Simon Winter

VP, Reimagining Humanitarian Nutrition Security – RF Catalytic Capital

Sustaining Member

Simon started with RF Catalytic Capital (a public charity supported by Rockefeller Foundation) in August 2025 to lead a new initiative that looks to develop next generation integrated models to deliver resilient food and nutrition security in fragile regions.

At the end of 2024, he founded Sustainable Agriculture Foundations’ International Association, to support the legacy Asia and African country organizations spun out of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA).

He was SFSA Executive Director from 2017 to 2024, during which time SFSA saw a 5-fold increase in pre-commercial smallholder farmers supported. He joined from TechnoServe, where he had been SVP, Development, and led operations in sub-Saharan Africa. From 2015-2017, Simon was a Senior Fellow of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center at the Harvard Kennedy School. He serves on a range of boards including chair of the Dalberg Trust, the Scaling Community of Practice, and Griffith Foods Sustainability Advisory Council and is an Associate Director of Morphosis (an organization boosting investment in climate adaptation). His earlier career included positions at McKinsey & Co, a Ministry in Botswana, and Barclays Bank. A UK and German citizen, Simon holds a PhD in Economics from SOAS, London.

Simon started with RF Catalytic Capital (a public charity supported by Rockefeller Foundation) in August 2025 to lead a new initiative that looks to develop next generation integrated models to deliver resilient food and nutrition security in fragile regions.  At the end of 2024, he founded Sustainable Agriculture Foundations’ International Association, to support the legacy Asia and African country organizations spun out of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA).  He was SFSA Executive Director from 2017 to 2024, during which time SFSA saw a 5-fold increase in pre-commercial smallholder farmers supported. He joined from TechnoServe, where he had been SVP, Development, and led operations in sub-Saharan Africa.

From 2015-2017, Simon was a Senior Fellow of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center at the Harvard Kennedy School. He serves on a range of boards including chair of the Dalberg Trust, the Scaling Community of Practice, and Griffith Foods Sustainability Advisory Council and is an Associate Director of Morphosis (an organization boosting investment in climate adaptation). His earlier career included positions at McKinsey & Co, a Ministry in Botswana, and Barclays Bank. A UK and German citizen, Simon holds a PhD in Economics from SOAS, London.