USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah Addresses Ending World Poverty

Rajiv Shah is the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development since 2009. In this role, he led more than 9,600 professionals and 80 missions around the world. One of his many accomplishments was managing the U.S. Government’s response in the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Now, he leads President Barak Obama’s “Feed the Future” initiative, which works with partner countries to develop their agriculture sectors and break the vicious cycle of poverty and hunger. He also led “USAID Forward,” an extensive set of changes to USAID’s business model that encourage a more strategic, focused, and results-oriented approach to maximize their impact. Before becoming a USAID Administrator, Shah served as undersecretary for research, education and economics, and as chief scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He is married with three children and lives in Washington, D.C