Prior to being appointed as Director General to the Sustainable Development Goals Center for Africa (SDGC/A), Dr. Begashaw was the Director of the Columbia Global Centers for Africa as part of the Earth Institute (EI).

He joined the EI in January 2009 as a Senior Agriculture Policy Specialist for Eastern and Southern Africa, and soon became the Director of the MDG Centre in Nairobi, Kenya

He has served as the Associate Director of the Agriculture and Food Security Center of the EI. Dr. Begashaw has over 20 years of experience in agriculture extension and rural development, ranging from a grass-roots development agent to the Minister of Agriculture for Ethiopia.

In the past three years, Dr. Begashaw has done extensive consulting work for several international organizations in the area of food security, poverty reduction and investment. Dr. Begashaw earned his MPA degree from Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, M.Sc. from University of Reading and a B.Sc. from Addis Ababa University, Almay College of Agriculture. He also holds a Ph.D. in agricultural policy from Texas A&M University where he was a Borlaug Fellow.