Maria E. Martinez Murillo C.

Maria has 20 years of experience in the agricultural sector and sustainable rural development in Latin America. Her areas of expertise include value chains, innovation networks, climate smart practices and stakeholder engagement to foster conservation and economic opportunities in the rural sector in Latin America. She is founder and Director of Strategink, a consulting firm on sustainable rural development and strategic planning.

She worked for The Nature Conservancy in Mexico and North Central America and served as Undersecretary of Rural Planning in Jalisco State, Mexico, where she developed a comprehensive agenda for key value chains, innovative capacity building strategies and stakeholder engagement. Earlier, she was Executive Coordinator for the Diagnosis of Property Rights in Mexico at the Ministry of Social Development in collaboration with the Federal Office of the Presidency. She also served at Mexico's Federal Commission for Regulatory Improvement.

Her experience in the private sector includes working as Project and Content Coordinator for the Mexico Business Forum, an associate firm in Mexico of the Economist Intelligence Unit and being a content analyst at TV Azteca.

Maria holds a BA in International Relations from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, a MA in Development Economics with specialisation in Agriculture and Sustainability from Tuft University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She studied the MA program in Politics and Public Policy at Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara. Maria was awarded the Fulbright-Garcia Robles scholarship.