The Crop Trust Executive Board has unanimously elected Vice Chair, Sir Peter Crane FRS, President of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, to succeed Tim Fischer AC, former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia.
The company explains that "Tim joined the Crop Trust in 2013, serving as Vice Chair of the Executive Board until 2017, before becoming Board Chair. He was elected for a second term in 2018 but will step down both as Chair and Board member on 1st April 2019, for health reasons."
“Working with the Crop Trust has been one of the highlights of my career,” said Tim, speaking from his farm in Victoria, Australia. “So, it is with some reluctance that, on the advice of my very able doctors, I will step down as the organization’s Executive Board Chair. As part of my treatment it is recommended that I refrain from international travel for the time being, and step back from various positions I hold.
“In any event, fear not, I will remain active in supporting the work of the Crop Trust to build a rational global system for crop conservation, which has been an inspiration to me for many years and will continue to be into the future. Its vital work is needed more than ever.”
“The world is at a critical juncture when it comes to crop conservation and the plight of biodiversity, and the Crop Trust is needed more than ever before. As farmers worldwide wrestle with increasingly unpredictable weather and climate change, and as nations seek sustainable food security, crop diversity is paramount, and this is the Crop Trust’s core dynamic,” he added.
“We’re very grateful to Sir Peter Crane for his support over the years, and look forward to welcoming him to the position of Executive Board Chair. We could not have hoped for a more competent and experienced successor to Tim.”, the company stated.
Sir Peter Crane FRS is President of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in the United States. He was formerly the Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. Earlier in his career he was Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in London, and also served as Director of the Field Museum in Chicago. He is best known for his work on the origin and early evolution of flowering plants based on studies of the plant fossil record, but has been actively involved in issues of plant conservation for more than thirty years. His popular writing includes Ginkgo: The Tree That Time Forgot, a book that traces the evolution and cultural history of ginkgo over the past 200 million years.
Sir Peter served on the Crop Trust Executive Board from 2007-2012, before returning in 2014.
“The Crop Trust works on issues that are important to all of us, and to which I have dedicated much of my professional career,” said Sir Peter said. “Conserving and using crop diversity is vital to the future of food.”
The next meeting of the Crop Trust Executive Board will be held at Oak Spring Garden, Virginia, US, in early May 2019.
For more information:
Crop Trust
+49 (0) 228 85427 122
info@croptrust.com
croptrust.org