to the nine member Board of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) charged with leading the reform of the international agriculture research system. He is a member of the International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI) advisory Board and also a Director Governor the Irish Times, Ireland’s leading newspaper.

Tom Arnold is a graduate in Agricultural Economics from University College Dublin and has Masters Degrees from the Catholic University of Louvain and Trinity College Dublin.