Rajiv Shah
Former U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah joins the Chicago Council on Global Affairs today as a senior adviser, Council President Ivo Daadler announced late Tuesday.

Shah will work on projects on global agriculture, cities and the economy and the nexus between agriculture, urbanization and trade, Daadler said.

“I am excited to join the Chicago Council, an organization I know well from my time at USAID for its pioneering work on global agriculture,” said Shah.

“The recent inauguration of the Chicago Forum on Global Cities makes this a natural time to join the council, and I look forward to supporting its efforts to harness the power of agriculture, urbanization and trade to improve the lives of billions of people around the world.”

The position is part time and Shah will continue to live in Washington, a Chicago Council official said.

Shah served as USAID administrator from 2010 to February 2015. His initiatives at USAID included the administration’s signature agriculture development program, Feed the Future, and Power Africa, which is working to increase electricity generation capacity and access to citizens throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

At the beginning of the Obama administration, Shah served as Agriculture undersecretary for research, education and economics.

Shah, a physician by training, came to the Obama administration from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, where he worked on agriculture and health issues. The Gates Foundation is a major funder for the Chicago Council’s activities promoting changes to U.S. food aid and agricultural development policies.

After leaving USAID earlier this year, Shah joined the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service’s faculty as a distinguished fellow. He is also on the advisory board of Laurel Strategies, a global business advisory and strategic communications firm.