Jimmy W. Smith is a dual citizen of Canada and Guyana. In February 2023, he was appointed Director of International Programs in the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA. In this capacity, he oversees the College’s international research, extension, training, and other development efforts.
Previously, Dr. Smith served as Director General of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), a position he assumed in October 2011 and held until December 2022. ILRI (www.ilri.org) is an international research organization in the family of CGIAR Centres working towards a food-secure world. ILRI’s work focuses on livestock research for sustainable development.
Before joining ILRI, Smith worked for the World Bank in Washington, DC, where he led the Bank’s Global Livestock Portfolio. Working at the corporate level, he anchored the bank’s investments of over one billion USD on sustainable livestock development and mitigating the threat of zoonotic diseases with pandemic potential.
Before his tenure at the World Bank, Smith held senior positions at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). At CIDA, he was responsible for the Agency’s bilateral and multilateral support for agriculture and rural development, including its partnerships with FAO, IFAD, WFP and the CGIAR. Still earlier in his career, Smith worked at ILRI and its predecessor, the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA), where he served as the institute’s regional representative for West Africa. Before his decade of work at ILCA/ILRI, Smith held senior positions in the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI-HQ in Trinidad & Tobago) and Guyana for the Ministry of Agriculture and the Livestock Development Company.
Jimmy Smith is a graduate of Tuskegee University (BSc.) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, where he completed MSc and PhD degrees in animal sciences. He is widely published, with more than 100 publications, including papers in refereed journals, book chapters, policy papers, and edited proceedings.
“As the whole world grapples with the urgent challenges of COVID 19 and climate change, we should not let the risk of Antimicrobial Resistance fall off the table. It is also urgent and compelling everywhere but particularly in developing countries where efforts to respond lag to those in developed countries with greater financial and institutional means. It is in this context that I am very pleased to be see ICARS coming to fruition as it will be a shot in the arm to the responsiveness of low and middle income countries on AMR. I am equally pleased to be asked to serve on ICARS inaugural Board”