Morven A. McLean is Director, Global Strategy, Regulatory and Public Affairs at Bill & Melinda Gates Agricultural Innovations (Gates Ag One), a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring high-quality, cutting-edge crop innovations are available and accessible to those that need them most.  Morven is an agricultural scientist with 20+ years of experience developing and implementing applied agricultural research and capacity building programs that address scientific, regulatory and trade issues related to agricultural innovation and food security. She has worked internationally with governments, non-governmental organizations, and the public and private sectors on issues of policy and regulation pertaining to agricultural, forest and aquatic biotechnology. Morven has served as a technical expert on biotechnology risk assessment, regulation and policy for many organizations, including the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development and the United Nations Environmental Program, as well as many national governments in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and South America.

Before joining Gates Ag One, Morven was CEO of the non-profit Agriculture & Food Systems Institute. In addition to serving on icipe’s Governing Council, she is a member of the Global Steering Council for the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project and is Chair of the Board of Trustees for the National Fund for the U.S. Botanic Garden. She received her B.Sc. (Agriculture) from McGill University, M.Sc. in environmental biology from the University of Guelph, and Ph.D. in molecular plant virology from the University of British Columbia.