Plant biologist by training, François Pythoud holds a PhD in natural sciences from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He worked as a research associate at the University of Washington, Seattle USA and at the Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel Switzerland. In 1990 he joined the Swiss Federal government. He has more than 25 years’ experience in international environmental and agricultural policy issues with special emphasis on sustainable development, natural resources management, innovation, biotechnology, biosafety, genetic resources, agroecology and green economy. From 2016 to 2018 he was Chair of the FAO Committee on Agriculture. Until September 2015, he was Head of the International Sustainable Agriculture Division at the Federal Office for Agriculture. In this position he was in charge of FAO and agricultural issues in relation to the OECD, the multilateral environmental agreements and the United Nations Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. Previously, he worked at the Federal Office for the Environment on GMOs, Biotechnology and Biodiversity. He was closely involved in OECD Environment, Health & Safety and Agriculture Programs since 1990 in particular as Chair of the OECD Working Group for the harmonization of regulations in biotechnology (1997-2001) and Member of the Agriculture Committee (2007-2015, vice-chair from 2008-2010)