Anne WHYTE is president of the LEAD board of directors. She also is president of Mestor Associates, a consulting group working in international development. From 1986 to 1996, she was director general for environment and natural resources at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), where she had overall responsibility for the development and management of research projects in developing countries in the areas of environmental policy, natural resources management, food security and environmentally appropriate technology.

She is currently a member of the China Council Working Group on Cleaner Production, a governor of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She has served as chair of the board of directors of the Canadian Global Change Program.

From 1978 to 1984, she was director of the environmental studies program at the University of Toronto in Canada, and worked in the Man and the Biosphere Program of UNESCO in Paris from 1984 to 1986.

Her bachelor's and master's degrees are from the University of Cambridge and her doctorate in geography and environmental engineering is from Johns Hopkins University in the US.