Bill Guyton

Bill Guyton 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 90 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 Cooperation 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 served as 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 served 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