Contact Us
World Cocoa Foundation
1411 K Street, NW Suite 1300
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202.737.7870
Fax: 202.737.7832
Email: wcf@worldcocoa.org
William Guyton
President
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Robert Peck
Senior Director of Operations
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Mike Godfrey
Senior Program Director
Charlie Feezel
Education Program Director
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Mbalo Ndiaye
Program Director Cocoa Livelihoods Program
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Virginia Sopyla
Program Coordinator
Holly Houston
Finance & Budget Analyst
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Ethan Z. Budiansky
Program Manager, WCF/Cocoa Livelihoods Program
Enyo Abla Agbenu, PMP
Program Manager, WCF/Cocoa Livelihoods Program
William Guyton
Bill Guyton, the President of the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), is an internationally recognized expert with nearly 25 years of experience in sustainable development. He acts as a primary spokesman for the international chocolate industry on issues related to a sustainable cocoa economy and quality of life of independent family cocoa farmers.
Bill has been with WCF since its inception. He helped grow the foundation’s membership from a handful of large companies into a diversified group of more than 70 companies representing over 80 percent of the global cocoa market. He directs sustainable cocoa programs with an annual budget of over $10 million. Bill brings deep technical expertise and hands-on field experience to his position with in-country experience in 30 different nations in Africa, Southeast Asia, the Americas and the Middle East.
Bill worked for more than ten years in developing countries advising and putting in place environmental and agricultural programs for the United States Agency for International Development, the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and GTZ, the German sustainable development organization. He worked as an agricultural instructor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a Peace Corps volunteer.
Prior to joining the World Cocoa Foundation, he was director of business development at the U.S. Grains Council, where he diversified the Council’s funding and support base.
Bill is a member of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Consultative Group to Eliminate the Use of Child Labor and Forced Labor in Imported Agricultural Products. He also serves on the boards of the Corporate Council on Africa, the Partnership to Cut Hunger in Africa and the Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development. He is a member of the Alliance to End Hunger and the World Food Law Institute.
A native of Colorado, he holds a Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural business from Colorado State University and a Master of Science in agricultural economics from Michigan State University.
Robert Peck
Robert joined WCF in 2003 and has played an important role in the growth of the Foundation from an organization with an annual budget of less than a million dollars to its current annual budget of over $12 million dollars. He is responsible for the day to day operations, budget management, fundraising efforts and executing contractual arrangements with Partners and Consultants. Robert has traveled to most cocoa producing countries in Latin America and assists on program development efforts and new partnership opportunities the Western Hemisphere.
Prior to joining the World Cocoa Foundation, he worked at the Leveraged Finance Department at CIBC World Markets where he helped project teams finding alternative funding options on several deals. For four years he directed environmental programs for a government agency in Colombia, South America.
Robert holds an MBA and a Masters in Public Policy degree from Georgetown University and a BS in Agricultural Studies from Iowa State University.
Mike Godfrey
Mike Godfrey is the Senior Program Director responsible for managing WCF's global activities in cocoa farming and research.
Mike is an international development professional with 28 years of experience successfully managing international development assistance programs in Africa, Latin America, Europe and the Caribbean. Prior to joining WCF, Mr. Godfrey helped to design and implement a major cocoa farmer training program in Haiti as an employee of DAI. He spent 18 years with CARE International, directing programs in multiple countries as well as in its US headquarters. Mr. Godfrey was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger (1977-1979) working as an agriculture and range management advisor to that government. His education includes a Bachelors degree in Forest Management from Utah State University and an M.S., Civil Engineering from Colorado State University.
Charlie Feezel
Charlie Feezel is the Education Program Director for the World Cocoa Foundation.
Charlie Feezel has worked in international development, primarily in Africa, since he was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Burundi in 1983. While working for the Peace Corps from 1985 to 1996, he trained over 3,000 Volunteers in teaching, business development and culture crossing skills. He has experience in program design and management, monitoring and evaluation, workforce development, education and economic growth. At USAID’s Africa Bureau in the Office of Sustainable Development Education Division, he was technical officer for the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help's Teachers for Africa program and the Ambassadors’ Girls Scholarship Program of President Bushes' Africa Education Initiative. He was the country backstop for Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Mauritania and Botswana. His work focuses on girls’ education, youth, workforce development, and organizational development in education.
Mbalo Ndiaye
Mbalo Ndiaye is the Program Director for the Cocoa Livelihoods Program of the World Cocoa Foundation.
Prior to joining the WCF Cocoa Livelihoods Program, he served as Senior Advisor to FAS/USDA Agricultural Attaché in Francophone West Africa, especially in the areas of agricultural economy, trade and food security. Mbalo has also worked as program director for various U.S. and international PVOs in the region including Catholic Relief Services, Counterpart International and Plan International.
Mbalo holds an MSc in Natural Resources Management from the University of Minnesota, a Certificate in Advanced Environmental Studies from the University of Dakar, Senegal and a BS in Forest Sciences from the University of Dschang, Cameroon.
Holly Houston
Holly Houston is the Finance & Budget Analyst for the Cocoa Livelihoods Program.
She worked in the non-profit healthcare finance sector at Citigroup in New York for over three years prior to joining the Foundation. Her work included financial and credit analysis for healthcare providers issuing bonds to fund capital projects and the planning and coordination of annual industry conferences.
Holly has volunteered with Big Brothers / Big Sisters, Junior Achievement, the Capital Area Food Bank, and recently traveled to Honduras and Ghana's Village of Hope Orphanage on medical and educational missions.
Holly holds a BA in International Finance and French from the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University.
Ethan Z. Budansky, Program Manager, WCF/Cocoa Livelihoods Program
Ethan Budiansky is a development professional with experience in natural resource management, international development and program management, specializing in agroforestry, sustainable agriculture, and agribusiness development. Prior to joining WCF, Ethan was head of international programs at Trees for the Future, where he managed agroforestry and sustainable agriculture programs in Ghana, Cameroon, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Haiti. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal from 2002 to 2004. He holds a BA in Zoology from Connecticut College and a MA in International Affairs from American University in Washington, DC and a MA in Natural Resource Management from the University for Peace in Costa Rica. He speaks French and proficient in Spanish and Fulani. Based at WCF's headquarters in Washington, DC, Ethan is responsible for day-to-day management and oversight of the WCF/Cocoa Livelihoods Program (CLP).
Enyo Abla Agbenu, PMP, Program Manager, WCF/Cocoa Livelihoods Program
Enyo Abla Agbenu is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with nine years of experience in project management within the African private sector. Her areas of expertise include project management, entrepreneurship enhancement programs, and development of capacity building programs. She previously served as project officer for AMSCO (African Management Services Company) where she was responsible for identifying, developing, monitoring and closing of projects in West and Central Africa. She is fluent in English, French, and Ewe, and is a member of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
Based at the WCF office in Accra, Ghana, Enyo helps to manage operations for the WCF/Cocoa Livelihoods Program (CLP) in close collaboration with the Program Director.