Irene Hoffmann is the Secretary of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation’s (FAO) Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Between 2002 and 2015, she was Chief of the Animal Genetic Resources Branch and Chief of the Animal Production Service in FAO, and acted as Secretary of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Animal Genetic Resources. Between 1994 and 2002 she was Assistant Professor at the Institute of Livestock Ecology, Giessen University, where she coordinated international and interdisciplinary research programmes. Earlier in her career she worked in development (GIZ, Africa), as scientific editor, and for development NGOs. She has organized international policy and technical conferences and published extensively on scientific and policy topics, and she has served in various advisory committees and review panels. She holds a PhD from Hohenheim University and an MSc from Göttingen University.