Jonathan Kydd is an economist with a focus on rural and agricultural development. He has a long track record as a researcher, teacher and consultant in Africa, in Bangladesh, in Eastern and Central Europe, and to a lesser extent in East Asia and Central and South America. The intellectual framework for his research in recent years has been new institutional economics. He has also been a a university leader and senior manager (until 2013 as Dean of London University’s |international Programmes,) focussed on internationalisation of higher education with a strong focus on access, high standards and innovative pedagogy. As a policy advisor and non-executive director, he has senior experience in major commercial, government, political, educational and charitable organisations. He has broad-spectrum generalist experience of essential management skills for leadership in large organisations, including financial literacy, senior experience of issues in IT, media relations, internal communications and human resources.

Jonathan Kydd is Deputy Chair of the Board of Trustees of Farm Africa, a charity which works with smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and Chair of Farm Africa’s Programme Advisory Committee. Since August 2014 he had been chair of the Board of Trustees of the Institute of Development Studies.