Rob Horsch joins the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he will find and fund the most promising means for helping the poorest of the world's poor--the more than 700 million people who live on less than $1 a day, depend on small-scale farming and often are hungry.

Rob Horsch joins the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he will find and fund the most promising means for helping the poorest of the world's poor--the more than 700 million people who live on less than $1 a day, depend on small-scale farming and often are hungry. He had been Monsanto's VP/Int'l Development Partnerships, responsible for working with public and nonprofit entities to bring modern farm products and technologies to the developing world.

Raj Shah, the foundation's Dir of Agriculture and Financial Svs says, "What we really focus on are the scientific and technological breakthroughs that will save lives, end hunger, dramatically impact poverty and increase security." Much of that can be achieved, Shah says, through conventional strategies such as the use of improved hybrid seeds and fertilizers, educating farmers and increasing their access to markets.