Daniel Skaven Ruben is a consultant to The Rockefeller Foundation Food Initiative, supporting the Foundation’s work to advance a more nourishing and sustainable food system. He previously was part of the process of refreshing the Foundation’s food and agriculture strategy, focusing in particular on leveraging innovative breakthroughs in science and technology.
Prior to this role, Daniel worked as an expert for the World Bank in Washington D.C. on issues around technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He also served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark in various roles in Stockholm and New York for more than half a decade, helping Danish tech companies to internationalize. Daniel is a mentor for several FoodTech accelerators and is an advisor to a number of AgTech and FoodTech startups.
Daniel holds a BSc in International Business (Copenhagen Business School), an LLM in Public International Law (Stockholm University), and an MSc in Foreign Service (Georgetown University).
Authored Content
Sep 16 2020 Blog Post The Two Fast Tracks of Covid-19 If you’ve ever played the classic children’s game Chutes and Ladders—or Snakes and Ladders in other parts of the world—you know that whether you land on a chute or a ladder can fast-track you to a quick win or loss. Like Chutes and Ladders, our diets give us two pathways: to climb up the ladder […]
Sep 16 2020 Blog Post Can Policy Change Diet for Better Health? Yes, It Can – Now. For many years, British politician Boris Johnson decried the “nanny state”. In a 2004 article titled Face it: it’s all your own fat fault, he argued that obesity was a choice and state intervention would worsen things.[i] Fast forward to July 2020: now-Prime Minister Johnson launches a wide-ranging anti-obesity program in the UK.[ii] What changed […]
Jul 23 2020 Blog Post Cities of the Future: Envisioning Better Urban Food Systems in 2050 Have you ever noticed how most books, movies, and TV shows that paint a picture of the future are negative and dystopic? We at The Rockefeller Foundation did. Looking to inspire more hopeful and ambitious thinking, we created the Food System Vision Prize, challenging communities around the world to describe an ideal vision for their […]
Apr 03 2020 Blog Post Five COVID-19 Reflections from a Food System Perspective—and How We Could Take Action As confirmed cases of COVID-19 increased throughout the world, the immediate instinct of many people was to ensure that they had enough food. The images of empty grocery store shelves and closed restaurants are stark and important reminders of how much we depend on our food system and how central food is in our […]