Kick Geels is CIMMYT’s Director of Finance since 2017. In his role, Geels aims to increase the efficiency of the finance function and improve client and service orientation, while maintaining robust internal control frameworks to ensure compliance with donor and statutory regulations. Prior to this appointment, he served as CIMMYT’s Regional Finance Manager. Previously, he worked for nine years at Syngenta, in areas such as compliance, Sarbanes-Oxley, SAP/ERP implementation, process improvement, programs and multiple accounting functions. He was also Finance Statutory Head, responsible for 13 countries.
A Dutch national, he has been based in Mexico, The Netherlands, Panama and Switzerland. Geels’ original training was in law and he later earned a Master’s Degree in Internal Audit from the University of Amsterdam and a Master’s Degree in Finance from Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam). He is a member of the CGIAR Corporate Services Executives (CSE) committee.
