Dr Stanford Blade
Dr Stanford Blade
Director General - Interim & Deputy Director General – Research

Dr. Stanford Blade is the Director General-Interim and Deputy Director General-Research of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. ICRISAT is a global research and innovation organization working in Asia and Africa, focused on improving the lives of the 2+ billion people who live in dryland regions. ICRISAT uses research for development actions to enhance prosperity and resilience as well as reducing poverty, hunger, and environmental degradation.

Dr. Blade is Dean Emeritus of the top-ranked Faculty of Agricultural, Life, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada) where he successfully completed two five-year terms. In 2018 Dr. Blade was named an International Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry. In 2022 he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for his research and impact on international development.

Dr. Blade’s PhD was awarded by McGill University for plant breeding/cropping systems research (conducted at IITA) supported by a Government of Canada Doctoral Scholarship. He is a 2012 graduate of the Wharton Business School’s Executive Development Program (University of Pennsylvania). Dr. Blade served two terms as Vice-Chair for the Board of Trustees of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation, a Nairobi-based agency supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Blade has been an invited discussion leader at Harvard Agribusiness Seminars and participated in the Oxford Scenarios Programme.

Dr. Blade was the founding Chief Executive Officer (2008-2014) of Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions. Dr. Blade previously served as the Deputy Director General (Research) for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). 

Dr. Blade’s expertise has been recognized through his many invitations to speak at international fora on the role of innovation in creating prosperity in the agriculture and food sectors and through his participation in research reviews conducted by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology, European Union, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, Food and Agriculture Organization, Qatar National Science Foundation, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.