David M. Beckmann

David M. Beckmann, born in 1948 in Kearney, Nebraska, is an American pastor and economist who led the Christian anti-hunger organization Bread for the World from September 1991 until his retirement in 2020. He studied at Yale University, spent time studying religion in rural Ghana, and earned advanced degrees in divinity and economics from Christ Seminary and the London School of Economics, working as an economist at the World Bank before taking up the Bread for the World presidency. He was awarded the 2010 World Food Prize, shared with Heifer International president Jo Luck, for building Bread for the World into one of the world's leading grassroots organizations working to end hunger and poverty, and he later served as coordinator of the faith-based advocacy coalition the Circle of Protection.