The GDPRD Secretariat is delighted to introduce our new Co-Chairs for the two-year term that started on 1 January 2026.
The Board members who have taken on these roles are:
- Leonard Mizzi, Adviser Food Systems, Directorate-General for International Partnerships, European Commission
- Thijs Woudstra,Head of Food and Nutrition Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands
As Co- Chairs, Leonard and Thijs also serve as Chairs of the Board.
We wish to express our deepest gratitude to Bruce Campbell, Senior Policy Advisor, Food Systems Section, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and Federica de Gaetano, Food Security and Rural Development Expert, Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), for their strong support and guidance during their 2023-2025 Co-Chair term.
Learn more about our new Co-Chairs
Dr Leonard Mizzi is the newly appointed Adviser Food Systems in Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) at the European Commission. He has been in the European Commission for the past 20 years, holding middle management positions in DG INTPA and DG Agriculture. He holds degrees from the University of Malta, CIHEAM-Montpellier (MSc), and the University of Reading (PhD in Agricultural Economics). Formerly Director of the Malta Business Bureau in Brussels before entering the Commission, he has broad experience in Malta’s public and private sectors. His expertise spans from global food governance with specific emphasis on the Rome based agencies to Mediterranean agrifood systems, and he also lecturers on the subject matter.
Leonard is also the Co-Chair of the Donor Platform’s High-Level Advisory Group, which guided development of the White Paper “Financing Agrifood Systems for People, Planet and Prosperity”.
Thijs Woudstra is the Head of the Food Security section at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of the Netherlands, aligning food security policy with the overall policy of the ministry; linking food security programming and policy with private sector, migration policy and international stability; setting up a new ‘systems-based policy’; attaining the ambitious goals set by the Minister; and leading a team of 18 professionals.
Prior to this position, from 2018 to 2025, he was the Deputy Head of Mission/Head of Development in Addis Ababa and Dhaka, where he contributed to setting up and controlling programmes and projects; was responsible for the good execution of the programmes; led the policy teams dealing with development and trade; and integrating development, investments and trade.
He holds a master’s degree in Developmental Geography with minors in Business Economics, Business Administration and Computer Science.
