Chris Beeko was coordinator of the Ghana process during the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) negotiation phase and was a key member of the negotiation team. He is now Director of the Department that is leading Ghana in the implementation of the Legality Assurance System (GhLAS) and the VPA as a whole. The Department he heads, the Timber Validation Department (TVD), is also the designated Verification Entity under Ghana’s Timber Legality Assurance Systems (TLAS) arrangement.

He has worked with the Forestry Commission from 1986 to date and has a mixed background in forestry, IT and forest governance. Mr Beeko has been involved in the development and facilitation of a number of multi-stakeholder dialogue processes.