Juan Estrada-Valle is an agricultural economist, five-time Chief of Party, thought leader, and executive with more than 20 years of experience managing economic growth programs in trade and investment, agri-food systems, value chain competitiveness, and foreign policy.

He is currently the Chief of Party for the Africa Trade and Investment (ATI) activity, the implementing arm of Prosper Africa, a Presidential-level, national security initiative to strengthen the strategic and economic partnership between the United States and African countries. Prosper Africa builds a 21st-century U.S.-Africa partnership by increasing two-way trade and investment to a strategic scale to create jobs, secure strategic sectors and supply chains, advance economic prosperity, and counter threats that include climate change and malign foreign influence.

Along his 20-year tenure with DAI, Juan has established a proven track record in leading complex, multifaceted implementation strategies to meet ambitious performance targets on schedule. Before ATI, he managed highly successful donor projects including programs in East and Southern Africa, Afghanistan, and the Balkans.

In January 2022, Juan was appointed as Vice President for Strategic Growth within DAI’s U.S. Government Business Unit. Here, he was responsible for increasing the technical and operational efficiency across DAI’s U.S. Government programs to maximize development impact and financial performance.

Juan began his international development career as a Senior Scientist in trade economics at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in Southern Africa. He drew his inspiration to work in international development from his 10 years as an agribusiness entrepreneur, producing and exporting specialty fruit and vegetables to U.S and European supermarkets and from the realization of the potential of the private sector to drive economic growth in the developing world.

• Ph.D. (ABD), international development, agri-food systems economics, Michigan State University
• Postgraduate Diploma, stabilization and development operations in fragile states, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School
• M.S., agricultural economics, Michigan State University
• B.S., agronomy, Universidad de San Carlos, Guatemala