IDE Appoints CEO Doerksen to lead international poverty organization
(May 5, 2008) At its recent meeting, IDE’s Board of Directors approved the appointment of Al Doerksen as Chief Executive Officer of the international non-profit organization. Doerksen has previously been associated with IDE in several capacities, including long time board membership, management consulting for the executive in 2007, and most recently overseeing IDE’s four year, $27 million India microirrigation program. IDE Board of Directors Chair Paul Myers said that Doerksen now “picks up responsibility for a strong growing program with the mission of enabling smallholder prosperity. We believe he will serve us well and look forward to his leadership.”
Doerksen brings a wealth of international experience leading organizations in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. He has lived in Canada, Mexico, India and Germany, and travelled for work reasons to over 75 countries including many in Africa and Asia. Prior to joining IDE, he held senior executive leadership roles in businesses and NGOs including Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Palliser Furniture and Trojan Technologies, the leading global distributor of ultraviolet light water treatment solutions.
Doerksen is strongly interested in market based solutions to poverty in the third world. His first priorities as CEO will be to fill two newly-created senior management positions, and to diversify sources of funding for the organization. He is looking forward to the challenge. “Over the past several years, I have seen firsthand the power of IDE’s common-sense solutions to rural poverty,” Doerksen said. “Treating smallholder farmers as customers is both an issue of respect, and a strong driver to the development and distribution of affordable products which boost household incomes. I look forward to serving IDE, and its smallholder clients, as it moves into its second quarter century.”
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