Ed Mabaya is a scholar and a development practitioner with more than two decades of experience working on development, agribusiness value chains and food security issues with a regional focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. He is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Global Development where his teaching, research and outreach work focuses on economic development in Africa. From 2018 through June 2020 he was the Division Manager of Agribusiness Development at the African Development Bank where he managed continent-wide investments, partnerships and research in support of the Feed Africa strategy. Previously, he was a Senior Research Associate in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. 

Mabaya’s applied research work is anchored around food marketing and distribution, enabling environments for agribusiness, seed systems, digital agriculture, and the role of efficient agricultural markets in Africa’s economic development. He has published widely on these topics in both peer reviewed outlets and popular press media. His work has received many distinguished recognitions including for “42 African Innovators to Watch in 2016” by Ventures Africa magazine, Coca Cola Africa Diaspora Network 2013 recognition for "dedicated service and contribution towards sustainable development in Africa" and the 2006 and 2017 L.A. Potts Success Story awards for “program with model resulting in high impact on poor communities”. He is a public speaker who has presented several keynote talks including TEDx-MidAtlantic and TEDx-Johannesburg. 

Mabaya earned his MSc (1998) and PhD (2003) degrees in agricultural economics at Cornell University and a Bachelor of Science (1994) from the University of Zimbabwe. He is the outgoing President of African Association of Agricultural Economists (2017-2019). Mabaya was an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow (2007) and The Aspen Institute’s New Voices Fellow (2016).