1.Breaking: Gates Foundation ag official gets USDA post
2.Gates Foundation's Raj Shah picked for White House post

NOTE: Rajiv Shah, who has been appointed to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), is on the board of directors for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and is the director of the Agriculture Development programme for the Gates Foundation.
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1.Breaking: Gates Foundation ag official gets USDA post
Tom Philpott
GRIST, 17 Apr 2009
http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-17-gates-agusda/

President Obama has named Rajiv Shah, the Gates Foundation's director of agricultural develpopment, as Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics at the USDA.

The Gates Foundation's agriculture efforts have been criticized for ties to Monsanto, the globe’s largest seed company and dominant purveyor of genetically modified seed traits. In 2007, the Gates Foundation named Rob Horsch, a long-time Monsanto VP, deputy director of its agricultural development initiative.
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2.Gates Foundation's Raj Shah picked for White House post
Kristi Heim
Seattle Times, April 17 2009
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/philanthropy/2009/04/17/gates_foundations_raj_shah_pic.html 

Rajiv Shah, the 36-year-old director of agricultural development at the Gates Foundation, was nominated today as an Under Secretary and Chief Scientist within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to a White House press release.

PRASHANT PANJIAR

He has been nominated to head Research, Education, and Economics at the USDA, where he would have jurisdiction over food safety issues, energy and climate, agricultural productivity and global food security.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called Shah "a globally recognized leader in science, health and economics ... disciplines that are critical to the missions of this department."

Shah, who joined the Gates Foundation in 2001, previously served as health care policy adviser on Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign. A native of Detroit, he has a medical degree and a master's degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Shah is considered one of the Gates Foundation's sharpest executives. His bio is here.

He lives in Seattle with his wife, Shivam, and their two young children. He is a trustee of the Seattle Community College District and a board member of the Seattle Public Library.