Two Public Sector Experts Join Root Capital’s Board of Directors

Transforming the lives of the world’s 450 million smallholder farmers isn’t a task any single organization can achieve; it requires systems-level change that can only be accomplished by many actors working together. That’s why we’re thrilled to welcome two new members to our board of directors—Mary Barton-Dock and C.D. Glin—each of whom brings to the table a wealth of experience working in the public sector. Mary and C.D. understand the critical role that the public sector can play in creating an enabling environment for positive change, and we’re excited to benefit from their guidance as we collaborate with state and intergovernmental organizations to bring prosperity to farming communities around the world.

Mary Barton-Dock’s career with the World Bank spanned 30 years and focused on agriculture and environmental policy and on development in fragile states. During her career, Mary was based in Zambia, Chad, Cameroon, and Haiti, as well as stints in Washington, DC. For four years, Mary managed the Bank’s agriculture and environmental programs in West Africa. After this, she was the Country Director for the World Bank in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Sao Tome and Principe. She also spent four years as the World Bank’s Country Director in Haiti, where the team focused on infrastructure, disaster risk management, and governance, and was recognized for the World Bank’s leadership in helping Haiti recover from Hurricane Matthew. Before that, Mary led the World Bank’s Environment Department, including climate policy and climate finance initiatives out of their Washington, DC headquarters, and managing critical climate financing, such as the Climate Investment Funds, the Carbon Finance funds, the Global Environment Facility, and the Montreal Protocol. There, she oversaw the development and publication of key reports such as Turn Down the Heat: Why a Four-Degree World Must Be Avoided, led the formulation of the World Bank’s new environment and climate strategy, and launched the World Bank’s Global Program for Oceans.

Few people share Mary’s development finance expertise in both West Africa and climate change mitigation—two areas critically important to Root Capital’s work. We’re positive that Mary’s guidance will be invaluable as we continue to deploy public-private partnerships in service of smallholder farmers across Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

C.D. Glin has extensive expertise in African development finance and a proven commitment to social change. In the 1990s, C.D. joined the first-ever group of Peace Corps volunteers in South Africa, which President Nelson Mandela welcomed into the country after the fall of apartheid. After his deployment, he spent another seven years working as a White House appointee at the Peace Corps, as the agency’s first Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and Global Partnership. C.D. then joined the Rockefeller Foundation as Associate Director for Africa, working out of their Nairobi office to increase smallholder farmers’ productivity and strengthen their resilience to climate change. Earlier in his career, he consulted for the State Department, USAID, and the World Bank/IFC while living in Ghana and Nigeria. Currently, as President and CEO of the US African Development Foundation, C.D. oversees $60 million of high-impact investments in for- and non-profit enterprises across 20 countries in Africa.

In addition to his expansive career, C.D. holds a BA in Political Science from Howard University and a Master’s Diploma in Strategy and Innovation from Saïd Business School, Oxford University. He is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2011, C.D. was designated by the White House as a “Champion of Change” for his commitment and contributions to international service and civic participation.

For decades, C.D. has worked to build partnerships among public, private, and nonprofit institutions to bring much-needed investment to sub-Saharan Africa. We’re excited to welcome his expertise to our board of directors as we strengthen our own support of high-impact businesses across the continent.