Darko has been with Avalon since 1993. He is an experienced (>30 years) expert with project references in 25 European and 6 Asian countries. Darko has been team leader and/or consultant at >150 projects for the EC, the World Bank, UN agencies, OECD, EU MS Governmental organisations; Dutch, Belgian, Italian, and British universities, and consultancies. The projects have spanned policy analysis/advice/evaluations, agricultural development, education, training, and research. His expertise covers a range of cross-cutting issues related to value chain analysis in the agri-food sector, agricultural economics, agricultural policy, rural development, organic farming, and agri-environment. Darko holds a PhD. degree in environmental sciences (University of Essex, UK) and an MSc. degree in organic farming (Wageningen University, NL). In the last ten years, for the EC he evaluated >120 project proposals, on-going projects, and impacts of the CAP’s first and second pillar. He took part in the formulation and implementation of several strategies and policy programs. In the period 2014-2021 Darko was a team member of the EU Evaluation Helpdesk for Rural Development. In December 2021 he was appointed for the next seven years to act as an expert of the new EU Evaluation Helpdesk for the CAP, providing advice to the EC in all dimensions of the evaluation of the CAP Strategic Plans, including development of new evaluation methodology, provision of guidelines, evaluation advice and guidance to Managing Authorities in MS . Darko was visiting lecturer and/or researcher at the agricultural universities in the Netherlands, Belgium, England, Italy, and Bulgaria, and is author of >130 publications.