David Spiro is the Vice President for Food Security, Agriculture, Environment and Water at RTI International. In this role, he focuses on the leadership, strategy, management, and delivery of impactful multisectoral climate change, resilience, conservation and economic growth interventions around the globe. He also contributes to a team of RTI researchers and practitioners that focus on exploring issues and trends around technology development, economic disruption, and innovation-led economic growth. Mr. Spiro previously served as the Senior Director for RTI’s Learning, Energy and Environment for Development division. He also served as RTI’s Director of International Strategy and Initiatives for Asia, where he focused on long-term growth and diversification of RTI’s regional presence and portfolio while also supporting the further development, coordination, and integration of broader international growth initiatives. From 2011 to 2016, Mr. Spiro served as RTI’s Asia Regional Office Director, based in Indonesia. He provided overall leadership and management of the corporate operations team, serving a $300 million portfolio of programs. In this role, he represented RTI regionally in all aspects of program development and expansion in the Asia region.
Mr. Spiro is a career professional in international development who has worked as the Country Director in Indonesia for RTI and in Nepal for Helen Keller International. In these roles, he created and drove country strategies to develop evidenced-based programming across the health, education, agriculture and governance sectors. He relocated to the United States in 2016 after 13 years living and working abroad. Mr. Spiro is a graduate of Colby College and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.