Jan Engels is a Dutch citizen and has been trained in genetics, plant breeding and pedagogic and didactics at the Agricultural University of Wageningen between 1967 and 1974.  He started his career at the tropical Central American research institute CATIE, Costa Rica in 1976 as a team member of a GIZ project on the establishment of a regional plant genetic resources (PGR) programme for Central America. During this period he also initiated his PhD research on taxonomic and genetic (resources) aspects of cacao and defended his thesis successfully in Wageningen in 1986.  From 1981-1987 he was project leader of the BMZ funded and GIZ implemented genebank project in Ethiopia with technical responsibilities on genetic resources management and use aspects as well as managerial project responsibilities.  In 1988 he joined the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR). He coordinated for three years regional PGR activities in South and Southeast Asia, from the base in New Delhi, India.  In 1991 he moved to Rome and joined the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (BPGR; later IPGRI and now Bioversity International), was among others director of the Germplasm Management Unit and from 1998-2006 director of the Genetic Resources Science and Technology Group. Thereafter, as the Genetic Resources Management Advisor he coordinated the global cacao genetic resources network (CacaoNet) and became coordinator of the virtual European genebank system initiative (AEGIS).  In January 2012 he formally retired from Bioversity and was offered an Honorary Research Fellowship position. He also continued his AEGIS Coordinator responsibilities, on a consultancy basis.