Dr. David Kaimowitz directs the Natural Assets and Sustainability unit at the Ford Foundation and is the foundation’s natural assets Program Officer for Mexico and Central America. Prior to that, he was Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), based in Bogor, Indonesia.
He received his Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1986.

Before joining CIFOR, he held positions at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture in Costa Rica; the International Service for National Agricultural Research in The Hague; and Nicaragua's Ministry of Agricultural Development and Agrarian Reform.

He has written or co-written seven books and published more than 100 other scientific publications. He lives in Managua, Nicaragua.