FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: August 20, 2021
CONTACT: Kathleen Draper, Chair of IBI's Board
Meet the International Biochar Initiative's
New Executive Director: Rob Nooter
It is with great pleasure and excitement that the International Biochar Initiative (IBI) announces our new Executive Director, Robert (Rob) Nooter who will be joining the IBI team on September 13, 2021!

Rob is a development professional with more than 20 years’ experience working in agricultural and economic development, food security and agricultural policy analysis and advocacy. He has devoted his career to promoting inclusive development by working in the public policy arena, organizational management and new business development for several non-profit organizations. This experience has afforded him a multidimensional perspective that he applies as an effective policy advocate and organizational leader who has helped craft and implement strategic plans to grow the organizations he has worked with in both qualitative and quantitative contexts.

Since 1984, he provided five organizations senior-level organizational leadership at the project, country and global levels. Most recently he served as a consultant implementing an advocacy campaign for the UN agency, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), to convince Congress to appropriate funding maintaining the United States’ funding contribution to the Fund allowing it to expand its program of loans and grants for agricultural and rural development programs in low and lower-middle income countries. In three and a half years, he oversaw the campaign to provide $92.5 million in funding for IFAD’s 11th replenishment and in 2021, his work resulted in the Biden administration making a record pledge of $129 million to IFAD’s 12th replenishment. He has previously served as the International Fertilizer Development Center’s Washington representative and director of business development. Additionally, he has served as Executive Director of the US Overseas Cooperative Development Council, Director of Operations and Director of External Relations for the Land O’Lakes International Development Division, Director of Government Relations at the American Farm Bureau Federation and as a Policy Officer for Winrock International.

Rob has managed multimillion dollar development projects in Russia, Lithuania and Tanzania and has lived in Uruguay and Liberia. In total he has worked in and traveled to approximately 35 other countries. He has a degree in Agricultural and Managerial Economics from the University of California at Davis and was selected as an agricultural fellow by the John J. McCloy Foundation and the American Council on Germany in 1986. He lives in Potomac, Maryland, USA with his wife and he has three grown children. He can be contacted beginning September 13th at rob.nooter@biochar-international.org.
About IBI

The International Biochar Initiative (IBI) is a registered non-profit organization that serves as an international platform for the exchange of information and activities in support of biochar research, development, demonstration and commercialization. IBI participants comprise a consortium of researchers, commercial entities, policy makers, development agents, farmers and gardeners and others committed to supporting sustainable biochar production and utilization systems that remove carbon from the
atmosphere and enhance the earth's soils.
International Biochar Initiative
1211 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 650, Washington, DC 20036, United States