Ana Rengifo Abbad is a biologist from the Universidad Complutense and is dedicated to conservation, by profession and family. Working in forestry and environmental companies, she became part of the Life Montando Adapt project, to promote the adaptation of meadows in Portugal and Spain to mitigate the consequences of climate change. And in the middle of the pandemic, together with several partners, she created a spin-off called Islas de Corcho Natural, daring to invest all her resources to create employment and promote rural development with this innovative project, which is a magnificent tool for mitigating climate change, generating biodiversity, water filtering, biomass and landscape restoration.

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Manfred Aben was appointed Global VP Foods and Refreshment S&T in 2018, overseeing the development and application of new science and technology across the foods, ice-cream and tea business. He leads teams in the UK, Netherlands and India. He is Site Leader of the Unilever Global Foods Innovation Centre, that opened in 2019 in the heart of the Dutch Food Valley, Wageningen. In 2020 he joined the Supervisory Board of Unilever Nederland B.V. Manfred spent eight years in Asia. From 2011-2013 as R&D Director Foodsolutions across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, based in Singapore. After that as Personal Care R&D Director in Indonesia, and from 2016-2018 as VP R&D North Asia, heading the Global R&D lab in Shanghai. Between 2004 and 2011, Manfred held a variety of senior Foods R&D roles. Manfred joined Unilever in 1995 in The Netherlands as a Knowledge Engineer. He holds an M.Sc. in Computer Science and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Amsterdam. Married with two sons, he loves to cook (strictly plant-based), exercise and play video games with his two teenage sons. More information Website – www.unilever.com LinkedIn - manfredaben

Sébastien Abis has been Managing Director of Club DEMETER since 2017. This ecosystem, which brings together 87 companies and professional structures, is focused on forward-looking thinking, global issues and cross-sector dynamics linked to agriculture, food and sustainable development. Around its member companies, it networks 20 higher education schools, mobilizes French and international experts and cooperates with 5 national ministries.
Sébastien is a member of the mission committee of two major companies in the agricultural and agri-food sector (Avril and InVivo) and a member of the supervisory board of Adix (a management consulting firm). He is also a member of the steering committee of MEDEF International's agricultural and agri-food cluster.

Sébastien is also a research associate at IRIS (Institut de relations internationales et stratégiques), scientific advisor to Futuribles International and Euromed-IHEDN, member of the editorial board of Futuribles magazine, member of the EU-China research group at the Jacques Delors Institute, and an APM expert. He teaches at the Université Catholique de Lille (UCL), Junia Grande Ecole Ingénieurs and the Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique (UM6P) in Morocco.

Sébastien is also the author of numerous books and scientific articles.
Sébastien graduated from the University of Lille II with a Master's degree in History-Geography and from the IEP de Lille with a DESS in European Strategic Studies.

Petr is Head of Sales and Country Leader for Czech Republic at Syngenta Crop Protection. He studied at the Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague and he started working in farming in 1988 and moved into sales positions in 1992 in multinational crop protection and seeds businesses. In 1996 he became a Commercial Manager for Monsanto and in 2010 he joined Syngenta as Commercial Head CZ/SK.

Konstantinos Afianes, who studied wine-making in Bordeaux, France, is co-owner of the Afianes Vineyard, which was founded almost 20 years ago by Nikos and Maria Afianes. Today, joined by their two children, Konstantinos and Eftychia, this family-owned winery is a local treasure elevating Ikarian wine and welcoming guests from all over the world that want to share moments, experiences, good company, and great wine.

Alexander works as Director of Sustainable Investments at Salm-Salm & Partner, a family owned asset manager with a focus on convertible bonds. He joined the company in 2017 with the aim to set up Germany’s first Paris-aligned equity investment portfolio. Prior to this, Alexander worked for a church-based asset owner where he led the organisation’s green finance strategy, overseeing a total of €1bn in assets. Before that, he co-managed one of the world’s first climate litigation cases against a global utility company (Luciano Lliuya ./. RWE AG case) and co-authored a study on climate-aligned investment criteria, commissioned by the German G7 presidency in 2015. Alexander is a trained financial analyst (DVFA) and holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics.

Augustas Alešiūnas is the founder and the CEO of ART21. He is a serial entrepreneur and a business angel in FoodTech and AgTech businesses. Also, he was the first one in Lithuania who managed to attract VC financing for the AgriFood Tech sector. Starting from 2008, investments in companies managed by him have grown to more than 10 million EUR. Augustas Alešiūnas’ company provides precise farming and grain management AgroSmart solutions for more than 85% of Baltic market. He actively invests into AgriFood Tech solutions based on Raman spectrometry, AI and blockchain technologies. Last year, ART21 represented Lithuania in the World Summit Awards in the category of Environment and Green Energy. Also, the company was included in the list of Lithuanian TOP startups by European technology news platform Sifted supported by the Financial Times.

Caspar von Alvensleben studied forestry in Göttingen. After completing his master's degree, he began a traineeship at the State Forestry Service of the State of Hesse. Following the successful completion of his examination, CvA accepted a position as a consultant for innovation and strategy in agriculture and forestry at Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank. .

Alexandre Amaral is chief of international relations of Embrapa (The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), which is the in-house agency of Brazil Ministry of Agriculture. At Embrapa, he has been in charge of scientific cooperation and manager of strategic relations. He has been a research leader on biotechnology and has experience as visiting scientist at Rothamsted Research, University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin and Kansas State University. He has been a member of the Embrapa’s Labex programme, an overseas initiative to foster scientific cooperation with world-class institutions. He holds a PhD in molecular biology and is a researcher at Embrapa in biotechnology since 2002.

Álvaro Amaro has been a MEP since 2019. He graduated in Economics at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra (FEUC). In 1979, he joined the Central Region Planning Commission (Coimbra). He was also a member of the Administrative Council of Social Services of the University of Coimbra, Secretary-General of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (1985), and an instructor at the Centre for Studies and Municipal Training (Coimbra). In 1985, he was appointed Head of Office of the Deputy Minister and for Parliamentary Affairs (X Portuguese Constitutional Government). He was Secretary of State for Agriculture (XI and XII Portuguese Constitutional Government) from 1987 to 1995. In 1987 and 1991 he was elected Member of the Portuguese Parliament at the Coimbra District Electoral Circle, positions that he did not take up because he was a Member of government. In 1988, he was elected Deputy-Chairman of the PSD Coimbra District Political Committee (DPC), and in 1994 was elected President of the PSD DPC of Guarda, a position for which he was re-elected in 1996. In 1995 and 1999 (until December 2001) he was a Member of the Portuguese Parliament elected by the Guarda District Electoral Circle. In March 1996, he became Director and Professor of the Degree in ‘Regional and Municipal Administration’ at the Independent University (Lisbon), until 2003. In December 2001, he was elected Mayor of the Municipality of Gouveia until 2013, and in September 2013 until June this year, he was Mayor of the Municipality of Guarda and Chairman of the Social Democratic Local Representatives (ASD). Between July 2003 and April 2006 he was non-executive Administrator of PT Comunicações, SA and was a full member of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) from 2013 until he was elected as a Member of the European Parliament. An enthusiast of non-governmental and student movements, he was founder and Chairman of the Alumni Association of the FEUC, Chairman of the Supervisory Board (1995-1997) and of the General Assembly (1997) of the Academic Association of Coimbra/Autonomous Football Organisation. From April 1995 to January 2000, he was Chairman of the Academic House in Lisbon. Between 2014 and 2018 he was Chairman of the General Assembly of AIRC (Centre Region Informatics Association). He is a Grand Officer of the Order of Infante D Henrique (Portugal) (since 2014), holds the Merit and Citizenship Medal (2019), attributed by the Portuguese Firefighters League, the Gouveia Municipality Medal of Honour (1993) and the AIRC Gold Medal (2007). He has published several books and articles.. More information Twitter – @alvaroamaroEU Facebook – alvaroamaroEU

Kofi A. Annan was the 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations and is the founder and chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation. In 2001, he and the United Nations were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. Kofi Annan joined the UN in 1962 and served in various roles in Geneva, Addis Ababa, Ismailia and in New York before becoming Secretary-General. He set up the Kofi Annan Foundation in 2007 to mobilise leaders of all sectors to provide leadership where it needed, working on the premise that there can be no long-term peace without development and no sustainable development without peace. The Foundation helps catalyse effective action on the promotion of food and nutrition security, sustainable development, and support for good governance, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Mr. Annan is the founding Chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and has held a number of positions at Universities around the world. He is a board member, patron or honorary member of a number of organisations, including the United Nations Foundation.

For 10 years, Julie was in innovation in biotechnology in charge of the fractionation and purification department of ARD a subsidiary of VIVESCIA. ARD is a private research and development company dedicated to generating value from crops through industrial applications; one of the fields of ARD is the development of Biocontrol solutions. Currently, Julie is Scientific Manager & Innovative Markets for the VIVESCIA cooperative. She is in charge of the connection between the different parts of the group and also in charge of the research of the new opportunity for the group in term of new technology, new market or new partnership.

Jesús Antón is Head of Unit in the Agriculture and Resource Policies Division in the OECD. He leads the work on innovation and agricultural policy reviews based on the OECD productivity-sustainability-resilience framework. He has also led the development of the OECD holistic approach to agricultural risk management and the project on decoupled payments. From 2014 to 2017 he led the Platform for Agricultural Risk Management in the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development IFAD. From 2005 to 2007 he was Advisor and leader of the Economic Analysis Unit in the Ministry of Agriculture in Spain. He has published widely in different agricultural policy areas such as impact assessment, trade, productivity and resilience. He has a PhD from the University of Madrid, an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economic and a master from the College of Europe (Belgium).

Maria do Céu Antunes was born in 1970 in Abrantes. She holds a degree in Biochemistry from the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra and a postgraduate degree in Quality Management and Food Safety from the Egas Moniz School of Health Sciences. She was Secretary of State for Regional Development from February to October 2019. She was Mayor of Abrantes for 9 years and since 2013 has chaired the Council of the Médio Tejo Intermunicipal Community. She was a member of the Economic and Social Council, and of the Council of European Communities and Regions at the Standing Committee for Equality of Women and Men in Local Life. She was a member of the Monitoring Committee of the Regional Operational Programme of the Centro Region - Centro 2020, and of the Executive Committee of the Regional Tourism Authority of the Centro de Portugal Region, while also chairing the board of TecParques - Portuguese Association of Science and Technology Parks. She has received the following awards: Most Family-Friendly Local Authority, Equal Lives Municipal Award, The Tesla Sustainable Leadership Award - Leadership category, Women of the Decade in Public Life Award - All Ladies League.

Ernesto Igartua Arregui is researcher at the Aula Dei Experimental Station, CSIC, Zaragoza, and CSIC subarea coordinator of Agricultural Sciences and Technologies. He is a biologist and crop breeder, studying the adaptation and diversity of local barley varieties. Believer in critical masses and synergies to achieve ambitious goals.

Jean Arthuis graduated from the École supérieure de commerce in Nantes (Nantes business school) and the Institut d'études politiques (Institute of political studies) in Paris. He is a chartered accountant and founder of a firm specialising in accountancy and handling financial hearings. He was a member of the Senate from 1983 to 2014, served as general rapporteur for the budget from 1992 to 1995, chaired the Centrist Group from 1998 to 2002 and the Finance Committee from 2002 to 2011 and was mayor of Château-Gontier from 1971 to 2001. He was also President of the Conseil général de la Mayenne (Mayenne regional council) from 1992 to 2014, a post which he relinquished in order to devote himself fully to his mandate as MEP. He served as secretary of state to the labour minister from March 1986 and from January 1987 to the Minister for the economy, finance and privatisation, with responsibility for consumer affairs and competition (until May 1988). He was Minister for the economy and finance from 1995 to 1997, during which time he laid the groundwork for the changeover to the single European currency. In July 2017, he was appointed Employment Minister’s Special Representative responsible to develop Erasmus-Pro for Apprentices.

Achim Irimescu is a former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in Romania, after being a State Secretary in the same Ministry of Agriculture. He has a long career as a diplomat in Brussels, since 1998, during which he managed to successfully negotiate the agricultural and fisheries files for Romania’s accession to the EU, and he also was the chairman of the Special Committee for Agriculture during the Romanian Presidency . Basically a mechanic engineer, he graduated the Polytechnic Institute in Bucharest, he worked as a designer for agricultural machineries with a Research Institute in Bucharest before joining the Ministry of agriculture in 1990. He got his PHD in agricultural economics from the Academy of Economic Sciences in Bucharest.

Stefania Avanzini is Director of One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B), an action-oriented business coalition for the protection and restoration of biodiversity within the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). Their mission is to improve agricultural biodiversity by scaling-up the deployment of regenerative agriculture and restoration of nature. Beyond OP2B, Stefania has thorough experience in business development, marketing and social innovation in Africa and in Europe across the corporate and NGO sectors.

Iliana Axiotiades is the Secretary General of Coceral, which represents European traders in agri-commodities and agrosupply, Euromalt, which brings together the European malting industry, and Unistock, the European association of portside storekeepers of agri-bulk commodities. This involves managing the three associations and representing their interests with the European institutions, Member States and third country Permanent Representations to the EU. Iliana is also currently acting as Vice-President of the IGTC – the International Grain Trade Coalition, and Lead of the IGTC’s Plant Breeding Innovation Policy Team. Prior to her current role, Iliana spent six years with Johnson Controls where, as Director of Government & Trade Relations Europe, she worked very closely with the Power Solutions, Automotive and Building Efficiency businesses of the company to identify the policy drivers impacting their growth, and design strategies aimed at seizing the opportunities and mitigating the risks created by political decisions. In particular, she promoted European energy efficiency policies with the EU Commission, Parliament and Member States governments, and was the company Lead for the TTIP negotiations. Before joining Johnson Controls, Iliana held several positions in the agri-food sector over a 20-year period, as a consultant, at the helm of the European starch industry association, and in Cargill. She joined Cargill as Director of Government Relations for the starch and sweeteners businesses where she played an active role in anticipating changes to the sugar regime. Thereafter, she was appointed as Director for Business Development, leading an investment project in bio-ethanol, as well as a project aimed at determining the strategy for all Cargill’s food ingredient businesses in Central & Eastern Europe. More information Website – @COCERAL_EU LinkedIn – Coceral

Tasso Azevedo is founder and General Coordinator of MapBiomas, a collaborative network of more than 70 organisations in Brazil and 14 other countries that monitors land use to promote conservation and sustainable management of natural resources.

Josse De Baerdemaeker graduated from the KU Leuven, Belgium and has an MSc and PhD in Agricultural Engineering from Michigan State University. He is recognised as the founding father of the concept of precision agriculture, and his focus is on improving technology in crop cultivation, harvesting and handling to minimize losses and optimize yield and income for farmers. Major activities were on automation of machinery in the field as well as quality control in post harvest processes. For many years he was a non-executive chair of a grower owned fruit and vegetable cooperative. He is Emeritus Professor at the KU Leuven and was a visiting Professor at Kyoto University, Japan.

John Baffes is Senior Economist at the World Bank’s Prospects Group where he leads the World Bank’s commodity price forecasting process and oversees the management of the commodity price database. With a rich background in various units within the World Bank, including Latin America, South Asia, East Africa, Evaluation, and Research, John brings a diverse perspective to his work environment. His contributions extend beyond the confines of the World Bank, with numerous chapters and articles published in academic journals covering economic development, agricultural economics, resource economics, and applied econometrics. John also teaches an executive MBA course on Applied Econometrics for Commodity Markets. Prior to his academic pursuits, John gained invaluable experience managing a commodity trading company, solidifying his practical understanding of commodity market dynamics. John holds degrees in Economics from the University of Athens, Greece (BS), Agricultural Economics from the University of Georgia, U.S. (MS), and Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland, U.S. (Ph.D.).

Better known as Brusselsgeek, Jennifer has been a journalist in print, radio and television for 20 years, the last 10+ specialising in EU policy. Regularly listed as one of the top influencers in the EU bubble, Jennifer was awarded #1 Tech Influencer 2019 by ZN, was listed by Politico as one of the Top 20 Women Shaping Brussels in 2017, and was named by Onalytica as one of the world's Top 100 Influencers on Data Security 2016. She regularly features as an EU expert on BBC radio, Euronews, SkyNews and others, and hosts Brussels’ must-watch weekly roundup show TOTW for Euractiv. More information Website – www.brusselsgeek.com Twitter – @Brusselsgeek

Bio to follow

Lisa is a researcher in Agricultural Economics at the University of Parma (UNIPR), Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability. She holds one master’s degree in Political Sciences and International Economics from the University of Milan and a second master’s degree, in Sciences and Technology for the Environment and the Resources gained at the University of Parma where she is now Ph.D candidate in Ecology and Agricultural Economics modelling. Her field of research focuses on predicting the effect of the Common Agricultural Policy measures on the supply of ecosystem services through positive agent-based modelling. She is the UNIPR Project Coordinator within the AGRICORE project, actively contributing and overseeing the progress of the AGRICORE Agent Based Model's development.

With nearly two decades of experience as IT Consultant based in Brussels, she has accumulated substantial expertise as a Project and Team Manager through numerous consulting engagements in the private sector.

After studying agricultural sciences at the University of Hohenheim, Tobias spent several years as head of fruit and vegetable cultivation and sales at Sekem in Egypt. In 2007 he co- founded and lead the sustainability consultancy Soil & More Impacts focusing on agricultural advice, climate strategy and true cost accounting. In early 2022, Soil & More Impacts was taken over by the sustainable AG. Since September 2022, Tobias joined the Landbanking Group as co-founder.

Bruno Baranne is a graduate of the Ecoles nationales supérieures agronomiques de Rennes and Montpellier (in Mediterranean agronomy) and of the CPA of the Ecole supérieure de Commerce de Toulouse. He has held various commercial and management positions in France and Europe (notably in Spain) in several multinationals of the agro-industry, both in seeds and plant protection. He joined Syngenta France in 2002 as Director of Commercial Operations for Seeds and then as Agro Commercial Director in 2010. In October 2012, he took over the responsibility of Commercial Operations for all of Syngenta's businesses in France. He was appointed President since February 2018. More information Website – www.syngenta.fr Twitter – @SyngentaFrance

Mirco Barbero is policy officer in soil protection and sustainable land use; he leads the Soil Team since June 2019 within the Unit Land use and management, Directorate-General Environment, European Commission.

Mirco has a degree in physics and has worked for a dozen of years in the private sector as responsible for the quality assurance of products and services. He has joined the Commission in 2005 where he worked mainly as team leader in internal audit, advising the management on how to improve performance, governance and risk management in several policy areas. He and his team are now fully involved in making the EU soil policy contribute significantly to the European Green Deal ambition.

Michel Barnier engaged at an early age in the Gaullist party in his native Savoie and was elected at the age of 27 as Member of the French National Assembly, and then as President of the department. In that capacity he organized, together with three-time Olympic champion Jean-Claude Killy, the XVI Olympic Winter Games in 1992 in Albertville. Michel has been a minister in several governments in France, as Minister of Environment (1993-1995), for European affairs (1995-1997), for Foreign affairs (2004-2005) and for Agriculture and Fisheries (2007-2009). From 1999 to 2004, he was European Commissioner responsible for Regional policy and Institutional reform. In 2007, the newly elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy appointed him Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. In June 2009, Michel Barnier led the French campaign for the European elections and a few months later he was appointed European Commissioner for Internal market and Services. It is in this capacity that he proposed and built the Banking Union, with the support of President José Manuel Barroso.

Graduated in Chemical Engineering from Engineering Faculty / Porto University and is currently a PhD student in Agribusiness and Sustainability at Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro University. He has been working at the forestry and forest-based industries sector since 2006. In 2009 he joined the WWF Mediterranean team, mostly focusing on Portugal. He is currently the Forest, Food and Wildlife Coordinator at Associação Natureza Portugal, in association with WWF, and member of Forest Stewardship Council Portugal board of directors. In addition to his experience in forestry related issues and landscape approaches, he participated in several projects and coordinated several studies in the area. More recently, he has been responsible for several public landscape participation processes, involving communities and different actors in the sector. More information Website – www.natureza-portugal.org LinkedIn – ruibarreira

Kathryn is a soil scientist who is working on unpicking the interactions between polyhalite and soils. Building up this understanding of interactions will unlock new and innovative crop nutrient solutions as part of a global need to improve soil health/ performance that enhances crop nutrient use efficiency and land management practices. Kathryn holds a PhD in soil Microbial Ecology in arable agricultural systems from the National Soils Resources Institute, Silsoe, Cranfield University, she has worked on projects ranging from nutrient cycling in northern peatlands through to helping inform UK soils policy. She is an honorary member of the British Society of Soil Science.

Luc Bas is the Director of the IUCN European Regional Office in Brussels , representing IUCN towards the EU Institutions and providing leadership and guidance for all activities undertaken by IUCN Government and NGO members within the European context. This includes informing decision-making through IUCN’s knowledge on topics such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Red Lists, Protected Area management, Natural Capital and promoting the use of nature-based solutions across different sectors. Prior to this, Luc was European Director of The Climate Group in Brussels, working with business and government to reach more ambitious EU climate policies and prepare for a true energy transition. As International Director of The Climate Group’s States and Regions Alliance, he established one of the most significant networks of sub-national governments leading on tackling climate change. Luc worked as adviser on international sustainable development policies for both the Belgian Federal and Flemish Governments, representing them at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (SD), the OECD national SD expert panel, the Belgium Federal Council on SD, as well as at various networks of subnational governments. Luc holds a Master’s degree in industrial engineering and postgraduate degrees in both environmental science and international politics. More information Website – www.iucn.org/regions/europe

A French national with far-off German origins, Faustine Bas-Defossez is a true European. She spent eight years leading the largest Federation of Environmental NGOs' (the European Environmental Bureau - EEB) campaign on the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), advocating for a more sustainable agriculture and farming across Europe. That experience not only provided Faustine with excellent advocacy skills, it also deepened her knowledge of the CAP and farming systems and policies across Europe. Before that, she worked for the European Commission Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development on the European Food Aid for the most deprived Program and the public goods delivered by the agriculture sector. She joined the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) in April 2018 as Head of the Agriculture and Land Management Programme and is currently leading a team of ten policy analysts.

Pierre Bascou is currently Director for Markets and acting Deputy Director-General for Markets and International in the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission. In these roles, Pierre oversees the promotion and expansion of Europe’s trade in agriculture and food and the strengthening of the European Union’s international cooperation to improve food security and the sustainability of the EU agricultural policy. Pierre is also responsible for promoting the competitiveness, resilience and diversity of the agricultural sector in the EU to ensure the long-term food security as part of a sustainable food system.

Doctor in Agricultural Economics (1989; Imperial College of London, UK) and agronomic engineer (1986; ESA Toulouse, FR), Pierre spent most of his career working for the European Commission in the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI).

Before being appointed as Director for Markets in 2022 and acting Director-General for International and Markets in 2023, Pierre was previously Director in charge of sustainability (DG AGRI; 2014 to 2022). Between 2010 and 2014 he was Head of the Unit responsible for Agricultural Policy Analysis and Perspectives. From 2003 until 2009 Pierre was heading the Unit in charge of the economic analysis of EU agriculture for the conception, the management and the evaluation of the Common Agricultural Policy.

For the last 15 years, Leandro has been dedicated to conservation and understanding the relationship between nature and development. His primary focus is agriculture, landscape ecology, and strategy development. In his career, he worked in NGOs, Environmental State Agencies, and the Brazilian Environmental Ministry, coordinating teams to provide technical and scientific support to conservation initiatives. He joined TNC in 2007, and now he is the Science Lead for the Zero Conversion Commodities Global Strategy. It aims to remove deforestation from the supply chains of beef and soy by engaging companies in the private sector.

Dr. Miroslava Bavorová is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and Development at the University of Life Sciences in Prague. She received her PhD in agriculture from the University of Göttingen. Since 2002, she has held a position as a researcher at IAMO in Halle and since 2008-2017 at the Martin-Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg. Her research is interdisciplinary and mainly based on economic, sociologic, and psychologic theories. She is interested in analysing actors’ behaviour regarding environment, food safety and security, migration and willingness to work in agriculture as well as consumer behaviour. She established a research group '“Behavioural studies in agri-food sector'”.

Charlie Baxter is Global Head of Regulatory and Product Safety, Syngenta Seeds, responsible for leading a diverse group of scientists that deliver different aspects of Syngenta’s trait pipeline, from discovery to registration. Charlie also represents Syngenta in different industry association forums and is currently chair of Crop Life International’s Plant Biotechnology Strategy Council.

Charlie is based out of Syngenta’s RTP innovation center in N. Carolina, US. He is passionate about translating biotech and plant breeding based innovations into new seed varieties that support growers around the world.

Prior to his current position, Charlie spent 10 years working for Syngenta’s Vegetables seeds business in various roles in R&D. During this time he enjoyed developing native trait solutions for vegetable growers as well as participating in a number of public-private partnerships that advanced the genetic tools available to the plant breeding industry.

Charlie grew up in the UK, in a farming family where he gained his interest in agriculture through working on various arable operations. After completing a PhD at Sheffield University, UK, he was a research associate at the University of Oxford before joining Syngenta.

On February 20, 2023, Stefanie Beck was appointed Deputy Minister (DM) of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC).

Prior to joining AAFC, Stefanie Beck held the position of Associate Deputy Minister for the Department of National Defence for 13 months. Between October 2020 and January 2022, DM Beck served as Deputy High Commissioner to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Alternate Representative to the International Maritime Organization. Prior to that, she was the Assistant Secretary to Cabinet, Priorities and Planning at the Privy Council Office, where she led work on Whole of Government priority setting and policy development, including through transitions to new mandates, and most recently, through the COVID crisis. Previously, DM Beck held leadership roles at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and Global Affairs Canada, as well as several senior positions responsible for common services at Canada’s diplomatic missions abroad, including cross-government governance.

DM Beck joined the Government of Canada in 1990 with the Department of External Affairs, working abroad as a political officer and an ambassador in various missions. She served in Dakar, Senegal, Canberra, Australia, and in Cambodia and Croatia. DM Beck grew up on several continents, attended high school in Singapore and St. Catharine’s, Ontario, and has a Bachelor of Arts in German and Italian from McGill University.

Tanya Beckett is currently one of the most experienced business journalists on British TV. Tanya spent three years broadcasting from New York and Washington DC as the ‘BBC World US’ Business Anchor. While in the States, she also fronted ‘BBC World News’ on PBS. Since her return she has been working for BBC World News and ‘Newsnight’ on BBC2. Tanya has a degree in Metallurgy and Science of Materials from Oxford. She previously worked as an investment banker. Tanya is a very experienced facilitator at conferences, seminars and other business events.

Dr. Marina Beermann studied Ecological Economics at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg, Socio-Economics at the Research Institute for Organic Agriculture in Frick / Switzerland and received her doctorate on the ‘Development of Entrepreneurial Resilience’. She worked as project coordinator of the food industry cluster in the BMBF research project ‘NordWest 2050: Perspectives for climate-adapted innovation processes in the metropolitan region of Bremen-Oldenburg in the northwest’ and lecturer in the field of sustainable food industry as well as a management consultant in the Otto Group (Systain Consulting GmbH). She has been leading the strategic partnership with Germany's largest food retailer EDEKA at WWF Germany since 2016 and is a lecturer at the Fresenius University in the Masters programme ‘Sustainable Marketing & Leadership’. More information Twitter – @Doktor_Beer Website - www.wwf.de

Cédric Benoist is Deputy Secretary General, AGPB (France).

Professor Tim G. Benton leads the Environment and Society Programme at Chatham House. He joined Chatham House in 2016 as a distinguished visiting fellow, at which time he was also dean of strategic research initiatives at the University of Leeds. From 2011-2016 he was the ‘champion’ of the UK’s Global Food Security programme which was a multi-agency partnership of the UK’s public bodies (government departments, devolved governments and research councils) with interests in food and food security. As a leading advocate on food systems transformation, he has worked with many governments, the G20 and UN, as well as leading businesses and civil society organisations. He has been a global agenda steward of the World Economic Forum, and was an author of the IPCC’s Special Report on Food, Land and Climate (2019), and the UK’s Climate Change Risk Assessment (2017, 2022). He has published more than 200 academic papers, many tackling how systems respond to environmental change. His work on sustainability leadership has been recognized with an honorary fellowship of the UK’s Society for the Environment, and a doctorate honoris causa from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. He also remains a (part time) Research Professor at the University of Leeds.

Professor Tim Benton is the “Champion” for the UK’s Global Food Security (GFS) programme, leading, facilitating and coordinating its activities. GFS is a partnership of the UK’s main public funders of research in food security, including the research councils and government departments. GFS ensures that strategically important research is undertaken. It adds value to research via interdisciplinary analysis, collaboration, alignment and engagement with different stakeholders around the challenges associated with ensuring a food system that delivers nutritious food for all in a sustainable way. Professor Benton is also a leading researcher, based at the University of Leeds, on agri-environment interactions and finding ways to make agricultural production more sustainable.

Catherine Bertini is a distinguished fellow of global food and agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. For 10 years, she was an executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, the world's largest international humanitarian agency. She became the 2003 World Food Prize laureate for her ground-breaking leadership there. Bertini was UN Under Secretary General for Management and the UN Security Coordinator. She led the US domestic nutrition programs as USDA assistant secretary for food and consumer services and the nation’s assistance program for single mothers at HHS. She was on the Board of International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD). Bertini was senior fellow on the first agriculture team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and served as a fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation. She is chair of the board of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and serves on the board of the Global Food Banking Network. More information Website – www.catherinebertini.com & www.thechicagocouncil.org Twitter – @C_A_Bertini & @thechicagocouncil & @globalagdev Facebook – globalagdev LinkedIn - catherinebertini

Ted Bilyea is a Distinguished Fellow in Strategic Trade at CAPI and former Chair of the Board. As the previous President of Maple Leaf Foods International, Ted Bilyea led the largest exporter of food in Canada. Mr. Bilyea has served as a board member for several global food companies and was inducted into the Canadian Agriculture Hall of Fame in 2018.

Oskar Björling holds an MSc in Agronomy from Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and an MBA from Stockholm School of Economics. He is a farmer's son that brings over a decade of hands-on experience in the development and marketing of innovative products and solutions designed to make farmers' lives easier and their operations more productive, profitable, and sustainable with the ultimate goal of contributing to healthy, affordable and sustainable food for everyone.

With sustainability becoming an increasingly important driver in agriculture, Oskar is dedicated to contribute towards fulfilling Syngenta's aspiration to become a trusted partner that can offer concrete and viable solutions to limit climate emissions and create a better environment. Right now this means developing and shaping the emerging market for biostimulants based on nitrogen fixing bacteria across a broad range of crops, for example grassland where it has been shown to profitably increase yields by 6.4% while simultaneously reducing carbon footprint per unit of feed by 5.7% in Nordic field trials over the past three years.

Mrs. Julia Martínez Blanco holds a PhD in Environmental Science and Technology and from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Founding partner and senior expert of the strategical eco-innovation studio inèdit. She presents 14 years of experience with the methodology of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) applied to products and organizations and the ecoinnovation in industrial, urban and agricultural systems. She is also external researcher and teacher linked to the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the Technical University of Berlin. She is also Subject Editor in the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. She is also the Subject Editor of the section Organizational LCA in the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, the most important and recognized indexed scientific journal in the field of ACV and the carbon footprint. More than 30 articles published in indexed journals, several book chapters and main author of 2 UNEP report publications: "Guidance on Organizational Life Cycle Assessment" and "Road testing organizational life cycle assessment around the world: Applications, experiences and lessons learned." She was responsible for the secretariat of the flagship activity UNEP / SETAC Life Cycle Initiative "LCA of organizations" from 2013-2017.

As Director of the EU Office, Ukrainian Agribusiness Club, Nazar Bobitski is the voice of Ukrainian Agriculture in the EU.

Jack Bobo is the Director of Global Food and Water Policy at The Nature Conservancy. He previously
Jack Bobo is the Director of Global Food and Water Policy at The Nature Conservancy. He previously served as CEO of Futurity, a food foresight company and is the author of the 2021 book ‘Why smart people make bad food choices.’ Recognized by Scientific American in 2015 as one of the 100 most influential people in biotechnology, Jack is a global thought leader who has delivered more than 500 speeches in 50 countries on the future of food.

He previously served as the Chief Communications Officer and Senior Vice President for Global Policy and Government Affairs at Intrexon Corporation. Prior to joining Intrexon, Jack worked at the U.S. Department of State for thirteen years as a senior advisor for global food policy. An attorney with a scientific background, Jack received from Indiana University a J.D., M.S. in Environmental Science, B.S. in biology and B.A. in psychology and chemistry.

More information
Website – www.nature.org
Twitter – @jack_a_bobo
LinkedIn – jackbobo

Bruno Bobone is the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Portugal (CCIP) and is on the Board of Directors of the Pinto Basto Group. More information Website – www.brunobobone.com LinkedIn – /bbobone

Since January 2016, Silke Boger has led the Market Unit responsible for Arable Crops and Olive Oil in DG Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission. In this capacity, she has managed the regulatory framework and economics of the various agricultural markets. Previously, she worked in the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Germany. Silke holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics.

Franc Bogovič graduated from the Agronomy College at the University in Maribor in 1984, thus becoming an Agricultural Engineer. He was employed as an agricultural extension expert and head of the Cooperation Department in Agrokombinat Krško. He later established a family commerce business, which he successfully managed for 8 years. He became a leader in his local community Koprivnica in 1986. From 1998 to 2011, he was elected mayor of the Municipality of Krško four consecutive times (in 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010). During his thirteen-year term of office, he played a significant role in improving the relationships of the municipality as well as the state toward the Krško Nuclear Plant, and establishing a permanent nuclear waste repository. From 2004 he was also the vice president of the Association of European municipalities with nuclear facilities, GMF (Group of European Municipalities with Nuclear Facilities). He was elected member of the National Parliament of the Republic of Slovenia two consecutive times (in the fifth and sixth terms of office, in 2008 and 2011). He was the Minister for agriculture and environment in the tenth Government of the Republic of Slovenia, from 10 February 2012 to 25 February 2013.

He was elected member of the European Parliament on 25 May 2014 and again on 26 May 2019. He represents the Slovenian People’s Party (SLS) in the European People’s Party (EPP) Political Group in the European Parliament.

In the first mandate in the European Parliament, his work was most marked by his initiative for Smart Villages and the Alliance for Youth project.

In his current term in the European Parliament, Bogovič is focusing on farming and food security, at the forefront of which are the softening and improvement of the EU regulation on the sustainable use of pesticides (SUR), ensuring the competitiveness of European and Slovenian industry, economy, and the energy sectors, where he as the rapporteur of the Committee for industry, research and energy (ITRE) prepared a report on Small Modular Reactors (SMR). He advocates for the Union’s strategic autonomy in the energy sector with further investments in nuclear energy. As a rapporteur of the Committee on Regional Development (REGI), he prepared an opinion on the Critical Materials Regulation with an emphasis on the EU’s strategic, coordinated, and global actions, aimed at securing and improving access to critical and strategic raw materials for Europe, without which the green and digital transformation will not be successful.

He was elected President of the Slovenian People’s Party at the electoral Congress at Brdo pri Kranju on 2 March 2013. From 2009 to 2013, he was the vice president of the SLS. He started engaging in politics as a young man during the political spring in Slovenia, and is one of the founders and creators of the Slovenian Farmers Association, the first democratic political party in Slovenia after World War II and the predecessor of the Slovenian People’s Party.

Małgorzata Bojańczyk has several years of experience in management, legislation, control and effective implementation of projects related to agriculture and rural development, and is an experienced expert in the field of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, the European Green Deal in relation to the agri-food market. Before joining the Association, she worked at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, where she carried out tasks related to the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union and supervision over the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture. She represented Poland as a national expert in EU groups and committees, including DG AGRI of the European Commission (Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development). Author of publications in Polish and international magazines on topics related to the Common Agricultural Policy, sustainable agriculture, sustainable food production. She is a graduate of post-graduate studies at the Warsaw School of Economics, Kozminski Executive Business School, and a graduate of master’s studies at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences and the University of Bonn in Germany. Environment and green lifestyle lover.

Giulia Bongiorno is a lecturer and researcher in the Soil Biology group (SBL) at Wageningen University (WUR), with a focus on the role of soil biota in soil processes and functions. Her interest and work lies in monitoring and counteracting the negative effects of intensive agricultural practices on soils. She has worked mainly in agricultural systems within and outside Europe, from arables and perennials to agroforestry. Her work during these years ignited her interest in the role of agriculture in the broader economic and societal context, and in the important of soil literacy, outreach and multidisciplinary projects and collaborations. Since March 2024 she is also the outreach supporter of the WUR Soil Science Cluster.

Robert Bonnie is the Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation at USDA. Prior to joining USDA, Bonnie was at Duke University first as a Rubenstein Fellow and later as an Executive in Residence at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions working on conservation and environmental issues in rural America. In 2020, Bonnie also worked with the Bipartisan Policy Center on its Farm and Forest Carbon Solutions Initiative. Bonnie was Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment at USDA from 2013 to 2017, and a senior advisor to Secretary Tom Vilsack from 2009 to 2013. Prior to joining USDA, Robert was vice president for land conservation at Environmental Defense Fund where he focused on developing incentives to reward stewardship on private lands. Robert has master’s degrees from Duke in forestry and environmental management. He lives with his wife, Julie, and daughter, Lilly, in Loudoun County, Virginia.

Saswati Bora joined The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in August 2021 as Global Director for Regenerative Food Systems. Within this strategy, Saswati leads the development of an emerging set of regenerative foodscapes for TNC as a crucial part of accelerating the transition of food systems from degrading and extractive to productive and restorative for nature and people.

Saswati brings almost two decades of experience in developing and leading ambitious agendas related to food systems, sustainable agriculture and rural development. Formerly the Head of Food Systems Innovation at the World Economic Forum (WEF), Saswati developed WEF's two global flagship initiatives on innovations and incentives in food systems transformation as well as regional initiatives in India related to food and agriculture. She has a strong track record in strategy development, policy analysis and building partnerships having previously worked at the World Bank, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). 

Jacob van den Borne, owner of Van den Borne Aardappelen, is a farmer in the south of the province of Babant, the Netherlands. He is a frontrunner in the use of precision agriculture, technology and data on his land. All data of his farm is available on the cloud, he uses drones for field mapping and he uses satellite data for the precision agriculture. In 2004 he graduated as a Bachelor in Agriculture from HAS in Den Bosch.

Benedikt Bösel is founder and CEO of Gut&Bösel near Berlin. Benedikt and his team are implementing different forms of regenerative agriculture like syntropic agroforestry, holistic grazing, market gardening and different composting methodologies on his estate that is characterized by extremely low precipitation and sandy soil. The estate also ties in startups and technology to combine both worlds. Benedikt is engaged and sits in various boards of initiatives around the future of land use and rural development. For instance, he sits on the board of Soil Alliance - an association of Regenerative Agriculture as well as is part of the Advisory Board of Digitalisation of Agriculture for the Ministry of Food & Agriculture in Germany.

Massimo Bottura is an Italian restaurateur and the Chef Patron of Osteria Francescana, a three-Michelin-star restaurant based in Modena, Italy which has been listed in the top 5 at The World's 50 Best Restaurants Awards since 2010 and has received many top ratings and awards. In 2016, Massimo founded the non-profit association Food for Soul to empower communities to fight against food waste in the interest of social inclusion and individual wellbeing. Food for Soul creates and sustains community kitchens around the world by bringing together both public and private organisations, as well as professionals from diverse fields including chefs, artisans, food suppliers, artists and designers. They source quality and in-date ingredients, that are perfectly edible but would otherwise go to waste, then transform them into delicious and nutritious multi-course meals to serve to the guests from vulnerable backgrounds.

In his role as Vice President Corporate Affairs for the EMEA region at Cargill, Hendrik designs and implements government affairs strategies for Cargill across the region that are underpinned by strong communications, brand and corporate responsibility, and sustainable development activities. He also provides strategic leadership for Cargill’s businesses in EMEA in engagements with government, stakeholders, media, civil society and employees.  Before joining Cargill, Hendrik served in executive positions at General Electric (GE) including most recently as GE’s General Counsel Europe and head of European Affairs. Prior to joining GE, Hendrik was an attorney with Jones Day, based in Washington, D.C. and Brussels, where he practiced mainly U.S. antitrust and European competition law. Hendrik obtained his law degree at the Rijksuniversiteit Gent, Belgium, and has an LL.M. degree from Harvard Law School.

Graduate of the National Veterinary School of Toulouse, General Inspector of the Veterinary Public Health, Jean-Marc Bournigal first worked within the General Directorate of Food of the Ministry of Agriculture. From 1995 to 1997, he joined the cabinet of the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food as a technical adviser. Head of the International Health Coordination Mission and then Agricultural Counsellor at the French Embassy in Italy, Jean-Marc Bournigal became the Delegate for European Agricultural Affairs at the Permanent Representation of France to the European Union in 2002, and in 2006 he was the Director General of Food and then the Director General of Agri-Food, Agricultural and Territorial Policies in 2009. From 2010 to 2012, he was the Director of the cabinet of Bruno Le Maire, then Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry. From 2012 to 2017, he was the Executive President of the National Institute for Research in Science and Technologies for the Environment and the Agriculture (IRSTEA). Since 2017, Jean-Marc Bournigal has been the General Manager of the Wheat Producers Association (AGPB) and Advisor to the UNIGRAINS President.

Alexandra Brand leads one of Syngenta Group’s largest and most profitable businesses as the Crop Protection Regional Director for Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EAME). From 2018 – 2020, Alexandra Brand was Chief Sustainability Officer of Syngenta Group where she led the newly created Business Sustainability Group to evolve existing sustainability initiatives including The Good Growth Plan and to drive forward the company’s sustainability agenda. The group aligned the company’s Regulatory Affairs, Sustainability and Stewardship, External Affairs and Communications activities. Alexandra joined Syngenta in late 2015 as Regional Director of Syngenta’s crop protection and seed operations across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Before joining Syngenta, Alexandra held various positions in the BASF Group, including senior vice president of its global Animal Nutrition business unit, vice president of the Global Marketing Pharma Ingredients unit as well as chief of staff for BASF’s chief executive officer. Alexandra gained international experience through her role as director of BASF’s Sub Regional Operating Manager Intermediates in South Asia, with its headquarters in Mumbai, India. She began her professional career in global research at BASF. Alexandra studied chemistry at the Technische Universität in Darmstadt, Germany, from 1990 to 1998 and completed her studies with a doctorate.

Sauli is a Vice president, Global forest affairs in UPM-Kymmene Oyj, responsible for international forestry issues. Sauli's job is to promote and develop the sustainable use of forests in UPM's different operating environments. He has worked for 27 years in various senior management positions in UPM's wood supply and land use activities in Finland, the Baltic countries and the UK. He holds a bachelor's degree in forestry and an eMBA from the University of Tampere. Sauli is passionate about forest management and sustainable forest growth. Most of his hobbies is based in forests and on his home farm in Finland, Sauli practices organic farming according to regenerative farming methods.

Bio not available.

Born in 1967 in Aachen, Germany, Susanne Breuer studied Regional Studies - Latin America and Economics at the Free University of Berlin, with a focus on international cooperation. She spent a year in Colombia and has been working with MISEREOR since July 2005. From 2020 to 2021, she had an assignment with the Federal Foreign Office in the Religion and Foreign Policy unit, focused on peace construction. Since November 2021, she has been back with MISEREOR, supporting advocacy work connected to Latin America and to global food challenges.

More information
Website – www.misereor.de

Agr Lic. Åsa Wolgast Broberg is Deputy Director at the Swedish Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation, department of Rural Affairs. She is coordinating the implementation and administration of the Swedish Rural Development Program and the subsequent national Strategic Plan of CAP. She is also responsible for the green architecture of the plans, as well as the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System within them. After her Degree of Licentiate in Agricultural Science on Plant Production and Soil Science in 1999 she has also worked 10 years for the Federation of Swedish Farmers with property rights and agricultural environment and 7 years with public advisory service on the latter matter.

Grzegorz Brodziak is President of the Management Board of the Polska Federacja Rolna (Polish Agricultural Federation). As a leading organization in the agri-food sector, the Federation provides professional consulting services. The aim of the Federation is to build social trust, protect the interests of associated business entities and solve their key problems. They represent over 1,000 farms and enterprises from the agribusiness sector employing tens of thousands of employees.

Dr Marie Brueser is the Entrepreneurship Leader at Thought For Food, the world's pioneer and leader of next-gen food and agri-tech innovation for impact. In her role, Marie leads several of TFF's flagship programs, including the TFF Challenge, the sector's largest and most diverse innovation challenge; the TFF Academy, an in-house acceleration program supporting promising early-stage startups; as well as TFF's mentoring and intrapreneurship offers.

Marie holds a PhD in plant genetics and has worked on various multinational sustainable development projects funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Through her work, she has a unique overview of trends in food and agriculture. She has spoken at and moderated discussions with organizations such as the Rockefeller Foundation, Danone, Cargill, EIT Food, thhttps://www.forumforagriculture.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?post_type=faqe World Food Forum and more. She is passionate about biotechnology and lives as a nomad, always on the lookout for new innovations.

Dr Matthieu Brun graduated from Sciences Po (Lyon and Bordeaux) in International Relations and Political Science. He has developed an expertise in the geopolitical stakes of agriculture, rurality and food, at the global level and more specifically in the Arab world and in Africa. His career has led him to work in research centers and think tanks (CIRAD, CIHEAM, iReMMO, IDDRI-Institut du développement durable et des relations internationales). At the Club DEMETER he is in charge of the production and coordination of scientific contents and co-edits the annual reference book on agriculture and food, the Demeter (IRIS editions). He teaches in several schools and universities. He is a member of the Ethical and Scientific Committee of Open Agrifood, of the Scientific Council of ARVALIS and of the Scientific Orientation Committee of the European Movement. More information Website – www.wwf.pt Twitter – @matthieubrun3 Twitter – @Le_demeter LinkedIn – matthieubrun

Ariel Brunner coordinates the work of BirdLife Europe on a wide range of EU policies ranging from nature and biodiversity conservation, to climate and energy, fisheries and agriculture. Over the last decade he has been deeply involved in debates on reform of the Common Agriculture Policy and is widely recognised as prominent expert on the environmental impacts of EU farm policies. He has chaired DG Agriculture’s Advisory Group on Agriculture and Environment and has been a member of its Expert group on Public Goods, and of the European Commission’s High level steering group on the European Innovation Partnership on agriculture. He has also played a leading role in the NatureAlert campaign and has been very active in debates over the sustainability of renewable energy and in particular of bioenergy. He has also been involved in numerous studies, policy developments and political processes linked to the EU Renewable energy Directives, the sustainability criteria for biofuels, the Indirect Land Use Change controversy etc. Before moving to Brussels he was following the implementation of EU nature conservation legislation in Italy and has been instrumental to the designation of the country’s Special Protection Areas network (sites protected under the EU Wild Birds Directive).

Member of Parliament for the Social Democratic Party in the greater constituency of Copenhagen from 5 June 2019.
Member of Parliament for the Social Democratic Party in the greater constituency of Copenhagen, 1 January 2014 – 18 June 2015.
Temporary Member of Parliament for the Social Democratic Party in the Greater Constituency of Copenhagen (deputy for Mogens Lykketoft), 4 July 2015 – 30 September 2016.
Temporary Member of Parliament for the Social Democratic Party in the Greater Constituency of Copenhagen (deputy for Sophie Hæstorp Andersen), 5 November 2013 – 3 December 2013.
Candidate for the Social Democrats in the Middelfart constituency from 2025.

Hans Bruyninckx is the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency. He took office on June 1, 2013.

Dr Bruyninckx studied undergraduate and master’s degrees in political science specialising in international relations at Antwerp and Leuven Universities. He also completed an additional programme in development studies at the University Catholique de Louvain-laNeuve.

He completed a PhD degree in 1996 at Colorado State University on the topic of international environmental politics, subsequently teaching at several other universities in the United States and Europe, including Colorado State University, Canisius College and Wageningen University.

From 2010 until his appointment at the EEA, he was head of the HIVA Research Institute in Leuven, Belgium, a policy-oriented research institute associated with the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, where he was also head of the Political Science department from 2007 to 2010. Dr Bruyninckx has also been a senior member of the interdisciplinary Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and promoter-coordinator of the Flemish Policy Research Centre on Transitions for Sustainable Development (TRADO).

Over the last 20 years, he has conducted and managed policy-oriented research in the areas of environmental politics, climate change, and sustainable development. He was responsible for research in the domains of policy evaluation, monitoring and reporting, methodology development, environmental policy integration, and more recently also on long-term transition policies. His experience pertains to the level of the regions (Flanders in a comparative European perspective), the EU Member States, the EU level, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and processes of global environmental governance (climate change in particular).

His academic expertise lies primarily in the field of European and international environmental policy, studying the effects of globalisation on the global governance of environmental issues and sustainable development. From this perspective he has also studied global production and consumption systems, as well as issues relating to distribution and justice. He has taught courses on the topics of global environmental politics and global environmental governance in relation to the European Union (EU), publishing extensively on EU environmental policies and its role as an actor in global environmental governance.

Dr Bruyninckx was involved in numerous policy processes as an advisory board member, involved in
steering groups of government agencies, and as academic policy advisor to governmental agencies and other key actors. In addition, he has worked intensely with civil society and business actors, in support of
public-private initiatives or private regulatory approaches to environmental, climate change and sustainability issues. Furthermore, he was president of the board of Bond Beter Leefmilieu (The Association for a Better Environment), a Flemish umbrella organisation bringing together many different environmental groups.

Emeritus Professor Allan Buckwell is the Director of RISE's study of Nutrient Recycling and Reuse in European Agriculture and the Director of the Foundation's previous study on the Sustainable Intensification of European Agriculture. Two thirds of his career has been as an academic agricultural economist specialising in agricultural and rural policy. This has involved his work as a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for European Environmental Policy (since 2012), fourteen years at Newcastle University and then from 1984-1999 as Professor of Agricultural Economics, Wye College University of London. During 1995/6 he was seconded to the analysis and conception unit of DG Agri in the European Commission where he chaired a policy integration group who laid out a model for the evolution of the CAP. He joined the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) as Policy Director in 2000.

Professor James Bullock is a globally-leading expert on the spatial dynamics and management of biodiversity. He has >280 peer-reviewed publications and has been in the top 1% of his field by citation every year since 2019. James has developed new knowledge on restoration and rewilding that includes two of the seven most-cited papers on restoration in the last 15 years, the most cited paper on rewilding in the last five years. He has edited two books on dispersal and used mathematical and statistical models to further understanding of ecological dynamics over large scales.

James has also pushed forward ecosystem service science, with numerous projects on their measurement and modelling. His expertise in these areas comes together in research on sustainable farming, future environmental scenarios and conservation planning – all with the aim to find solutions to the biodiversity crisis. His forte is in working across research areas and he has recently developed a new complexity paradigm for restoration, led a project linking climate change, socio-economics, pollution and biodiversity loss, and developed National Capability research linking net zero with agro-ecology.

James leads large projects with multidisciplinary teams within UKCEH, across UK HEIs, and involving partners in Europe, the USA and Africa, funded by the European Commission, NERC, ESRC and Defra. He undertakes applied research for government departments, UK and EU agencies and the private sector. He has led several stakeholder events involving NGOs, industry, farmers and government.

Charlie inherited the 3,500-acre estate from his grandparents in the 1980’s and is the inspiration behind the Knepp Wildland Project. Having run Knepp Home Farm for 20 years, Charlie had a dramatic change of heart after a visit to the Oostvaardersplassen project in Holland in the 1990s and saw the potential for a similar “rewilding” project at home in Sussex.

Charlie is chair of the Romanian rewilding project, Foundation Conservation Carpathia, and is on the board of Rewilding Britain, The Arcadia Fund, Ingleby Farms Environment Committee, the Endangered Landscapes Programme and the Bronze Oak Project.

Helmut Burtscher was a doctor at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rheumatology until 2000 and a chemistry expert since 2001 at the Austrian environmental organization GLOBAL 2000.

He graduated in Food Science and Biotechnology and passed his doctors’ degree at the Institute of Immunology at the Medical University of Vienna. Environmental Expert at Global 2000 and Friends of the Earth Austria, Helmut studied biochemistry and specialised in endocrine disruptive substances included in food and body care. Helmut established programmes to reduce the pesticide contamination in conventional food and vegetables to improve the sustainability of products.

Claire Bury is currently Deputy Director-General in DG Health and Food Safety with responsibility for food safety and sustainability. She is also a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges. She was previously Deputy Director-General for the Digital Single Market in DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology and Director of Modernisation of the Single Market in Directorate General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. Before that, she was Head of Unit for Company Law, Corporate Governance and Financial Crime in Directorate General Internal Market and Services, and Deputy Head of Cabinet to Internal Market Commissioners Charlie McCreevy and Frits Bolkestein. An English barrister by training, she worked in the Commission's Legal Service and, before coming to Brussels, in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. More information Website – https://ec.europa.eu/food/safety_en Twitter – @Food_EU

Gabriel von dem Bussche studied International Management with work experience in Politics, forestry and capital markets, mainly in Berlin & Madrid. Since 2019, he is managing a private forest company in NRW, Germany. He is enthusiastic about digitalisation in forestry, exploring & developing new business models and finding solutions to establish ecosystem services. He is 39, married and has two children.

Fred Buyle is a freediver explorer and a photographer born in 1972. Since his childhood he has been in contact with the sea, spending several months a year on the family’s sailboat. At the age of 10, he discovers free diving. After years of practice, he becomes scuba diving instructor and started to teach free diving in 1991.

He sets his 1st world record in 1995 and then decides to dedicate his life to freediving. He achieves three more world records between 1997 and 2000. In 1999, Frederic passes the100m’s mythical barrier on one breath of air, being the 8th person to do so.

In 2002, he starts underwater photography to show the beauty of freediving and the underwater world. Fred comes from an artistic background. His grand grandfather was a pioneer of photography in the 1890s, his grand father was a painter and his father an advertising and fashion photographer during the 1960s. His work shows these various influences.

To take his pictures and videos Fred uses a simple formula: the water, available light, a camera and one breath of air, nothing more, nothing less.

A freediver is able to capture unique moments thanks to his simple equipment and ease of movement. Fred has been taking pictures down to 60m on single breath of air and on remote locations where light logistics makes all the difference.

What makes Fred’s photography different from any other underwater photography is his rather zen and minimalistic approach to this media.

Concerned by conservation and environmental issues for many years, in 2005 he starts to work with marine biologists around the world to assist them in their field work. He uses his freediving skills to approach the animals and perform tasks such as acoustic and satellite tagging or DNA sampling. Fred collaborated with international teams to provide them his practical knowledge and his extensive experience in the water with large marine life.

During these missions, Fred documents the field work to contribute to conservation on a larger scale through talks and conferences. Numerous NGO’s are using his material for their conservation campaigns.

His approach to conservation is rather practical and realistic. Impact on wildlife and carbon footprint has to be the primary concern for someone who wants to make a difference. In the 2020’s we all have to be more frugal and avoid unnecessary travel and wildlife disturbance. Sustainability must be part of conservation and media practices.

Fred’s work has been published in Apnea, Chocs, Daily Mail, Diver, Diver Japan, Dyking, L’Equipe Magazine, ESPN The Magazine, Focus, Geo, Hawaii Skin Diver, Melange, Men’s Health, National Geographic, New Look, The New York Times, Océans, Ocean Geographic, Outside, Paris Match, Plongeurs International, Der Spiegel, Thalassa, The Telegraph, the Times, Unterwasser amongst others
Corporate work for IWC Shaffausen, Hamilton Watches, Red Bull, Tahiti Tourisme, Hermes, Decathlon, Mares, Ulysse Nardin, Nikon

Dr Bruce Campbell is Director of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), a staff member of International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Senior Advisor to the Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA). He works on adaptation to increased climatic variability and progressive climate change, and on low emissions development. CCAFS started in 2010 and has a budget of c. US$ 50-60 million per annum and operates with staff in more than 20 countries. Bruce was previously based in Zimbabwe, Indonesia and Australia. He has published over 150 journal articles and more than a dozen books. More information Twitter – @bcampbell_CGIAR Website - www.ccafs.cgiar.org

Dr. Jeroen Candel works as assistant professor in food and agricultural policy at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. In his research, he studies how governments, from local to EU level, can support a transition towards a more sustainable food system. In his most recent publications, he has reflected on the ground-breaking potential of the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy and provided recommendations for improvements of the Common Agricultural Policy. Moreover, he was one of the authors of the SAPEA-report ‘A Sustainable Food System for the European Union’. Apart from his academic duties, Dr. Candel closely engages with policymakers and stakeholders to provide suggestions for improved food governance. He is a member of the Dutch Council on Animal Affairs and the supervisory board of the foundation Transitiecoalitie Voedsel (‘the Food transition Coalition’). Together with researchers from Oxford University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences he has set up the new platform Table, which seeks to facilitate informed discussions about how the food system can become sustainable, resilient, just, and ultimately “good”. More information Website – www.wur.nl Twitter – @JeroenCandel LinkedIn – jeroen-candel-08265229

Miguel Arias Cañete is the European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy. He has served in the role since 1st November 2014. Mr. Arias Cañete studied law at the Complutense University of Madrid. After graduating in 1974, he joined the Spanish Civil Service working as a State Attorney. In 1978, he became a Professor of Law at the University of Cadiz. In 1982 he left his teaching post as he was elected a Member of the Parliament of Andalusia until 1986. After serving in the Andalusian Parliament, he became a Member of the European Parliament upon Spain’s accession in 1986. He stayed until 1999, heading the Committees on Agriculture and on Regional Development during his time as MEP. Mr. Arias Cañete served as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries of Spain from 2000 until 2004. He also served as Minister for Agriculture, Food and Environment in the Spanish Government from 2011 until 2014, before being selected to head his Party List in the European Parliamentary elections.

Bruno has been at ApexBrasil’s office in Brussels since 2019, where he follows topics of trade and economic relevance for the engagement of Brazil’s exporting sectors in the European Continent. Before joining ApexBrasil, he worked with the formulation of trade policies on behalf of the country’s industrial sectors, and had a passage at UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), at the UN Headquarters in New York. Graduated in International Relations, Bruno holds a MA in WTO Trade Law.

With a degree in Environmental Sciences and a master on Agrienvironmental Policies, Ana has worked since 2005 on the relationship between biodiversity conservation and farmland management and policies. After some time involved on CAP monitoring and implementation from University, she joined to SEO/BirdLife team in 2007, where has been the agriculture Policy officer for ten years. At this position, has been responsible for different works and projects, including the asessment of the agrienvironmental schemes for steppe bird species, the development of technical guidances for farming practices and farmland birds conservation or the study of the High Nature Value Farming (HNVF) systems in Spain. Currently, since 2017, Ana coordinates the Conservation Department of SEO/BirdLife, where still works on agriculture and CAP with the aim of seeking and contributing to best integration of biodiversity conservation and farming profitability. Furthermore, she makes part of the European Task Forces of BirdLife and has a huge knowledge on European Nature values, institutions and policies. Based at Madrid, she enjoys to return to her rural roots at an small town in Granada (Andalucía) whenever possible.

Paula Cruz de Carvalho is an Agronomic  Engineering  graduate from the Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa. She is responsible for the area of plant health, seeds and vegetative propagation material, genetic resources, plant varieties and plant protection products. National member of the OECD Schemes for the Varietal Certification,  International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), International Seed Testing Association (ISTA), International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) and European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation (EPPO). Member of the Administrative Council of the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) and, since 2012, the Portuguese Chief Officer of Plant Health. More information Website – www.dgav.ptt

Samuel Juárez Casado is a Veterinarian from the University of León and an Executive Master in International Development from CERIS (Brussels). He is an official of the National Veterinary Corps. He has held various positions in the Xunta de Galicia (General Director of Fisheries and Rural Environment Counselor) and in the General State Administration (General Secretary of Fisheries and Government Delegate in Galicia), and has been assigned as Counselor of Agriculture in the Embassies of Spain in Washington and Beijing. He currently works at the Ministry of Agriculture, in the General Subdirectorate for Agrarian Policies Planning, in charge of international policy issues, among other things, being the focal point for Spain at the United Nations Food Systems Summit and representative of the Ministry in various expert groups of the European Commission.

Alessandro Cataldo is a partner at EY responsible for strategy and M&A practice with a specific focus on chemicals and agri-food at EMEIA. He has 25 years of business, private equity and consulting experience matured in chemicals, crop science and agrifood.

With a background in consumer and industrial goods, Alessandro recently spent 6 years with a global investment and advisory firm that focused on investing in and developing businesses in the advanced materials and specialty chemicals sectors. He has been with a consulting firm for over 15 years prior to his employment at EY, where he held several leadership positions, working with the boards and senior executives of major corporations in the private equity, chemicals, agri-food and natural resources sectors.

Having completed a degree in Agriculture at Reading University, the initial part of her career was as a farming consultant with Strutt & Parker where she was a partner for 13 years. She joined the Trust as chief executive at the end of 2001. In this role, she has been able to combine her practical and business experience of farming and land management with the conservation prescriptions and policy produced by the Trust scientists. Teresa was awarded a CBE for services to conservation in June 2015, is a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society, England, a board member of Natural England and a board member of the Marlborough Downs Nature Improvement Partnership. More information Website – www.gwct.org.uk

Alessandro Cescatti, PhD in Forest Ecology, leads the research group “Land-Climate Interactions” in the Bio-economy Unit of the Directorate for Sustainable Development of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. He has broad expertise on the use of Earth observations from multiple platforms and technologies, including network of flux sites, national forest inventories and advanced remote sensing based on different techniques and platforms. He focuses on the quantification of biophysical and biogeochemical processes that occur in the land-climate system at various spatial and temporal scales. He has (co)-authored about 180 peer-reviewed papers in that field. He is co-responsible for the development of the activity in Europe of the “EU observatory on deforestation, forest degradation, changes in the world’s forest cover, and associated driver” that the Joint Research Centre is currently establishing.

Elodie Champseix is the Natural Resources Senior Officer at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); she currently leads her team on the topics of soil, water, agriculture and food systems. Elodie holds two degrees in economics and management, and builds on her experience in project implementation and policy development. She and her team are committed to build bridges between science and policy, reaching for preservation and safeguard of our ecosystems.

Ranveer is the Vice President, Product M365 Copilot and the Chief Technology Officer of Agri-Food at Microsoft. Previously, Dr. Chandra has held various leadership roles, including the Managing Director for Research for Industry, Chief Scientist of Microsoft Azure Global, and Head of Networking Research at Microsoft Research, Redmond.

Ranveer started the agriculture initiative at Microsoft in 2015. His work on FarmBeats became a product, Azure Data Manager for Agriculture, a platform that leverages cloud computing and AI to enable data-driven farming. Ranveer serves as the CTO of Agri-Food at Microsoft. Ranveer's research, entrepreneurship, and leadership has had a significant impact on both Microsoft products and the broader scientific community.

He has contributed to the design and implementation of Cloud and AI platforms for Industry, low-power algorithms, energy profiling tools, XBOX One wireless controller protocol, data center networks, and white space networking technologies that have enhanced the Windows, Visual Studio, XBOX, and Azure.

Ranveer has an undergraduate degree from IIT Kharagpur, India and a PhD from Cornell University.

Dominique Chargé, breeder of dairy cows and poultry, is Vice-President of Terrena and President of the Specialized Milk Council of FranceAgriMer. Previously, from 2010 to 2017, he assumed important responsibilities within the dairy sector, in particular as president of the Laïta group for ten years until 2017. Also, until that date he was president of the National Federation of Dairy Cooperatives (FNCL) and he was a player in the merger of the dairy professions within Coop de France until a year ago. More information Website – www.lacooperationagricole.coop/fr Twitter – @lacooperationagricole

Grigoris Chatzikostas is an expert in financing innovation in agtech and foodtech. He is managing multi-national and cross-sectoral consortia, developing proposals for EU funding, and coordinating large-scale projects that promote tech-enabled entrepreneurship in the agrifood sector. In the past 15 years, he has managed projects exceeding the total value of 100 mEUR. He has delivered programs supporting more than 150 startups and SMEs with pre-seed funding and business support services. As a passionate and engaging public speaker and trainer, he makes complex subjects related to EU funding and technologies accessible and easy to understand. He also offers mentoring and strategic consulting to a small number of carefully selected companies that are aligned with his interests.

Nathalie Chaze is Director for ‘Food sustainability, international relations’ in the Directorate General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission. From 2014 to 2019, she was Deputy Head of the Cabinet of the Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis. She has worked previously in the Directorate General for TRADE and was posted in the European delegation to the WTO in Geneva before joining the Directorate General for Health, Food Safety and Consumers to become Head of Unit for Health Systems. She is a lawyer by training.

Joséphine de Chazournes is founder and CEO of Semper Silva, a forestry and agroecology consultancy that restores degraded land across Europe. Together with her husband she bought eroded cereal conventional land in Tuscany twenty years ago and successfully transitioned it to a sustainable organic regenerative agroforestry ecosystem. She is vice-chairman of the board of the Tuscany Environment Foundation, part of the British group of non-profits Conservation Collective. She worked for 20 years in Strategy and Finance for the leading institutions, holds a masters in economics and strategy from ESSEC in Paris, and has attended Singularity University’s exponential technologies, MIT’s sustainable business and Cambridge’s sustainability leadership courses.

Claire Chenu is research director at INRAE (French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment) and consulting professor of soil science at AgroParisTech. She is a member of the research unit ECOSYS at Grignon in Paris area. Her research deals with soil organic matter, which has a prominent role in ecosystem services provided by soils. She addresses the roles of soil organic matter in soil physical properties and investigates carbon dynamics and sequestration in agricultural soils. She was the 2019 Soil Science medallist of the European Geosciences Union and the recipient of the 2019 INRA Research Lifetime Achievement Award. She is very involved in the science-policy-practice interface and in awareness raising activities on soils. She has been nominated Special Ambassador for 2015 the international year of soils by the FAO. She is member of several international committees, including being a member of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the 4 per 1000 initiative. She coordinates the EU H2020 European Joint Programme SOIL that associates 24 European countries: “Towards climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soils”.

Patrick Child is currently Deputy Director-General in DG Environment at the European Commission with particular responsibility for the EU’s zero pollution strategy, chemicals legislation, urban agenda, research and innovation for environment and communication. He is also the Mission manager for the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission, which aims to reach 100 climate-neutral cities by 2030.

From 2016-2021, he was Deputy Director-General in DG Research and Innovation (R&I) at the European Commission. As member of the Board of DG R&I, he followed in particular research and innovation in clean energy and climate technologies as well as the R&I dimension of the post-COVID recovery and resilience strategy and Horizon Europe mission on Cancer. His international roles included Commission representative and chair of the steering committee of Mission Innovation (a coalition of 24 countries and the EC working to accelerate global clean energy innovation) and lead co-chair of the Group of Earth Observations (GEO).

Until April 2016, Patrick Child was Managing Director of the European External Service with responsibility for administration and finance, covering human resources policy, security and the budget. Before he took up this post in 2011, he was director in the EC External Relations Directorate-General in the responsible for managing the network of Commission delegations. He has previously served as head of cabinet for External Relations Commissioners Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Chris Patten.

With a background in the UK Finance Ministry, he joined the European Commission in 1994, where he started in the Economic and Monetary affairs Directorate General before becoming Commission press spokesman for economic and monetary union from 1995-1999. Mr Child studied mathematics at Cambridge University. He is married with two children.

Mateusz Ciasnocha - a farmer from Poland on the mission of building a farmer-centric bridge between agricultural and climate policy. He lives his call to action through two businesses: the European Carbon Farmers and the Farm of Francesco, as well as through service in various Supervisory and Advisory Boards: Foundation of the Economy of Francesco, as well as Laudato Si Action Platform at the Holy See and the EU Soil Mission Board at the European Commission.

Stepping into the role of Sustainability Commercial Lead at Microsoft, Petra is working with customers to help them transform and power their ESG ambition with technology.

David Clarinval is a Belgian politician of the Reformist Movement who has been serving as Minister of the Middle Class, SMEs, Self-employed, Agriculture, Social Integration and Urban Policy in the government of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo since 2020.

John Clarke is former director of international relations, European Commission, and former head of the EU Delegation to the WTO and UN in Geneva. He was focused, in particular, on multilateral negotiations with industrialised countries that include the USA and Japan, as well as with Africa in DG Agriculture and Rural Development. In his previous role, he was also responsible for relations with Asian and Latin American countries, their free trade agreements, neighbourhood policy and EU enlargements. Prior to this, he was head of the EU delegation to the World Trade Organisation and the UN in Geneva. He joined the European Commission in 1993 as a trade negotiator. For ten years before joining the Commission, Mr Clarke held various official roles in the Hong Kong government, including as the governor’s head of cabinet.

Doctorate in anthropology from Oxford University in 1988, on the social organization of informal sector mining camps in the Amazon, followed by research posts at the universities of Edinburgh, Cambridge and Harvard. He then returned to Brazil for four years to direct an EU-funded project assessing mercury contamination linked to gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon. Joined The Nature Conservancy in 1999, where he set up the Conservancy’s Amazon program. Subsequently based in Rio de Janeiro as director of conservation strategy for Latin America, leading work with the private sector, especially agribusiness, with a focus on eliminating deforestation from supply chains in the beef and soy industries. Returning to the USA in 2010, he took up a new position as the Conservancy’s director of global agriculture, where he has helped the organization develop a sustainable intensification approach to food security, and assisted corporate partners in thinking through land-use issues. He is responsible for supporting and coordinating the Conservancy’s work on agriculture in Africa, China and Latin America, with a strong focus on soil health, water issues and habitat conservation, while continuing to supervise the Conservancy’s work on deforestation. He is the author of several books and articles on development and environmental issues, but was also the first author of the Rough Guide to Brazil.  He moved to his native London in 2019.

Sean is a former Member of the Executive Committee of the World Economic Forum - Head of Food Systems where at different times he additionally had executive management oversight and responsibility for the Nature portfolio, Climate Governance, Finance for SDGs, Tech for SDGs, Hoffman Fellows, Diversified Protein and Civil Society Engagement. Sean recently chaired the UN Food Systems Summit Innovation Lever of Change and was previously a special advisor to the UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Food Security and Nutrition. He sits on the Board of IDH - the Sustainable Trade Initiative and The Partnering Initiative. Previously he held positions as Senior Vice President Global Initiatives, Strategy and Business Development for Yara International and Vice President of Business Development, Inclusive Finance and Strategic Partnerships at AGRA. Sean also has an extensive background in social entrepreneurship, sustainable financing and innovation.

With more than 30 years of business experience, Aidan Connolly has successfully engaged with a full range of executive and managerial challenges, including direct experience of greenfield start-ups, high growth environments, turnaround issues, challenging economic environments and a wide range of political and economic systems. Aidan held multiple senior leadership positions at the global animal health company, Alltech, over a period of more than 25 years. Currently, Aidan is President of AgriTech Capital, a US-based strategy and investment firm which supports innovation and technology in the agribusiness sector. He is also CEO of Irish agtech start-up, Cainthus, a company specialising in monitoring key farm management practices that impact nutrition, health and the behaviour of livestock through the use of computer vision and artificial intelligence. He has worked in over 100 countries, lived in six of them and speaks five languages. He has worked in political associations, with state and national governments in the US, China, Europe and Brazil and international organizations such as the European Union and the United Nations. He holds positions as Adjunct Professor of Marketing at the Smurfit School of Business, University College Dublin and the China Agricultural University in Beijing. He has published over 30 academic articles and is a regular contributor to social media.

Vincent Cordonnier is a French national. He holds a Master's degree in Agronomy from AgroParisTech. He has been working in the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission (DG AGRI) since 2008. He is currently Deputy Head of Unit G.4 – Neighbourhood, enlargement and pre-accession assistance.

Since he joined DG AGRI, he has held various positions and has gained experience in team management, international policy and trade, policy development, analysis and Outlook, financial management and communication.

Throughout his career, Vincent Cordonnier worked on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, the negotiations of free trade agreements with Japan and Ecuador, geographical indications, and the management of the Farm Accountancy data Network. He has been responsible for the organisation of the EU Agricultural Outlook Conference from 2020 to 2023.

He is fluent in French and English.

Camilla leads Syngenta’s CP Research organization - a passionate team of some 700 scientists, located in at five world-class research sites in five countries - in delivering excellence in design, synthesis and biological evaluation to discover, optimize and develop industry-leading solutions.

With a strong track record of delivery, Camilla has made a particularly significant contribution to the invention and development of Syngenta’s fungicide SDHI class (sedaxane, isopyrazam, Solatenol™ and Adepidyn™) and to the shape and quality of the existing crop protection research pipeline.

A chemist by training, Camilla has been with Syngenta since 2004, holding various leadership roles across Chemistry and Portfolio. As a leader, she has a proven ability to foster effective teams and to build the relationships that bring winning innovation into the hands of growers.

Camilla graduated in Chemistry from Florence University with a PhD and Postdoc in Organic Chemistry obtained from University College London and Ecole Polytechnique respectively.

Ornella leads EU energy and sustainability policy at Microsoft. Based in Brussels, she follows policy developments in the space of circular economy, ESG, datacenter sustainability and energy. In the era of AI, Ornella also looks at the endless opportunities that AI can offer to support Europe’s sustainability goals and Microsoft’s customers while they embark in the sustainability transformation of their sectors (i.e. manufacturing, agriculture, electricity).

Prior to joining Microsoft, Ornella worked for Pepsico in their government affairs office, and held previous roles in the British parliament, a public affairs consultancy and a Brussels based association, always working in the space of sustainability, climate, and agricultural policy.

Ertharin Cousin is the Frank E. and Arthur W. Payne Distinguished Lecturer at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a Distinguished Fellow in FSI’s Center on Food Security and the Environment and the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. Cousin also serves the Chicago Council on Global Affairs as a Distinguished Global Fellow. She previously served as executive director of the UN World Food Programme from 2012 until 2017. In 2009, Cousin served as the US Ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome. In this role she served as US Representative for all food, agriculture and nutrition related issues. Prior to her global hunger work, Cousin helped lead the US domestic fight to end hunger while serving as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of America’s Second Harvest-now Feeding America. Cousin also served as Senior Vice President for Albertson’s Foods and was appointed by the US President to the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development where she helped oversee US government agriculture research investments worldwide. Before Albertsons, Cousin served as the White House Liaison to the State Department. Cousin is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago; the University of Georgia Law School and the University of Chicago Executive Management Finance for Non-Financial Executives program. Cousin has Honorary Doctorate degrees from Universities around the globe. She has been listed numerous times on the Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women List, as the Fortune Most Powerful Woman in Food and Drink, on Times’ 100 Most Influential People list, and as one of the 500 Most Powerful People on the Planet by Foreign Policy magazine.

Mr Calleja was appointed as Director-General, Legal Service, European Commission in July 2020. Previously he was Director-General of DG Environment (2015-2020) and before that he was Director-General of DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (Jan 2015 to Aug 2015) and Director General of DG Enterprise and Industry, Special Envoy for SMEs (Feb 2012 to Jan 2015). Prior to that he was Deputy Director General of DG Enterprise and Industry (Feb 2011 to Jan 2012). Mr Calleja was Director for Air Transport at the European Commission (2004 to 2011). Between 1999 and 2004, he was Head of Cabinet of the Vice-president of the European Commission and between 1995 and 1999 was the Head of Cabinet for Commissioner Marcelino Oreja, In 1995, he was the legal adviser in the Cabinet of the President of the European Commission. In earlier roles he advised the Transport Commissioner and was Member of the Legal Service of the Commission and represented the institution in numerous cases before the European Court of Justice. Mr Calleja is the author of several publications and has lectured in European Law in several universities and institutes of various Member States. Mr Calleja has a degree in Law and in Business Administration from the University of Comillas, Madrid.

Pablo Sanchez is a researcher at Leitat Technological Center and doing his PhD in association with the University of Barcelona, under the field of microbiome biotechnology. His primary research focuses on studying the role of soil organisms, using molecular methodologies, in agricultural ecosystems under various management practices and environmental pressures, with particular emphasis on linking these interactions with soil health.

Mr. Maximo Torero Cullen is the Chief Economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). He joined the Organization in January 2019 as Assistant Director-General for the Economic and Social Development Department. Prior to joining FAO, he was the World Bank Group Executive Director for Argentina, Bolivia, Chile Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay since November 2016 and before the Bank Mr. Torero led the Division of the Markets, Trade, and Institutions at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). His major research work lies mostly in analyzing poverty, inequality, importance of geography and assets (private or public) in explaining poverty, and in policies oriented towards poverty alleviation based on the role played by infrastructure, institutions, and on how technological breakthroughs (or discontinuities) can improve the welfare of households and small farmers. His experience encompasses Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia.

Mr. Torero, a national of Peru, holds a Ph.D. and a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of the Pacific, Lima, Peru. He is a professor on leave at the University of the Pacific, Perú, and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at University of Bonn, Germany, and has also published in top journals (QJE, Econometric Theory, AER-Applied Microeconomics, RSTAT, Labor Economics and many other top journals).

Mr. Torero has received in 2000 the Georg Foster Research Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, won the Award for Outstanding Research on Development given by the Global Development Network, twice, in 2000 and in 2002, and received the Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mérite Agricole in 2014.

More information
Twitter – @MaximoTorero
Website – www.maximotorero.com

Eduardo Cuoco was born in Naples (Italy) where he studied and successfully completed his MSc in Food Science and Technologies. Successively, he gained a PhD at the Polytechnic University of Marche (IT) and an executive master on Block-chain Technologies: Business Innovation and Application at MIT Sloan (US). He has been involved in organic farming since 1998. During the first career phase (1998/2008), he focused on the regional and national development of the organic policies in Italy, regarding rural development plans, promotional and certification schemes. Furthermore, he also promoted the organic industry in Italy as an innovation broker. Since 2008 he is contributing and serving the European organic sector as staff member of IFOAM Organics Europe where in 2016 he was appointed as Director. Further, Eduardo is involved in the establishment and management of the European Technology Platform "TP Organics" (as Head of the Secretariat) and he is participating in different expert groups such as the Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS-SCAR) and the Euro-Mediterranean Expert Group (EMEG). More information Website – www.organicseurope.bio Twitter – @EduardoCuoco LinkedIn – organicseurope

Brian Czech has a Ph.D. in renewable natural resources studies from the University of Arizona with a minor in political science. The founding President of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE), Brian is also a Visiting Professor at Virginia Tech, where he teaches ecological economics in the National Capitol Region.

Thierry de l’Escaille was born in Belgium on 11 May 1955. He studied first at the Faculté Universitaire Saint-Louis, Brussels (1976-78), where he obtained the Diploma in Law, and then at the Université Catholique de Louvain (1978-1980), where he obtained the Licence en droit. He subsequently carried out his Military Service as a Cavalry Officer, 1^er Regiment de Guides (1981-1982) in Germany, current rank: Commandant. Since 1979 Thierry de l’Escaille has been running a family farming enterprise active in Belgium and the Netherlands, in particular in vegetables, sugar beet, potatoes, cereals and flowers. He was the founder of Agriland in 1985. Since 1994, Thierry de l’Escaille has been Secretary General of the European Landowners’ Organization (ELO).  He is also Vice-President of Landelijk Vlaanderen, Member of the Agricultural Reform Group (London), Board member of the Transatlantic Policy Network, Sorgho EU, Société Royale forestière, President Patrimoine Culturel Immobilier, Chairman of various funds. Since 1998 he is also Secretary General of Friends of the Countryside (FCS), and member of different committees. He is currently Member of the Board of several agro-industrial companies in Europe, America and involved in Africa. He is a founder of the Forum for the Future of Agriculture, of the Wildlife Estate Label and deeply committed in private conservation such as in reasonable agriculture. He is member of the Board of Directors of a major protected area in Latin America. President of the board in a work promoting rural development and supporting education of young rural citizens in Colombia. More information Website – www.elo.org Twitter – @EULandownersOrg Facebook – europeanlandowners LinkedIn – thierry-de-l-escaille-6728724

  Board Member in charge of international issues, FNSEA; Vice-Chair Food Chain Committee, FNSEA; Vice-Chair CDG on IAA, COPA; Vice-Chair WFO; Member of the Section for Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment, EESC, and Spokesperson of the farmer’s category. Arnold Puech d’Alissac was President of the Young Farmers of Seine-Maritime (then CDJA 76) from 1993 to 1997. He was national administrator at the CNJA from 1996 to 2001 where he was responsible for European issues. His in-depth knowledge of European institutions therefore logically led him to be elected by his peers to the Presidency of the European Council of Young Farmers (CEJA) from 1999 to 2001 where he was particularly involved in the policy of setting up young farmers in the European Union against Franz Fischler. His work at CEJA has enabled him to negotiate on a number of agricultural and communication issues. At the departmental level, on June 19, 2003, he was elected President of the Farmers Union of Seine-Maritime (FNSEA 76) replacing Philippe DION, until March 28, 2017. 1st Vice-President of the Regional Chamber of Agriculture since 2007, Deputy Vice-President for Haute-Normandie at the Regional Chamber of Agriculture, Local and Easy President. At the regional level, he has been President of FRSEA Normandie since 2003. He is also a member of the Bureau of the FNSEA, in charge of international and European issues, has chaired the Food Chain Committee since April 2017. Since 2015, member of the European Economic and Social Committee. He is also Vice-President of the World Farmers Organization since June 26, 2020. More information Twitter – @ArnoldPuech

President of Fransylva Forestiers Privés de France, an important federation that represents forest owners at the national level, i.e. 20% of the surface area of private forests. A true militant for forestry, he wishes to place innovation, production and sustainability at the heart of his strategy for private forests. Antoine d'Amécourt has been elected to the Avoise (Sarthe) Municipal Council since 1995 and became Mayor in 2008. He holds various territorial responsibilities, including being elected as the energy and environment referent for the Sarthe Valley country and Vice President of the Sarthe Aval SAGE. He has been a Knight of Agricultural Merit since 2000.

Scheherazade Daneshkhu is Consumer Industries Editor for the Financial Times, covering food and beverage producers and fast-moving consumer goods. She has been a staff journalist at the Financial Times for the past 27 years, joining the media organisation in 1990. Prior to her current job, she was Paris correspondent, covering French banking and consumer industries, including the luxury sector. Her previous roles include Economics Correspondent, Leisure Industries Correspondent, personal finance writer and she has also covered Iran for the paper. She worked previously for the Institute of Petroleum in London, W1, now known at the Energy Institute. She has a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics, and a BA honours degree in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford University. She has broadcast for BBC television and radio and anchored debates at international institutions, including the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development. Scheherazade speaks English, French and Persian.

Jacki Davis is an experienced journalist, speaker and moderator of high-level events both in Brussels and in EU national capitals, the editor of many publications, a regular broadcaster on television and radio news programmes, and a Senior Adviser to the European Policy Centre think tank. Jacki has been based in Brussels for 21 years, and was previously Communications Director of the European Policy Centre think tank; Editor-in-Chief of E!Sharp magazine; and launch editor of European Voice, the Brussels-based weekly newspaper owned by The Economist. Jacki has moderated many conferences in Brussels and in EU Member States, and also has extensive experience in planning events. She can provide not only top-quality moderation of the event itself and ensure lively and highly interactive debates, but also advice and guidance on how to plan a successful event, how to frame the debate and brief speakers to deliver the desired outcomes etc.

Jenny Davis-Peccoud founded the Bain & Company global Sustainability & Responsibility practice in 2011 and led it for over a decade. She has worked with clients to shape sustainable business and value chain transformations, craft strategies to link sustainability to value creation, and align leadership teams behind ambitious agendas to reorient their organizations and eco-systems to more sustainable models. Beyond broad expertise in ESG, Jenny has a particular focus on food systems transformation, circularity, nature and biodiversity and carbon transition.

Throughout 30 years at Bain, Jenny has advised local and multinational corporate clients across a wide range of industries, as well as international trade associations, government ministries, public bodies and global NGOs. Her engagements have included sustainability strategy, sustainable growth and value creation, sustainable business transformation, sustainable supply chains, organization and leadership team alignment. She has also supported the early conception, incubation and launch of ambitious sustainability ventures and multi-party coalitions.

Jenny writes and speaks extensively in her areas of expertise. Her perspectives have been published in newspapers across the world, including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Le Monde, NRC Handelsblad and The Business Times of Singapore, as well as in publications such as Harvard Business Review, European Business Forum, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Forbes and weforum.org.

Originally from San Francisco, Jenny is currently based in Amsterdam, after spending 5 years with us in Boston and 20 years in our London office. A US, French and British citizen who speaks three languages, Jenny has led projects in varied business cultures across Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and North America.

Jenny received her B.S. from Georgetown University and her MBA, with distinction, from Harvard Business School.

Ivo Degn is Cooperations & Strategy, CEO, Co-Founder, Climate Farmers an organization that are scaling regenerative agriculture, empowering farmers and field practitioners to fight climate change. Climate Farmers emerged with a simple yet bold idea: to build the infrastructure to scale regenerative agriculture in Europe. The unparalleled potential of regenerative agriculture to store carbon in the ground and restore healthy ecosystems, all while improving the livelihood of farmers must be brought to its full potential. They are developing a three-pronged approach to facilitate this transition through: Gathering all available information, measuring regenerative agriculture, and developing financial instruments.

Dr Alexandra Dehnhardt holds a degree in agricultural economics and a doctorate in environmental economics. For many years, she has been leading and working on inter- and transdisciplinary research projects as a research associate at different institutions, primarily on economic and political aspects of natural resource management. Since 2017 she is senior researcher at the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) and since 2023 she is also head of the research field “Environmental Economics and Policy” at the IÖW and responsible for the topic area “nature and ecosystems”. Her research focuses on socio-economic perspectives on the protection of biodiversity, the importance of ecosystem services and nature’s contribution to people for societal wellbeing, and on adaptation to climate change. Her particular interest is the analysis of institutional structures for considering the value of nature in policymaking.

Matt Dempsey retired as Editor of the Irish Farmers Journal after 25 years in March 2013. He is Chairman of The Agricultural Trust, publishers of the Irish Farmers Journal and The Irish Field. He is also one of the foremost authorities on national and international agricultural policy and industry trends; his knowledge, critique and assessment of Government and EU policy is highly valued by the agri-food sector.

Eric Dereudre is VP Government and Industry Affairs at Corteva Agriscience. With over 25 years of experience in agriculture, Eric is passionate about farming and its societal implications. He is a strong advocate of science-based and transparent communications. Eric is a past President of the European Crop Protection Association (now CropLife Europe).

Morgan Després is the Executive Director for international climate finance, land use and net zero macroeconomy. He is part of the wider ECF leadership team, and is in charge of supporting ECF’s work to achieve a “truly net zero” economy.

Morgan joined the ECF in July 2022 after 18 years working in the French official sector on financial stability and international and European financial regulation issues. He was notably the founding Head of the Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), and is co-author of The Green Swan, central banking and financial stability in the age of climate change.

He holds a degree from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and a MBA from the ESSEC Business School.

Morgan lives in Berlin with his Franco-German family where he can give free rein to his passion for contemporary European history.

Marilda is EU Agriculture and Bioenergy Policy Officer at BirdLife Europe & Central Asia.

BirdLife Europe & Central Asia has an international team of permanent staff responsible for conservation, science, policy, advocacy, capacity building, fundraising, communications, finance and administration supporting the 45 European and Central Asian BirdLife Partners.

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Dr Els Dhiedt is a data scientist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology with expertise in soil biogeochemistry and ecosystem service modelling. Her work is currently focussed on agricultural systems and she has a background in forest ecology, in which she remains interested.

Jean-François Dhôte is Director of Research at INRA in Orléans (BioForA joint research unit, associating INRA and the National Forestry Office). A graduate of the Polytechnique and a forestry engineer, he obtained a doctorate from the University of Lyon and a habilitation to direct research from the University of Lorraine. His speciality is the transformation of sustainable management practices of forest resources to face the challenges of climate change. After his initial work on the growth of hardwood forests, he coordinated research that has always been placed at the crossroads of several disciplines: design of silvicultural standards, sensitivity to storms, long-term productivity changes, variability of wood quality, carbon accounting and forest management, and biodiversity engineering. He created and directed two laboratories with 80 researchers, the Laboratory for the study of forest-wood resources in Nancy (1999-2008), then the R&D Department of the French National Forestry Office (2008-14). He has directed 20 doctoral theses and participated in more than 60 doctoral juries and expert commissions. He is the author of more than 400 articles, book chapters and communications, both for the scientific community and for professionals in the forestry and wood industry. Recently, he was the scientific leader of the prospective study on the role of forests in mitigating climate change until 2050 (INRA-IGN, 2017).

Tilmann Disselhoff is a nature conservationist by heart and by profession. He holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from the Technical University of Berlin. Focusing on  conservation financing and private land conservation, Tilmann has worked for numerous national and international organisations, such as the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, the European Commission, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, and the German Federal Environmental Foundation. In 2017, Tilmann joined NABU (Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union - the German chapter of Birdlife International) as the coordinator of a LIFE project to set up the European Land Conservation Network (ELCN).

Michael Doane is the Global Managing Director for Sustainable Food and Water for The Nature Conservancy (TNC). Michael leads a team of the organization’s foremost experts to scale up conservation outcomes across productively managed farming, ranching and agroforestry landscapes. Providing food and water sustainably is a top global priority for TNC with a focus on minimizing the conversion of natural landscapes to agriculture, restoring degraded croplands and grasslands with advanced soil health, grazing and nutrient management techniques, and securing freshwater in basins threatened by pollution or overuse. TNC has significant food, water and climate programs across the America’s and emerging programs in Africa, India and China. Michael and his team are developing creative strategies to build new business models designed to accelerate conservation gains through catalytic finance, innovation, public policy and agri-food supply chain programs. Michael brings 20 years of relevant business and leadership experience to the role and holds a B.S. in Agribusiness and an M.S. in Agricultural Economics, both from Kansas State University. He has led high performing teams in the agribusiness and non-profit sectors across corporate strategy, business development, commercial sales and marketing, public policy and sustainability. In addition, he has played a catalytic leadership role in the development of multi-stakeholder sustainability programs such as the No-Till on the Plains, Soil Health Partnership, Collaboration for Forests and Agriculture, Field to Market Alliance and The Sustainability Consortium. Michael started farming at a young age and is a partner in his family’s cattle and row crop farming operation located in Kansas. He combines his passion for agriculture with his love for nature as an avid angler and sportsman. He makes his home in Parkville, Missouri, with his wife, Julie, and their two children.

Qu Dongyu, who took office on 1 August 2019 as Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), has spent his life working on how to make sure the world is fed. Born in 1963 to a rice-growing family in China’s Hunan Province, Qu studied horticultural science at Hunan Agricultural University and then plant breeding and genetics at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He later added environmental science to his knowledge portfolio while earning a PhD at Wageningen University, in the Netherlands. He then progressed through a range of national and international activities, engaged simultaneously in science and management, all during a time when China’s reform and opening-up process led the country to dramatically reduce poverty and hunger. His vision is founded on the belief that freedom from hunger is a basic human right, and that in the 21st century we have the capability to eradicate chronic food insecurity. While challenges loom, Qu’s cardinal principle is that “problems can also be the source of progress”. Before coming to FAO, Qu served as China’s Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, where one of his achievements was to promote inclusive and innovative development and make sure information and communication technologies (ICT) were available in rural areas so that more than 400 million farmers could use their smartphones as a new farming tool. That vision has been consistent across a professional career that includes periods in central and local government, in and leading research institutes, and as a human resources leader at the China Three Gorges Project Development Corporation, a $40 billion investment project. Qu has for 30 years been involved in international exchanges and orchestrated major events including the World Potato Congress, the International Rice Congress and the International Conference on Plant Protection, and participated in multilateral initiatives such as the World Trade Organization and the G20 as well as numerous bilateral initiatives involving Asia, Africa and Latin America. He has also directly helped design flagship South-South Cooperation projects with FAO and the World Bank. His motto is “Simple life, but not simple work”. More information Website – www.fao.org Twitter – @FAODG Facebook – UNFAO LinkedIn – company/fao

Beth Dooley is Head of Partnerships for Downforce Technologies, a pioneering leader in the measurement, monitoring and verification of natural capital within the global landscape, such as soil organic carbon, above-ground biomass, soil moisture and biodiversity. Over the last fifteen years, Beth has worked on agri-environmental-climate policy and research within the US and EU, and supported farmers with knowledge exchange and capacity building aimed at enhancing sustainable farm businesses. She is a bar qualified attorney in the US with a LLM specialising in Global Environment and Climate Change Law from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and she received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Exeter, England.

Herbert Dorfmann is a politician from South Tyrol, a German-speaking region in Northern Italy and is currently serving his third term as a Member of the European Parliament. After having completed a degree in Agrarian Sciences in Piacenza, Dorfmann started his professional career as a professor at the Agricultural College in Ora. He then became the director of the agriculture department at the Bolzano Chamber of Commerce and went on to direct the South Tyrolean Farmers’ Federation for nearly ten years. Dorfmann’s political career started in 2005 when he became the mayor of his hometown. In 2009, he was elected for his first mandate at the European Parliament and was subsequently re-elected as a MEP for the European People’s Party in 2014 and 2019, for a second and third mandate. In the present term, he is a member in the AGRI Committee and a substitute member in the BUDG, REGI and ECON Committee. More information Website – www.herbert-dorfmann.eu/en.html Twitter – @herbertdorfmann Facebook – @herbert.dorfmann

Wiebe Draijer became Chairman of the Managing Board (CEO) of Rabobank in October 2014. He graduated INSEAD Business School from their MBA programme specialising in Finance in 1992 and also has a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from Delft University of Technology. Previously he served as President of the Social and Economic Council of The Netherlands (SER) (2012-2014), Consultant and Managing Partner, McKinsey & Company (1990-2012), was a Researcher at Philips Research Laboratories (1987-1989) and was also a freelance journalist (1987-1989). Wiebe Draijer holds additional positions as Member of the Board of the Dutch Banking Association, Member of the Board of the European Association of Cooperative Banks (EACB), Member Supervisory Board Kröller Müller Museum, and Member Supervisory Board Staatsbosbeheer.

Pierre-Olivier Drège has been involved in many negotiations with the Common Agriculture Policy, as Chief of Cabinet of several French Ministers for Agriculture and as Director of the Department for International and Economical affairs in the French Ministry of Agriculture. He has also been in charge of implementing such policies as Managing Director of former French Wheat Board (ONIC). Since December 2016, he is the President of a cooperative of French forest owners operating in Normandy and in the North-East of France: Nord Seine Forêt. He is French and graduated as an engineer and economist.

Gilles Dryancour is Vice President Corporate Affairs for Europe for the company John Deere and John Deere Fellow. He was re-elected as Chairman of the CEMA Strategic Committee in June 2023.

The CEMA Strategic Committee advises and provides recommendations on policy developments to the CEMA Board of Directors, in order to assess policy options and anticipate challenges related to European policies affecting the industry. Members of the Committee are national associations representatives and companies’ delegates.

Jenny earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering Chemistry and her PhD in Chemistry from Queen’s University (Kingston, ON, Canada) where, during her graduate studies, she was awarded an Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada in recognition of her research work. Following completion of her doctoral degree, she joined the Chemistry Department at UCSB as a postdoctoral researcher where she worked for 2 years prior to joining Apeel Sciences as Employee #2 and the Director of Extraction Engineering. She is now the Vice President of Operations at Apeel Sciences, where she is responsible for leading the company’s efforts in Regulatory Affairs & Compliance, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, Logistics, IT, Facilities, and EH&S.

Pierre Dubreuil was appointed in January 2020 by decree of the President of the Republic, Director General of the new public establishment for biodiversity: the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), born from the merger between the French Agency for Biodiversity (AFB) and the National Office for Hunting and Wildlife (ONCFS). Since December 2018, he was Director General of the OFB's prefiguration mission and interim Director General of the ONCFS. Pierre Dubreuil was previously deputy director general of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (MNHN) and director general of the Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (Inrap).

Paula Duque obtained a BSc in plant biology and a PhD in physiology and biochemistry both at the University of Lisbon, having conducted part of her doctoral work at the HortResearch Institute in Auckland, New Zealand. Her postdoctoral studies were conducted at The Rockefeller University in New York, first in Nam-Hai Chua’s lab on stress signaling in the plant model Arabidopsis thaliana and then with Magda Konarska on the mechanisms of mRNA splicing human cells. She returned to Portugal in 2007 to take up her present position as Group Leader at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC). Her research team uses Arabidopsis thaliana as a model system and combines reverse genetics, physiology and biochemistry to investigate how plants perceive and respond to environmental cues at the molecular level. Two major lines of work in her lab focus on the biological relevance of alternative splicing and membrane transport in plant stress tolerance. More information Website – https://gulbenkian.pt/ciencia/research-groups/pduque

Andrii Dykun heads up the “Ukrainian Agri Council” Public Union (“UAC” Public Union), which is a voluntary, non-governmental organization which was found in June, 2014. The Union was established on the basis of common interests and is aimed to realize rights and freedoms, protect legitimate social and economic interests of its members. The Union members’ total land area is 2,100,000 ha.

Andrii is also the President of the Association of Milk Producers of Ukraine that comprises of 150 member farms that produce 40% of raw milk processed in Ukraine and the former Deputy Minister of Agriculture in Ukraine holding the position in 2014-2015 before embarking on his current roles.

Carlos Manuel Rodriguez is for the second time, the Minister of Environment and Energy for the Republic of Costa Rica. He has been a pioneer in the development of payment for ecosystem services (PES). Mr. Rodriguez understands the political preconditions necessary for successful implementation of PES systems that benefit local communities. As the Minister of Environment, he managed to curb logging and deforestation trends to achieve a national net growth of forested areas through natural regeneration and reforestation. He is also internationally recognized for promoting the concept of identifying and capturing the economic value of standing forests within protected areas, private forests and Indian reserves. As a result of his passion and hard work, marine conservation is now being fully addressed for the first time in Costa Rica. In recognition of his contributions, he was the first ever recipient of the Global Ocean Conservation Award in 2005. He was former Vice President for Conservation Policy at Conservation International (CI). Before joining CI, Rodriquez was, a lawyer, politician and, above all, a conservationist, Rodriguez held various political posts in Costa Rica, including Director of the National Parks Service. He is also founder and Board member of many environmental NGOs in Costa Rica, in addition to several tropical research institutes.

Dr. Hilde Eggermont is a freshwater biologist (PhD, 2004). She is currently the Strategic Coordinator of the Belgian Biodiversity Platform, a national science-policy interface for biodiversity. Her day-to-day activities focus largely on making the bridge between science, policy and practice in the context of European initiatives and global initiatives. She is Chair & Coordinator of the European Biodiversity Partnership (Biodiversa+) uniting 70+ research policy actors and environmental policy actors from 36 European and associated countries as part of the European Biodiversity Strategy 2030. She also acts as Belgian Focal Point for the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and as Vice President of the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN).

Hilal Elver is a Research Professor and global distinguished fellow at the University of California Santa Barbara LA Law School Resnick Food Law and Policy Center. She has a law degree, a Ph.D. from the University of Ankara Law School, and SJD from the UCLA Law School. She started her teaching career at the University of Ankara Faculty of Law. During this period, she was also appointed by the Turkish government as the founding legal advisor of the Ministry of Environment, and the General Director of Women’s Status. In 1994, she was appointed to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Chair in Environmental Diplomacy at the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies, University of Malta. Throughout her career, she has done extensive work with national and international human rights NGOs. She was appointed Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food by the Human Rights Council in May 2014.

Mónica Andrés Enríquez has served as EVP Europe since July 2021. She has previously held several positions in the company. She was VP Farming Solutions Europe (2020-2021), Project Manager for Yara Europe Strategy and SVP BU South Europe (2019-2020), SVP BU Asia (2017-2019), and Country manager for Spain and Portugal (2013-2016). She was employed by Hydro in 1998 as field agronomist.

Ms. Andrés Enríquez holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from Instituto de Empresa Spanish Business School and a degree in Agronomy Engineering from the Spanish Polytechnic University of Engineers (ETSIA).

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Boris Erg is Director of the IUCN European Regional Office. He is a trained expert in environmental management with core expertise in nature policy, protected and conserved areas, and nature-based solutions. Boris has 25 years of professional experience of which most in an international setting. Throughout his career, he has cooperated with numerous international organizations, UN agencies, national authorities, NGOs, research organisations, businesses and financial institutions. He is an active member of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas where he serves on the Executive Committee of the Transboundary Conservation Specialist Group. Boris has continuously promoted the concepts of fair and equitable governance of natural resource as a response to growing societal and environmental challenges.

Andrea Erickson-Quiroz, is Global Director for Water Security and is the Deputy Managing Director for the Food and Water Systems Priority for The Nature Conservancy. She is working to scale solutions that address water scarcity and watershed degradation that impact nature and people, working with over 200 water professionals in over 15 countries. Andrea works with global private and public partnerships to change practices and policies that lead to improved water security by deploying nature-based solutions and increasing the health of ecological systems. She is a governor for the World Water Council, and serves in an advisory capacity to ABI and the CEO Water Mandate. Andrea has over 25 years of experience in designing conservation strategies, organizational development and leadership at a field level in Latin America and the US, as well as now as a senior global executive at The Nature Conservancy. Her projects have included watershed scale implementation, policy reform and sector engagements in water, agriculture and energy development. She completed her undergraduate degree at Cornell University and has a Masters degree from the University of Cambridge in Environmental Policy and Economic Development.

Bio not available.

Since 2013, María Cruz Vaca Escribano has been Director of Economic Affairs ANGED, which is a national association of large distribution companies including Alcampo, Action, Apple Store, Aurgi, C&A, Carrefour, Conforama, Cotsco, Dufry, El Corte Inglés, Grupo Eroski, Feu Vert, FNAC, Ikea, Sarton Canarias, Leroy Merlin, Media Markt, Norauto, Obramart, Tendam and Toys'R'Us

María has extensive experience in retail in marketing, commercial strategy, business development and management control functions. She has a degree in economics and diploma in advanced studies (DEA) in the doctoral program of Business Economics of the Autonomous University of Madrid.

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Philipp Schulze Esking, born in 1978, has been Chairman of the DLG Exhibitions Department, also serving as DLG Vice President since 2015. He studied agronomy at the University of Göttingen in Germany and the University of Cordoba in Spain. Since 2005 he has managed his parents' pig farm in Billerbeck, in addition to being in partnership with four other agricultural businesses. He is currently Deputy Chairman of the Interest Group of pig farmers in Germany (ISN) and as a member of the DLG executive committee and agriculture committee.

Garlich von Essen was born in Germany in 1964 and studied agriculture and economics at the University of Göttingen where he graduated in 1990. He started his professional career in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture before taking a scholarship at the College of Europe in Bruges, graduating in administrative and political sciences. From 1994 to 1999 he worked in the European Parliament where, next to agricultural and structural policy, he worked specifically on the EU’s R&D policy and funding instruments. Joining the European seed industry in 1999 as Director Public Affairs, he became Secretary-General of Euroseeds (then ESA European Seed Association) in 2004. More information Website – www.euroseeds.eu Twitter – @GarlichEssen Facebook – garlich.vonessen LinkedIn – garlich-v-essen-06a76644

Poppy Eyre graduated in the field of International Food and Agribusiness at HAS University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands. During this time Poppy has been involved in diverse projects, including work in the Ghanaian cocoa sector and international vegetable supply chains. Following her graduation, Poppy moved into the insect protein sector, developing innovative proposals for insect-based business models in Nigeria. More recently, Poppy has developed a keen interest in community supported agriculture, linking closely with her current work in the Horizon2020 project FoodSHIFT 2030, stimulating sustainable city-region food systems. Poppy also aims to promote the voice of young people in the food and agricultural sphere through her involvement as a FutureFoodMaker (FFM) with EIT Food. In the FFM Menu for Change, Poppy focuses on regenerative agriculture and true cost accounting. In her spare time, Poppy is a keen gardener and volunteers at a local CSA initiative.

More information
Website – www.susmetro.eu
Website – www.foodshift2030.eu
LinkedIn – poppyeyre

Dr. Shenggen Fan is currently Chair Professor and Dean of Academy of Global Food Economics and Policy (AGFEP) at China Agricultural University (CAU). Prior to joining CAU, Dr. Fan served as director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) from 2009 to 2019. He currently serves as a member of the United Nations’ Lead Group for the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement. He was a member, vice chair and chair of food and nutrition council of the World Economic Forum. He is a Fellow of Agricultural and Applied Economics Association(AAEA), and a Honorary Life Member, International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE). Dr. Fan received a PhD in applied economics from the University of Minnesota and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Nanjing Agricultural University in China.

Hugo Morán Fernández is a Spanish politician who has served as Secretary of State for the Environment in Spain since 2018. His previous experience includes:

• City Council of Lena (Asturias), Councillor (1987-1995) and Mayor (1995-2007).
• Member of the Consortium for the Management of Solid Waste of Asturias CATCH (1987-2007).
• Member of the Permanent Commission of the Association of Mining Regions ACOM Spain (1995-2007).
• President of the Consortium for the Development of the Central Mountain of Asturias (1998-2001).
• President of the Rural Development Group of the Central Mountain of Asturias (1998-2007).
• Member of the Board of Directors of the Sanitation Board of the Principality of Asturias (2001-2007).
• President of the Asturian Federation of Councils (2001-2007).
• Member of the Economic and Social Council of the Principality of Asturias (2001-2007).
• Director of the Office of Government Relations in the General Assembly of the Principality (2007-2008).
• Deputy for Asturias in the Cortes Generales in the IX Legislature and Spokesman for the Environment of the Socialist Parliamentary Group.
• Federal Secretary of Environment and Rural Development CEF-PSOE (37th Congress).
• Federal Secretary of Territorial Planning and Sustainability CEF-PSOE (38th Congress).
• Federal Secretariat for the Ecological Transition of the Economy CEF-PSOE (39th Congress).

Salvador Lladó Fernández: Associate Professor at the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics of the University of Barcelona. His research is developed in the field of soil ecology, especially, trying to define the effects of global change stressors on the living organisms beneath our feet, and the cascading impacts on human and planetary well-being. He is also a member of the committee of experts on climate change of the Catalan Parliament.

António Gonçalves Ferreira graduated in Agricultural Engineering from Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro University (UTAD) and he has a Masters Degree in Agricultural Economics from Wye College of University of London. He is an agro-forestry producer and manager and is the Chairman of the Board of UNAC – Mediterranean Forest Union since February of 2010 and also a member of the board at APFC – Association of Forestry Producers of Coruche and a representative of ELO – European Landowners' Organization. More information Website – www.unac.pt LinkedIn – unac-união-da-floresta-mediterrânica

João Rui Ferreira is Secretary General, C.E. Liège, which is a dynamic organization that represents the entire European cork industry and leads the development of joint promotions supporting cork, its products and applications. . More information Facebook – joao.r.ferreira.10 LinkedIn – joão-rui-ferreira-97531b14

CEO Habilitation in Molecular and Celullar Biology (2003), Chemical and Biological Technology Institute of the NOVA University of Lisbon (ITQB NOVA). PhD in Cellular Biology (1992) from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (FCUL) Areas of expertise: Plant Molecular Biology; Plant Biotechnology; Plant Molecular Biodiversity; Plant Genomics; Enzyme Technology Other current positions: Director (PI), Plant Cell Biotechnology Laboratory, ITQB NOVA; Assistant Professor, Master in Biotechnology for Sustainability (ITQB NOVA) and PhD Program “Plants for Life” (ITQB NOVA) Previous positions: Deputy director of GREEN-it Research Unit; Assistant Professor, Department of Plant Biology, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon; President of the Center for Biotechnology Information (CiB); First President of the Portuguese Order of Biologists (Ordem dos Biólogos); Member of the National Council of Ethics for the Life Sciences More information Website – www.iplantprotect.pt

28 year old Teleri is a 'first generation farmer' who, despite not growing up on a farm, has always wanted to be in agriculture - announcing to her Mum at the age of four that she wanted to be a 'lady farmer'! In September 2017, she took on the role of managing Llyndy Isaf, a 600 acre upland hill farm in Snowdonia with a strong emphasis on conservation farming, as part of a scholarship scheme. This scheme, run by the National Trust and Wales Young Farmers Club, was established to allow a young farmer a step onto the farming ladder. The trials and tribulations of her first year learning the ropes at Llyndy Isaf has been documented in 'Snowdonia Shepherdess'- a documentary on BBC One. Teleri's passion for agriculture has taken her to California to work at a food policy think tank, to France to study and work on a research farm in the Rhone Alps, and in various marketing and business roles in Wales for farming unions and the Welsh Government.

Dr. Franz Fischler studied Agriculture at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. 1989-1994: Federal Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Austria; 1995-1999: European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development; 1999- 2004 also responsible for Community Fisheries Policy; 2012-2015, Chairman of the RISE-Foundation, Brussels; 2014/2015: Chairman of the Steering Committee of the EU scientific programme for Expo Milano 2015; since 2015: President of the Board of Trustees to the Austrian Institute of Advanced Studies (IHS); since 2012: President of the think tank “European Forum Alpbach”. More information Website – www.franz-fischler-consult.co.at

Dr Yasmine Fouad is Minister of Environment of the Arabic Republic of Egypt. Her expertise is in Environment and International cooperation with more than 18 years’ experience working in Government, in UN organizations, NGOs and Universities. She holds her MSc in Environmental Science and PhD in Political Science / Euro Mediterranean Studies. She had gained an extensive experience in climate change issues through her diversified work with academic, government and non-government organizations and International organizations. In this context, she supported the Earth Institute in designing a Center of Excellence for Adaptation to Climate Change and supported the AMCEN President in leading and managing the two climate change initiatives mainly the African Adaptation Initiative (AAI) and African Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI). Moreover, she supported the Nile Basin Discourse – a regional NGO- in designing a proposal and policy paper on the impact of climate change on water resources in the Nile Basin. Throughout her position as Assistant Minister of Environment, she supported the Minister of Environment in preparation of Africa portfolio for the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt in his capacity as Coordinator of Committee of African Heads of States for Climate Change (CAHOSCC) from 2015-2017. She has represented the AMCEN President in the Steering Committee of the Clim-Dev Africa and has been a co-chair of the NEPAD Regional Flagship Programmes Steering committee as well as Lima Climate Finance meeting in 2015. In addition, she supervised the work of the climate change projects in Egypt and co-chaired the Climate Change and Environment sub group with the AfD to oversee the work of the development partners in climate change in Egypt. She acts as Egypt GCF National Foal point and established a national participatory consultative mechanism for preparation of projects pipeline to be submitted to the GCF. She has been selected as a lead author to chapter four of the upcoming IPCC Special Report on “Climate Change, Desertification, Land Degradation, Sustainable Land Management, Food Security and Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Terrestrial Ecosystems”. Moreover, she has led a multi stakeholder taskforce on preparation of the Environment pillar of the National Sustainable Development Strategy 2030 while mainstreaming climate change aspects within the strategy. Her expertise demonstrated through her proven record in overall supervision and management of AMCEN, Sustainable Development and Climate Change portfolios. She gained a wealth of coordination, management and operations experience through seven years working in two GEF/UNDP cross cutting capacity development projects in Egypt. She participated as an expert in the Capacity Development Regional Arab and African Initiatives such as score card exercise with the UNDP Bratislava Regional Center.

Per Frankelius, PhD, is Associate Professor (Docent) in Business Administration at Linköping University (Sweden) and process leader of the initiative “Agtech 2030” focusing on agricultural innovations. Most of his ca. 500 publications (including articles in journals like Journal of High Technology Management Research, the Lancet, and Agronomy Journal) treats the subject area innovation from different perspectives, including marketing. Integrating nature or agriculture in economic models is also a recurrent theme.

He is member of the Royal Economic Society and Earthworm Society of Britain, Fellow of the Linnean Society of London and Fellow of The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry. He is also a member of the Board of AgroÖst and reference group for Vreta Kluster. In 2006 he was elected to the Swedish Broadcasting Commission and during 2004-10 he was on the board of the Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum.

Frankelius has conducted several government missions. For example, he was Principal Secretary of the inquiry on innovation appointed by the Swedish Government (SOU Innovative processes).

In 2013–2019 he was responsible for the project, “Greenovation Sweden” (Grönovation). This project was committed to bring cutting-edge knowledge on how innovation can be stimulated in green sectors, not least by means of integrating users into innovation processes. The project was hosted by Linköping University, Sweden. Among the partners were 3M, Lantmännen, SSAB, SMHI, SLU Holding, Elmia and Vreta Kluster. Since 2015 he has been a member of the jury for the Elmia Agriculture Innovation Award.

At the end of 2018, Sweden's Innovation Agency, Vinnova, granted funding for the Agtech 2030 innovation initiative with Frankelius as process leader. This is an investment in agricultural technology and an expected budget of approximately SEK 200 million over 10 years. The initiative involves about 20 companies and organizations.

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Louise Fresco is the President of Wageningen University & Research in The Netherlands. Louise combines a long academic career as a professor at both Wageningen and Amsterdam with an extensive involvement in policy and development, with many programs in Africa, Asia and Latin America and teaching in Sweden, Belgium and the US. Louise O. Fresco is a member of eight Scientific Academies. Ten years of her career was spent as Assistant-Director General at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN, as well spending extensive periods in Africa, Asia and Latin America. She served on the boards of companies including Rabobank and Unilever, and also serves in various philanthropies. Her successful book, Hamburgers in Paradise, the stories behind the food we eat, was translated in several languages. In total she published twelve books of fiction and non-fiction, while she also writes a bi-weekly column in NRC, the leading evening paper of The Netherlands. She presented a six part documentary on food and development for Dutch public television. You may have seen her TED talk in Palm Springs in 2009.

Mella Frewen is currently a member of the EU Commission’s High Level Steering Board for the European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability, and of the EU Commission’s Scientific Steering Committee for EXPO2015. She is also member of several food industry-related Boards. Ms Frewen is Chair of the ACEI (the Alliance for a Competitive European Industry).

Dr. Martin Frick has been the Director of the WFP Office for Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein since November 2021. Previously, he was the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Food Systems Summit 2021 and Executive Director of the UNFCCC Secretariat, which oversees the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement. Also as climate chief of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and later as program director of the Kofi Annan Foundation, he helped develop the climate justice narrative. As German Ambassador to the United Nations in Bonn, Frick was involved in founding the UN's "Sustainability Hub". Frick has a doctorate in law.

Algis Gaizutis is Chairman at Forest and Land Owners Association of Lithuania, which is the national interest organisation for the forest owners in Lithuania and has the status of an independent public NGO. FOAL is recognised national organisation in Lithuania and internationally.

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Pedro Gallardo is the vice president of the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organizations (COPA), the representative body of European farmers. Pedro Gallardo's career in Europe is backed by an experience of more than 15 years during which he has carried out multisectoral tasks in different institutions such as JSCA, COPA-COGECA and FAO.

Pedro Gallardo is also a fourth generation farmer in Andalusia, southern Spain. The farming activity has about 250 hectares and the main crops are: sunflower, rapeseed, wheat, durum wheat and beans. He has managed a farm since 1996 and he has always been involved in ASAJA where he also acquired technical knowledge about agriculture. His family has been a member of ASAJA for three generations.

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Pedro Gallardo Barrena, fourth generation farmer in Andalusia, southern Spain. The farming activity has about 250 hectares and the main crops are: sunflower, rapeseed, wheat, durum wheat and beans.

Born in Puerto Real (Cadiz), he lives with his wife and two sons in the family farm. He has managed a farm since 1996 and he has always been involved in ASAJA where he also acquired technical knowledge about agriculture. His family has been a member of ASAJA for three generations.

Dr Arun Gandhi is the 5th grandson of India's legendary leader, Mohandas K. ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi. Arun was personally taught ‘Total Nonviolence’ by his grandfather through understanding the nature of violence. Arun shares these lessons across the world. He has participated in Renaissance Weekend deliberations with President Clinton and other well-respected Rhodes Scholars and has spoken at the United Nations. He is an activist, author and educator.

Toby is a Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), and Director of Trase (www.trase.earth). Toby has twenty years’ experience working on the sustainable development of tropical landscapes. Founded in 2016, Trase is a science-based supply chain transparency initiative that is widely recognized as a ground-breaking source of information and analysis on the sustainability of international trade, with a focus on agricultural commodities linked to deforestation. He has contributed to a number of international environmental policy processes, and has worked extensively on sustainable land-use in the Brazilian Amazon. He has authored more than 120 peer-reviewed publications and in 2012 was awarded the biannual British Ecological Society’s Founders’ Prize for significant contributions to the science of ecology.

Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy was elected in 2009 and 2014 as Dutch MEP for D66. He is member of the Parliamentary Committee on Environment, Health and Food Safety and coordinator for the liberal group (ALDE). Amongst other roles, he is also the ALDE first spokesperson on Biodiversity and Resource Efficiency. Mr. Gerbrandy began his career as a political assistant to Joris Voorhoeve, former director of the Dutch Clingendael Institute, and has also been personal assistant of Doeke Eisma, MEP for D66, political secretary of the Dutch parliamentary group of D66 and a senior political adviser at the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality. (Image: © European Union 2014 - Source : EP)

Martin Hubert Gerzabek is an Austrian ecologist and soil scientist. He is a professor of ecotoxicology and isotope application and was rector of BOKU, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna from 2010 to 2018. He is also a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Since 1 January 2023, Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle has been Director Strategy and policy analysis at DG AGRI (European Commission). From 1 September 2020 to 31 December 2022, she was Director at the General Secretariat of the Council, responsible for Veterinary and Plant Health Questions, Food and Forestry. Between December 2019 and August 2020, she was Deputy Head of Cabinet of the EU Commissioner responsible for agriculture and rural development. Between 2013 and 2018, she was responsible for the implementation of the CAP in France, in her capacity as Director general for Economic and Environmental Performance of Enterprises. Between 2006 and 2013, she was Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Prior to that, she was Director General of the Food Department within the French Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. She also worked at the European Commission from 1991 to 1993.

With project co-ordination and financial control, Christi provides overall leadership of ADEPT, overseeing daily operations and ‘building organisational capacity’. Cristi graduated from Brasov University in IT, economics and accounting and has worked for rural development NGOs since 2000. He has been guide and translator for numerous World Bank missions, and speaks Romanian, English and German.

Joe Glauber is a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, DC and until January 2024 served as interim Secretary of the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS). He also holds appointments at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the American Enterprise Institute. Prior to joining IFPRI, Glauber spent over 30 years at the US Department of Agriculture, including as Chief Economist from 2008 to 2014. From 2007-2009, Glauber was the Special Doha Agricultural Envoy at the office of the U.S. Trade Representative where he served as chief agricultural negotiator in the Doha talks. He is the author of numerous studies on agricultural insurance, trade policy and U.S. farm policy.

Dan Glickman is a distinguished fellow of global food and agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. For nine years, he co-chaired the Council's Global Food and Agriculture Program. Glickman served as US Secretary of Agriculture in the Clinton Administration. Representing the 4th Congressional district of Kansas for 18 years in the US House of Representatives, he was very involved in federal farm policy of the House Agriculture Committee and also served on the House Judiciary Committee as a chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In addition, he is the former chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. and former director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Glickman has served as president of the Wichita, Kansas School Board; was a partner in the law firm of Sargent, Klenda, and Glickman; and worked as a trial attorney at the US Securities and Exchange Commission. He received his BA in history from the University of Michigan and his JD from George Washington University. He is a member of the Kansas and District of Columbia Bars.

Georg Goeres has lived in five different European countries over his 24-year career, strategizing for and achieving success in the agricultural industry. For the past 15 years, Goeres worked in various leadership roles for Syngenta, including head of commercial operations and strategy, where he was responsible for the implementation of business strategy and market development in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. At Indigo, Goeres drives a rollout plan that supports grower profitability, environmental sustainability and consumer health across the continent.

Maciej Golubiewski is the Head of Cabinet of Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Janusz Wojciechowski. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Washington and Lee University (1999) and a Master of Arts degree in Political Science from the Johns Hopkins University (2005). He also holds an International Baccalaureate Diploma from the United World College of the Atlantic in the UK. After graduation, he moved to Washington D.C. where he spent three years in business consulting at Charles River Associates International (CRAI) before going on to graduate school. During his studies Mr. Golubiewski interned with the office of Senator Richard Lugar, served as a summer fellow at the Heritage Foundation and was an associate scholar at the Center for European Policy Analysis. For close to five years, he was a teaching assistant and lecturer in political science and international relations at the Johns Hopkins University and spent two semesters as a visiting professor at Mannheim University in Germany. In 2008, he joined, as an established official, the Directorate General for Development and Relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries at the European Commission in Brussels as a desk responsible for regional political and economic cooperation with the Horn, East and Southern Africa region. During that time he participated in the Economic Partnership Agreement free trade negotiations with the African regional blocks. In 2011, he was transferred to the newly created European External Action Service, where, since 2012, he had been responsible for preparing the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council positions on the developing conflict in Syria. Between 2014 and 2016, Mr. Golubiewski served as the Deputy Chief of Mission and the Head of the Political Section at the EU Delegation to Lebanon in Beirut and between 2017 and 2019 as the Consul General of the Republic of Poland in New York. Mr. Golubiewski sits on an advisory board of the Integral Economic Development master programs at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C, and for almost ten years has been associated with the Sobieski Institute in Warsaw as an expert on the EU and foreign policy. He speaks Polish, English and French.

Elena Cartea González has been a CSIC scientist since 2000 and she has directed the Biological Mission of Galicia since 2015. She is now Vice President of Scientific-Technical Areas of the CSIC. She has a degree (1990) and PhD (1995) in Biology from the University of Santiago de Compostela. She completed her training in Plant Genetics with a Master of Science in Plant Genetics from the University of Lleida, she had several international pre-doctoral stays at the INRAE in Bordeaux and several post-doctoral stays at the INRAE in Versailles, in Paris and at the University of Trasos-Montes and Alto Douro in Vila Real, Portugal.

Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) and UN Messenger of Peace, is
a world-renowned ethologist and activist inspiring greater understanding and action on behalf of the
natural world.

Dr. Goodall is known for groundbreaking studies of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National
Park, Tanzania, which forever changed our understanding of our relationship to the rest of the animal
kingdom. This transformative research continues today as the longest running wild chimpanzee study
in the world. Jane’s work builds on scientific innovations, growing a lifetime of advocacy including
trailblazing efforts through her international organization the Jane Goodall Institute which advances
community-led conservation, animal welfare, science, and youth empowerment through JGI’s Roots
& Shoots program.

Today, Jane continues to connect with worldwide audiences, despite the challenges of the pandemic,
through ‘Virtual Jane’ including remote lectures, recordings, and her podcast, the “Jane Goodall
Hopecast.” In 2021, Jane was the recipient of the Templeton Prize, and her newest book, “The Book
of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times,” was published.

Jane is a global icon spreading hope and turning it into meaningful positive impact to create a better
world for people, other animals, and the planet we share.

Christine Gould is the Founder & CEO of the Thought For Food (TFF) Foundation, the world's leading next-generation innovation platform to solve global food and agriculture challenges. So far, TFF has engaged a 15,000+ strong community from 160 countries, catalyzed the creation of thousands of new ideas and helped launch 50 startups. This year, Christine and her team are supercharging their program with a new content and collaboration platform, and by opening up the TFF Challenge - their annual collaborative prize competition - to both pre-acceleration and pre-seed stage startups. Christine has a track record of successfully implementing open innovation and new types of business models in the ag industry, and was instrumental in the creation of Syngenta’s open licensing platform. She is also an invited public speaker and contributor on the new minds, methods and technologies shaping the future of agriculture. Christine holds an MPA in Science & Technology Policy from Columbia University. She sits on the Board of Young Professionals in Ag Development and is a Founding Member of the Ashoka Changemakers League of Intrapreneurs.

Professor Piotr Gradziuk achieved a Doctor in Economics, Faculty of Economic Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, in March 2016. He has a PhD in Economics, Faculty of Economics, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, 27 September 1990 and a MSc in Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Agricultural Academy in Lublin (currently under new name University of Life Sciences in Lublin), October 1977 - September 1982.

Work experience
2016 - present, Associate Professor, Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development.

2015-2016 expert, Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development

1991-2009, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Life Sciences in Lublin

1986-1991, Senior Assistant, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences University of Life Sciences in Lublin

1983-1985, Assistant, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences University of Life Sciences in Lublin

1982-1983, Intern Assistant, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences University of Life Sciences in Lublin

Maria Grapini is a business woman, engineer and politician from Romania and has been a member of the European Parliament since 1 July 2014 for "PUSL", which is aligned with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. She is elected on behalf of Romania.

She graduated the Theoretical High School in Bereşti in 1973 and followed the "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University from Iaşi, Faculty of Textiles, Specialization "Mechanical Technology of Filing and Weaving", which she graduated in 1978;

From January 1990 until 2012, she was General Manager of SC Pasmatex S.A. During this period, she was very involved in the development of the textile industry and the creation of jobs in this branch. From 2002 to 2010, she was the president of the Light Industry Employers’ Federation, Vice President of UGIR 1903, and since 2003, member of the National Exporters’ Council

She joined politics 15 years after the Revolution of 1989, first set up and led several NGOs, since then, she has occupied some public functions, of which the most important are:

• 1998 - 2012: President of the Association of Women Entrepreneurs in Romania;
  -1994-1998 and 2002-2006: Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Timisoara;
  -2015 - Present: Co-President at the national level of the Party of Humanitarian Power (Social-Liberal) in Romania and the President of the Timis County Branch;
• From 2005 to 2015 President of Partidului Umanist( Conservator)
  -December 21, 2012 - March, 2014: Deputy Minister for Small and Medium Enterprises, Business and Tourism in the Victor Ponta’s second Government (2012-2016);
  -From May, 2014 - present: Member of the European Parliament.

For her outstanding involvement in all her activities she has been rewarded with numerous awards.

Manuel Gremblewski is Business Development Manager of LiveEO - a Berlin based start-up with the mission to protect nature. To achieve this, LiveEO analyzes satellite imagery with machine learning models and creates usable tasks out of it. LiveEO's solutions enable their customers to monitor their assets remotely and on scale. They monitor thousands of square kilometers of vegetation for customers like Deutsche Bahn and E.ON, as well as forests for public and private forest owners or organizations like the UNDP.

Harald Grethe has been Professor for Agricultural Trade and Development at Humboldt-University of Berlin since 2016. Previously, he headed the Agricultural and Food Policy Group at the University of Hohenheim.

In 2022, he founded the independent Thinktank Agora Agriculture, Berlin, which he leads together with Christine Chemnitz.

Harald Grethe chairs the Scientific Advisory Council of Thünen-Institute since 2022, has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board on Nature Based Solutions for Mitigating Climate Change at the Federal Ministry of the Environment, Germany, since 2024 and was Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board for Agricultural Policy, Nutrition and Consumer Health Protection at the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Germany, from 2012 to 2020.

FPG (Federatie Particulier Grondbezit) is the Federation for Private Landownership in The Netherlands. The Federation has about 1,600 members who, together, own 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of land in The Netherlands. FPG joins forces and looks after the interests of private land managers, aimed at the conservation and development of a balanced countryside in the Netherlands. FPG has a mission based on its conviction that private landownership is the key to the development and conservation of a vital and attractive countryside in a highly urbanised country.

Luc supports the board to translate the needs and ambitions of the members into policy positions and strategic interventions towards governments, stakeholders and citizens.

Hans-Heinrich Grünhagen is a multi-faceted farmer, both a traditionalist and a trailblazer. He comes from a farming family that he can trace back 250 years, and grew up on his parents’ holding in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1991 he has also run a very modern, highly digitized 1,800-hectare farm in a small village in Brandenburg, in eastern Germany. For 30 years he has been blending his farming heritage with innovation and experimentation to adapt to constant changes in agriculture.

The Brandenburg farm business has gone from 90 hectares in 1991 to 1,800 today. Over 1,600 hectares are arable, including table potatoes for consumers, and for commercial customers starch potatoes, maize for biogas, winter rye, winter barley, rapeseed, peas, Jerusalem artichokes and hemp. Some 130 hectares are grassland, 180 forest. The business has one organic farm of 150 hectares, a second one is coming, and it is involved in contract farming. He and other landowners built a wind farm for the local community 20 years ago.

António Guterres, the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations, took office on 1st January 2017. Having witnessed the suffering of the most vulnerable people on earth, in refugee camps and in war zones, the Secretary-General is determined to make human dignity the core of his work, and to serve as a peace broker, a bridge-builder and a promoter of reform and innovation. Prior to his appointment as Secretary-General, Mr. Guterres served as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015. Before joining UNHCR, Mr. Guterres spent more than 20 years in government and public service. He served as prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, during which time he was heavily involved in the international effort to resolve the crisis in East Timor. As president of the European Council in early 2000, he led the adoption of the Lisbon Agenda for growth and jobs, and co-chaired the first European Union-Africa summit. He was a member of the Portuguese Council of State from 1991 to 2002. Mr. Guterres was elected to the Portuguese Parliament in 1976 where he served as a member for 17 years. From 1981 to 1983, Mr. Guterres was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, where he chaired the Committee on Demography, Migration and Refugees. Mr. Guterres is a member of the Club of Madrid, a leadership alliance of democratic former presidents and prime ministers from around the world. Mr. Guterres was born in Lisbon in 1949 and graduated from the Instituto Superior Técnico with a degree in engineering. He is fluent in Portuguese, English, French and Spanish. More information Twitter – @antonioguterres Website - www.un.org/sg/en

Viorel Gutu has 30 years of experience in agricultural development, enterprise restructuring, structural reforms and private business development through his involvement in the public and private sector and his implementation of international projects.

A national of the Republic of Moldova, Viorel Gutu was appointed to the post of FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia in February 2024. Prior to that he served as FAO Subregional Coordinator for Central Asia and Representative for Türkiye and Uzbekistan.

He joined FAO in 2014 as the head of the FAO Tajikistan office, leading the Country Office in establishing productive relations with the national government and key donors.

Before joining FAO, Gutu was Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry in the Republic of Moldova. In this position, he was responsible for the coordination, monitoring and evaluation of strategic policy implementation in agriculture and rural development. He also served as an economic affairs officer with the United Nations Transitional Administration in Timor-Leste, where he dealt with peacekeeping operations, poverty alleviation and the prevention of emergency situations. He holds a doctoral degree in economics.

Nathan Guy is the MP for Otaki and the Minister for Primary Industries, Racing and Associate Minister for Economic Development. Nathan entered Parliament as a list MP in 2005 and has been Junior and Senior Whip prior to becoming a Minister in 2009. Nathan won the Otaki Electorate seat in 2008 and has continued to grow his majority through hard work and being a strong voice for Horowhenua and Kapiti in Government. Since 2009 he has been the Minister of Internal Affairs, Immigration and Veteran Affairs, as well as the Associate Minister of Justice and Transport. He has now been Minister for Primary Industries and Racing for over three years. Nathan had an extensive political career before entering Parliament, previously serving eight years on the Horowhenua District Council. He also has a background in agriculture, having managed the family dairy and beef farm and receiving a Winston Churchill Fellowship to study beef exports to the United States.

Alfonso Chico De Guzman is one of the pioneers in regenerative agriculture in Spain. In addition to growing vegetables and nuts on dry land, his farm in Murcia "La Junquera" has become an academic destination for people interested in regenerative agriculture thanks to the Regeneration Academy.

Dr. Lawrence Haddad became GAIN’s Executive Director in October 2016. Prior to joining, he was the founding co-chair and lead author of the Global Nutrition Report (GNR). From 2004-2014 Lawrence was the Director of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), the world’s leading development studies institute, and prior to that, he was a research Director at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). He was the UK’s representative on the Steering Committee of the High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) of the UN’s Committee on Food Security (CSF) from 2009-2010. He is an economist and completed his PhD in Food Research at Stanford University in 1988. In 2018, Lawrence was awarded the World Food Prize for his: “relentless leadership and advocacy in mobilizing political will to make nutrition the focal point of development strategies.” More information Website – www.gainhealth.org Twitter – @l_haddad LinkedIn - lawrence-haddad-5809b916b

Eva Haensel works as Sustainable Portfolio Development Head Crop Protection Development for Europe, Africa and the Middle East for Syngenta in Germany.

Eva works cross-functionally with teams from biology, product safety, various technology areas, data solutions, marketing, and others to further develop our portfolio in line with the requirements for innovative plant and soil health solutions to offer farmers nature-positive agricultural innovations.

After school, she did an apprenticeship in the pharmaceutical industry and came to crop protection rather by chance as she was fascinated by what can grow from a tiny little seed when conditions are favourable. She then started working at a farm, studied agronomy, and has since worked in a variety of fields, including professional lawn care, specialty crops like cocoa and coffee, or seed treatment of arable crops.

Jason Hafemeister is the Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs and the Trade Counsel to the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). In this role, he advises the Secretary and the Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs on agricultural trade policy.

Mark is Head of Sustainable Farming for Syngenta's Europe, Africa & Middle East business. The Sustainable Farming Team work on measures to help growers use crop protection products in a more sustainable way than traditional techniques. The team also develops new sustainable farming offers and services, helping growers adopt more sustainable farming approaches through new technologies. Interra® Scan is the first soil health service introduced last year. Mark has worked for Syngenta for 15 years, mainly in marketing and business strategy roles. He has a background in agronomy and farm management. In 2020 he started a new farming business, MKH Farming, with his wife on a farm in Bedfordshire, UK. MKH Farming has grown since then to a 320 hectare arable cropping farm growing wheat, oats, beans and spring barley in a regenerative system.

Rob Hamer graduated in (bio-)chemistry from the State University of Utrecht in 1981, and obtained a PhD degree in medicine (1986) from the same university. He started his career as a food chemist at the TNO Cereals, Flour and Bread Institute. In 1997 he was appointed as Director at the newly founded Top Institute Food & Nutrition. In 1999, Rob was appointed part-time Professor in Technology of Cereal Proteins at the Food Chemistry group of Wageningen University. Rob has published over 160 articles in international journals, is the author and editor of several books, and received various prizes for his achievements in cereal science. In 2007 Rob was elected as President of AACC International, the American society of cereal chemists and technologists. Rob was the first European to serve in this function. In 2009, Rob joined Unilever and became responsible for Unilever’s global research activities in Foods. In 2012, he was also appointed head of lab and director of Unilever R&D Vlaardingen bv. In 2018, Rob was appointed in his current role as VP Agrifood External Affairs.

Tassos Haniotis recently retired, after a 33-year career in the Commission, as the Director of Strategy, Simplification and Policy Analysis in the Directorate General for Agriculture of the European Commission. Tassos is Sustainable Productivity Adviser for the Forum for the Future of Agriculture and a Senior Guest Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. He previously held posts as Head of Unit in the Agricultural Policy Analysis and Perspectives unit and the Agricultural Trade Policy Analysis unit in the same Directorate General, as Member and subsequently Deputy Head of the Cabinet of former European Commissioner for Agriculture Franz Fischler (with respective responsibilities the preparation of the 2003 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, and the agricultural chapter of the Doha WTO Round and the EU-Mercosur negotiations), and as the Agricultural Counsellor of the European Commission’s Delegation in the United States. He holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Agricultural Economics from the University of Georgia, USA, and a B.A. in Economics from the Athens University of Economics and Business, in his native Greece. Before joining the European Commission, he spent six months as a visiting Fellow at the Centre for European Agricultural Studies, Wye College, University of London, focusing on EU-US agricultural trade relations in the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations. He hold a Honorary Doctorate degree from the University of Thessaloniki. Active in the ag research community, he is a member of the International and European Associations of Ag Economics, the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium, and the EU Nitrogen Expert Panel.

Jacob Hansen is Director General of Fertilizers Europe. Before joining Fertilizers Europe in February 2011, Mr Hansen was the Director of the Danish Agriculture & Food Council in Brussels.

Christophe Hansen is the Commissioner for Agriculture and Food. He works on strengthening the competitiveness, resilience and sustainability of the agricultural sector, following up on the recommendations from the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of Agriculture in the EU.

He is responsible for:

• developing a Vision for Agriculture and Food to ensure our farming and food sector are competitive and sustainable in the long term
• making sure the future common agricultural policy is fit for purpose, provides targeted support to farmers who need it, incentivises and promotes positive environmental and societal outcomes
• fostering investment and innovation for the agri-food sector, ensuring that farmers have a fair and sufficient income and protecting them against unfair trading practices
• developing a strategy for generational renewal in agriculture, to help family farms and young farmers to access capital
• working on strengthening Europe’s food sovereignty
• addressing the specific challenges facing rural areas

As the company’s first CSO, Chris drives business strategy across the company, guiding Indigo’s research, external affairs, and strategic partnerships to advance understanding of agriculture’s potential as a climate solution. He is charged with further developing Indigo’s partnership across the ag ecosystem and incubating new business concepts. Most recently, Chris served as Global Head of Carbon, where he oversaw Indigo’s development of the industry’s first scalable, high quality, and scientifically rigorous carbon credit program for farmers. He first joined the company in 2019 as a Vice President, where he was responsible for guiding Indigo’s Product and Engineering teams in the development of digital agronomic tools.

The story of Agripolis started in 2016 when Pascal had the intuition that growing towers could be used to set large farms on the rooftops of cities. Years after the idea has proven good enough to spread from Paris, then its suburb, and now in other parts of France. Foreign sites are expected in 2021. Agripolis is now opening “Nature Urbaine”, the world largest rooftop urban farm in Paris next spring. After studying agronomics, Pascal worked for consulting firms, first on organisation and strategy issues for many years, then for environmental and sustainability issues from 1998. He is also the founder of the iNex startup, a platform for circular economy between companies, and a co-founder of the "Café Philo" non profit initiative. More information Website – www.agripolis.eu LinkedIn – Pascal Hardy

Martin Hartmann is a Senior Scientist at ETH Zurich and a distinguished researcher specialized in microbial ecology and soil science. His research centers around the pivotal role of soil biodiversity for the functioning of agroecosystems and the impact of human activities and climate change on this vital resource. His primary interest lies in leveraging microbial functions to enhance soil health and promote sustainable crop production. As lecturer at ETH Zurich, he is passionate about educating the next-generation of scientists. Dr. Hartmann is the Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Soil Biology and a member of the International Society for Microbial Ecology.

Fiona Harvey is an award-winning environment journalist for the Guardian, the lead quality newspaper in the UK for environmental issues. Prior to this, she worked for the Financial Times for more than a decade. She has reported on every major environmental issue, from as far afield as the Arctic and the Amazon, and her wide range of interviewees include Ban Ki-moon, Tony Blair, Al Gore and Jeff Immelt. She has twice won the Foreign Press Association award for Best Environment Story and was named Environment Journalist of the Year at the British Environment and Media Awards in 2007. She was named one of the 1,000 most influential people in London by the Evening Standard and, in November 2012, Fiona won the Communication award from the Euro Mediterranean Conference for raising awareness about the New Energy Efficiency Directive.

Petr Havlík joined IIASA in 2007 as a research scholar in the former Forestry Program and is currently the Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program (BNR) Director. Within BNR, he also leads the Integrated Biosphere Futures Research Group (IBF).

His research interests are in integrated modeling of natural resources and ecosystems management for the development of transformations in food and bio-based sectors that enable satisfying human needs while ensuring the sustainable use of terrestrial and marine environments. In this context, he also led the development of the renowned IIASA Global Biosphere Management Model (GLOBIOM).

He coordinates the institute’s contributions to global land use related foresight and assessment activities with European Commission funded research projects, and with international agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the World Bank. At the national level, Havlík coordinates the contribution to policies and regulatory processes in, among others, China, the European Union, Indonesia, and the USA. These projects generated funding for IIASA of about EUR 14 million.

While working at IIASA, he also held a three-year joint position with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

Havlík has been among the World’s most Highly Cited Researchers since 2018 and was ranked by Reuters as the sixth most influential climate scientist worldwide. His scientific excellence is also recognized by his appointment as a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), and the leading roles he plays in other international scientific networks, such as the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP).

Havlík received his PhD from the University of Montpellier 1 in France, and Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic.

Bio to follow later.

Prior to joining the Australian Farm Institute (AFI), Richard was Associate Professor of Agronomy and Farm Management at the University of Sydney and before that was involved in a large family farming business in North West NSW. Richard is a director of the Grains Research and Development Corporation and sits on the Advisory Committee for CSIRO Agriculture and Food. He is a Nuffield scholar and was a director of Nuffield Australia.

Bram Van Hecke has spent his life being busy with farming and farmers. He grew up on a dairy and pig farm near Ostend, at the Belgian coast, after which he studied both agricultural engineering and European studies in several countries (Belgium, US, Poland). From young age he was active and engaged in both the rural youth movement as well as the young farmers organisation in his region. From 2019 to 2024 he was president of Groene Kring, the Flemish young farmers organisation. Recently he gave up this role, as he would take up a place of the European list of the Flemish Christ democrats.

Sophie Hélaine is a French agro-economist who has been working for the Commission for 20 years. Head of the ‘Policy performance’ unit, she is in charge of developing the performance monitoring and evaluation framework of the CAP, paying strong attention to improvements in the quantification of the impacts of the CAP.

Dr. John Helming is a senior researcher working at Wageningen Economic Research (WEcR). He has more than 25 years of experience in applied economic, technical and environmental modelling at farm, agricultural sector and economy wide levels for policy analysis. Most recent work is in the field of coordinating further development of farm economic models at WEcR. He is one of the coordinators of the EU H2020 project MIND STEP focussing on behaviour of individual decision makers in farm economic modelling.

Mónica Hernández-Morcillo is a Forestry Engineer holding a PhD on integrated landscape management. Currently managing the InnoForESt project at the University for Sustainable Development in Eberswalde, Berlín. She holds fifteen years of professional experience at the intersection of social-ecological systems, promoting successful governance innovations for sustainable resources management. She has field-level experience in the Peruvian Amazon, Brasil and Kenya, facilitating participatory processes to discern partnership solutions to environmental conflicts. Bridging field work level with global policy, Mónica worked for United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) in Cambridge, UK, assisting the CBD providing scientific and technical support on biodiversity and ecosystem services assessments.

Angelika Hilbeck is a German/ Swiss agroecologist. She researches and teaches at the Institute for Integrative Biology in the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zurich. Her work focuses on the environmental biosafety of genetically modified plants in ecosystems. Hilbeck graduated in agricultural biology from the University of Hohenheim. She received her doctorate in entomology from North Carolina State University in 1994. Since 2000, she has worked at the Institute for Integrative Biology at ETH Zurich, where she heads the Environmental Biosafety & Agroecology Research Group. Hilbeck’s teaching and research focuses on environmental risk assessment, ecological biosafety of genetically modified plants and farmer-participatory agroecology research in Eastern and Southern Africa. Through her international work with UN, governmental and non-governmental organisations, she became increasingly involved in broader issues of technology development (GE and digitialization) towards a democratically legitimated, sustainable global future and actively contributes to the debate on biosafety, international agriculture, hunger and poverty alleviation.Hilbeck Is involved in the negotiations around the implementation of the UN Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Because of her experience in international agriculture and in the local situation of small farmers, she was appointed to contribute to the World Agricultural Report (IAASTD 2008). Hilbeck serves on the board of directors of Bread for All. She was a co-founder of the European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility (ENSSER) and Critical Scientists Switzerland (CSS), on whose boards she continues to serve. She is a member of the advisory board of the Association of German Scientists.

Martin was born on 14 January 1980 in Polička. He graduated at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, as well as at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including also studies in Universidad de Seville in Spain in 2002. He has passed several dedicated trainings and courses in Spain, Belgium, USA and Switzerland. As from 2015 he is a member of PhD courses at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague with a focus on international trade. I speak fluent English, Spanish and French. I am married with two kids.

After his studies he started his professional career as a diplomat in Greece, Athens and later on within the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic in the EU. He was head of the agriculture and environment unit, participating in the negotiations of the previous EU Common Agricultural Policy as well as national items such as protection of local, traditional Czech products (famous trademarks of Karlovy Vary wafers, Czech carp or Olomouc curd cheese). As from January to October 2012 he was a Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Czech Republic and moved from 2013 to Phillip Morris Company.

He made a personal decision to move into the European Parliament to actively promote the interests of the Czech and European citizens in the area of agriculture, food sector and rural development. Therefore he was happy to become a member of the Agriculture committee and be able to actively shape the future of the European farmers.

As Senior Vice President for Freshwater and Food at WWF-US, Melissa D. Ho drives landscape and transformational initiatives that increase the sustainability of agricultural systems and the conservation of water for the environment and ecosystems. WWF is a Strategic Partner of the Forum for the Future of Agriculture.

After graduation in 1994, Dr. Hocker took part in basic military service in the 6th Panzer Grenadier Battalion in Schwanewede. From 1995 to 1998 he trained as a banker at Sparkasse Bremen, then worked in marketing. From 1998 to 2003 he studied economics at the University of Bremen, including international internships in New York, Canton (China) and Adelaide (Australia). Until 2006 he was a financial advisor at Nordwestfinanz Bremen. From 2006 to 2007 he was a research assistant at the Institute for Institutional Economics and Innovation Economics at the University of Bremen, including research stays in Alabama and Oregon. He has a Doctorate in economics. He was Assistant to the Board from 2007 to 2008. Until moving into the state parliament on October 28, 2009, he worked as a sales manager at Allianz Beratungs- und Vertriebs-AG in Oldenburg. He has been Chairman of the FDP district association Verden since 1998. General secretary of the FDP Lower Saxony from 2012 to 2018. Member of the Lower Saxony state parliament of the 16th and 17th parliamentary term. He is a specialist speaker for environment and energy.

Simon has a background within strategy, business development, PR and communications and has been developing business-driven sustainability solutions for more than 15 years, within many different areas such as compliance, reporting, communication, data management and branding. He is currently senior sustainability director at Carlsberg Group and is among others responsible for the roll out of the sustainability programme Together Towards ZERO and beyond. His interest particularly lies in making sustainability relevant and accessible for the consumers, and developing value-chain partnerships to achieve sustainability goals. Examples include establishing Science Based Targets for Carlsberg Group as one of the first 10 companies in the world aligned with the 1.5C target of the Paris agreement, the development of the world’s first bio based beer bottle – The Fiber Bottle and the plastic reducing Snap Pack multipack.

Phil Hogan has served as EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development since November 2014. Commissioner Hogan grew up on a farm in rural Kilkenny, in south-east Ireland. From 1989 until he became Commissioner, he represented the Carlow/Kilkenny constituency in Dáil Éireann, the Irish Parliament. Between 2011 and 2014, he served as Irish Minister for the Environment and Local Government. His policy priorities include modernising and simplifying the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), strengthening European farmers' market resilience and their position on the food chain, and developing new export markets for EU agri-food products. Notable achievements during his mandate include: effective management of the EU agri-food market problems arising from the Russian ban on EU food and drink products; new EU rules on Unfair Trading Practices (UTPs) to strengthen the farmer's position in the food supply chain; establishing Task Force Rural Africa to improve EU-Africa cooperation in the field of agriculture and sustainable, responsible rural investment; new rules governing organic production; several waves of simplifying the CAP; central involvement in improving the EU's global trade profile in agri-food, including conclusion of the Canada and Japan trade deals; and an updated EU Bioeconomy strategy. Priorities for the last year of his mandate include: guiding the Commission's future CAP proposal through the co-decision process and improving the development of, access to and uptake of financial instruments tailored to the needs of the agri-food sector.

Chris Hogg is the Global Head of Public Affairs at Nestlé, based at the company’s headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland. With over twelve years of experience in corporate communications, Chris has a key role in shaping the company’s engagement with partners and key opinion leaders.

Previously, Chris served as Head of Sustainability and Communications for Nestlé’s business in Asia, Oceania and Sub-Saharan Africa. In these regions he was responsible for operationalizing the company’s sustainability strategy while leading the Corporate Affairs and Communications function. Chris was also a Board member of Food Industry Asia.

Prior to this Chris served as Global Head of Content and Digital and as Deputy Head of Media Relations for Nestlé.

Chris joined Nestlé from the BBC where he worked for seventeen years as a correspondent and producer. In the UK where he focused on health and social policy. Later, in Asia he was a foreign correspondent based in Hong Kong, Tokyo and then Shanghai.

Robert brings over 25 years of experience in agricultural commodity markets and sustainability. In addition to his role leading sustainability efforts for Cargill’s Agricultural Supply Chain and Food Ingredients businesses, he is also leading a team developing a new generation of nature-based projects to co-create solutions with farmers to combat climate change. Robert is based in the Netherlands.

Prior to this role, Robert led global trading, origination and sustainability for Cargill’s Edible Oils group.

Robert holds a master's degree from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam in monetary economics and fundamental economic theory. He has lectured on food security and commodity risk at Singapore Management University and the Erasmus University.

Robert is a board member for the Dutch Fats, Oils and Margarine Product Board (MVO) and the chairman of MVO’s sustainability working group. Other ex officio positions include Advisory Board Member of the commodity trading and supply chain curriculum for the Erasmus University and senator of the Allard Pierson archeological museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

More information
LinkedIn – robert-horster-2757315

Lukas Von Hoyos is referent Innovation & Strategy at Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank. He studied agricultural economics, specialising in rural development. After working at StartUp Kiebitz, where he focussed on private investments in nature, he moved to Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank to take care of the start-up ecosystem.

Corey Huck is currently the Head, Global Biologicals with Syngenta, leading the development of a new industry-leading biologicals business. With more than 25 years of experience in the agricultural industry, he is a strong proponent of the development and adoption of new agricultural and food technologies which support global food security while protecting the environment. Corey has leadership experience in business development, corporate ventures, venture capital, acquisition management, and biotech company and product creation. He grew up on a family farm in Nebraska, U.S. and studied agriculture economics at the University of Nebraska.

Dr. Salman Hussain is an environmental economist who joined UNEP in 2014, having previously been a researcher in ecological economics. He is Unit Head for The Economics of Nature Unit in Ecosystems Division in UNEP, and he is the TEEB Coordinator. TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) is a UNEP-hosted initiative that aims to recognize, demonstrate and capture the values of nature. Salman initiated the launch of TEEBAgriFood in 2015. UNEP is currently applying the TEEBAgriFood Evaluation Framework in over a dozen countries.

More information
Website – www.teebweb.org

Dr John Ingram gained extensive experience during the 1980s working in East and Southern Africa, and South Asia in agriculture, forestry and agroecology research projects. In 1991 he was recruited by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to help organise and coordinate research on global change and agroecology as part of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP). In 2001 he was appointed Executive Officer of the international project ‘Global Environmental Change and Food Systems’ (GECAFS) and, in 2011, he became NERC’s ‘Food Security Leader’. Since 2013 he has led the Food Systems Programme in the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute.

Achim Irimescu is a former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in Romania, after being a State Secretary in the same Ministry of Agriculture. He has a long career as a diplomat in Brussels, since 1998, during which he managed to successfully negotiate the agricultural and fisheries files for Romania’s accession to the EU, and he also was the chairman of the Special Committee for Agriculture during the Romanian Presidency . Basically a mechanic engineer, he graduated the Polytechnic Institute in Bucharest, he worked as a designer for agricultural machineries with a Research Institute in Bucharest before joining the Ministry of agriculture in 1990. He got his PHD in agricultural economics from the Academy of Economic Sciences in Bucharest.

Sarah Iveson is Head of Field Crops Seeds Development for Europe, Africa and Middle East (EAME) for Syngenta Seeds, responsible for leading a large group of scientists across germplasm development, R&D operations, product placement and agronomy to deliver new genetic solutions to farmers across Europe, Africa and Middle East.

She joined Syngenta as a formulation chemist in the UK. She relocated to Basel in 2011, where she has held various project, portfolio, and operational leadership roles in R&D across the crop protection and seeds businesses. Prior to her current role she led the commercial strategy and portfolio team for cereals with responsibility for defining the route to market of new technologies, including hybrid wheat.

Sarah has had a passion for science from a young age and graduated with a first hons degree in biochemistry from University of Lancaster, UK. She is driven by bringing new plant breeding innovations into the hands of growers and downstream partners, maximizing their genetic potential to enable sustainable crop production.

Lee Ann Jackson is an experienced operational and strategic leader committed to working on key global issues with proven record of management in multi-cultural environments. Creative problem-solver, curious about alternative views and comfortable mediating conflict. Dynamic speaker and moderator in international dialogues. Dedicated international professional passionate about organizational learning and delivering a positive impact.

Dirk Jacobs is Director General of FoodDrinkEurope, the organisation of the European food and drink industry, one of Europe’s largest manufacturing sectors in terms of turnover, employment and value added.

Mr Jacobs is a member of various EU platforms and regularly engages in global multilateral bodies such as the United Nations, WTO, FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius, OECD and FAO. He is Chair of a multi-stakeholder Task Force which led the development of an EU Code of Conduct for Responsible Food Business and Marketing Practices, the first deliverable of the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy.
Mr Jacobs has long-standing professional experience covering various roles in international and EU public/political affairs and strategic communications. Previously, he served as FoodDrinkEurope’s Deputy Director General and headed its department for consumer information, nutrition and health.

Mr Jacobs, a Dutch national, holds a Master of Science (MSc) in International Business Administration at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, studied international economics in Milan, Italy, and has obtained a post-graduate MBA degree in European Business studies in Brussels, Belgium.

More information
Website – www.fooddrinkeurope.eu
Twitter – @DirkJacobsEU

Béla Jankovich de Jeszenice is active on the crossroads of agriculture, the environment and technical and social innovation. Béla is leading the operations of the family estate ‘Jankovich Birtok’. In addition, Béla is Chair of the Board of non-profit organisation Commonland, driving Commonland’s mission to support restoration of 100 million hectares of degraded landscapes by 2040 with its proven holistic approach. Béla is an advisor to Anterra Capital, a global Venture Capital Fund focused on food and agriculture technologies, and an active investor and Board member of AgroVIR Kft, a regional leader in farm management software.

Marion Jansen is the Director of the Trade and Agriculture Directorate at the OECD. She previously held senior positions in the World Trade Organization, the International Labour Office and the International Trade Centre. In these roles, she has provided support to trade negotiations and to WTO dispute settlement. She has represented different organizations at the G7 and G20 level, led critical interagency collaborations and major interdisciplinary research networks. Marion Jansen holds a PhD in economics from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona) and undergraduate degrees from the University of Konstanz, Toulouse and Passau. She has published widely on international trade and global economic governance and notably co-edited the volumes “Women Shaping Global Economic Governance” and “Shared Harvests: Agriculture, Trade and Employment”. A German national, Marion Jansen grew up in the Netherlands. Next to German and Dutch, she speaks English, French, Italian and Spanish. More information Website – www.oecd.org/agriculture Twitter – @MJansenEcon LinkedIn – marion-jansen-585064146

As the Senior Vice President for the Danone 2025 Health Mission, Florence Jeantet is exploring the new frontiers of sustainable development and innovation while developing a long-term vision. She is currently focused on the “”One planet, One health”” project that aims to tackle a major global challenge: the essential transformation of the current food model. She holds a Master’s degree in food science from the Polytech University of Montpellier. She developed her experience and knowledge in the food industry first at Unilever from technical manager to Director of the Research and Development Innovation Centre. Today she is the Managing Director of the OP2B Coalition and strives to improve the global understanding of the food industry she is fascinated from. More information Website – OP2B Platform Twitter – @FlorenceJeantet

Raimund Jehle, a German national, obtained a Master’s Degree and Ph.D in Agriculture Economics from University of Hohenheim in Germany including studies at the University of Bonn and the United States in
International Policy. Trained as a farmer, he worked in Research and Academia and for the European Commission in Brussels focusing on agriculture development in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

He joined FAO in 1999 as Policy Officer. He has worked on food security assessments in the Russian Federation, various sector reviews in countries of the Region e.g. Turkey, Romania, Albania, Georgia, and also provided support to development agriculture strategies.

In 2015 he was appointed as Regional Initiative Coordinator and since January 2016 he is Deputy Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia based in Budapest, Hungary

Dr. Amy E. Johnson integrates citizen science to help conduct ecological research on more than 80,000 acre of private lands in Northern Virginia. Her current research focuses on exploring the responses of grassland bird communities to native grassland restoration and regenerative grazing. This includes sampling avian communities to quantify abundance, diversity and reproductive success in relation to grassland management. She and her team are also working with partners to study methods for establishing and managing native grasslands, tracking the migratory connectivity of declining grassland birds, and understanding motivations behind conservation behaviours on private lands.

Professor Laurence Jones, Group Leader at UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, is an ecologist with expertise in ecosystem services modelling, land use and global change, across a range of systems spanning urban, agriculture, coastal and semi-natural habitats. His work is interdisciplinary, collaborating nationally and internationally with economists, social scientists and health experts in addition to natural scientists.

Her Majesty Queen Noor is an international public servant and advocate for cross-cultural understanding and conflict prevention and recovery issues such as refugees, missing persons, poverty, climate change and disarmament. She received a degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from Princeton University. She married His Majesty King Hussein bin Talal of Jordan in 1978. Queen Noor’s work in Jordan and the Arab world has focused on national and regional human security in the areas of education, conservation, sustainable development, human rights and cross-cultural understanding. Queen Noor has made environmental priorities an essential component of her work to promote human security and conflict resolution. She was a patron of Jordan’s Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature and internationally she has focused on environmental conservation and human security with emphasis on water and Ocean health and protection issues. She is Patron of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Founding and Emeritus President of BirdLife International, Trustee Emeritus of Conservation International, a member of the Ocean Elders and has received a variety of awards and honours for her activism.

Kiran leads the vison and build of breakthrough digital technologies to positively influence the trajectory of biodiversity restoration and farm sustainability globally.

His entrepreneurial and customer centric mindset with over 15 years of experience, has led him in creating digital products customers love and businesses generate profits. Kiran has the persevering ability to foster innovation by identifying and building contextual teams globally to achieve aspirational goals. With humility and empathy as his personal mantras, he takes pride in the people who delivered winning products, projects, and transformation programs in his leadership.

Kiran holds dual Masters in Business Administration from ESSEC Paris and Mannheim University, Germany and has co-authored multiple books and journals on digital transformation in the recent years. Kiran hails from a family with its deep roots going into spices trade since the 1800`s and he is personally committed to nature positive innovations.

Dr Sabine Jülicher is Director for food and feed safety, innovation in the Directorate General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission. She is responsible for policies relating to a range of sectors such as food information & composition, food waste, food processing technologies, novel foods, biotechnology, pesticides, biocides, veterinary medicines & animal nutrition as well as the farm to fork strategy of the European Green Deal. During the period 2013 to 2015 she was Head of Unit responsible for policy matters related to authorisation and monitoring of medicines and relations with the European Medicine’s Agency. Before that, she was responsible for audits and inspections in the area of food of animal origin in EU Member States, accession countries and third countries trading with the EU. Ms Jülicher joined the European Commission in 1999, initially as veterinary inspector, before taking up management functions. She holds a veterinary degree from the Free University Berlin and completed her thesis on microbiology and food safety. She also holds a postgraduate qualification in food hygiene. More information Twitter – @Food_EU Website - DG SANTE website

Leontino Balbo Junior is Executive Vice-President of Native, a company of the Balbo Group, and was Agricultural Director of São Francisco and Santo Antonio Sugar Mills from 1988, Commercial Director of São Francisco Mill since 2003 and more recently Executive Vice-President of Native Organic Products since 2011. He graduated as an Agronomist Engineer in 1984 from the “Julio de Mesquita Filho’ São Paulo State University’s School of Agriculture in Jaboticabal. He developed and implemented the “Green Cane Project” covering 22,000 hectares, aiming at the organic production of sugarcane. Leontino idealized and created a new ecological production system which goes beyond organic. The new production system, called ERA -Ecosystem Revitalizing Agriculture, provides more yields than conventional without using any chemical fertilizer nor defensive methods.

Kaili Juppets has worked at PepsiCo for over 25 years and is currently Global Procurement Agro Potato Director. Her key areas of expertise and professional passion are in the areas of supply chain and procurement, agri-tech and digital transformation, data tools and systems to drive business value, and sustainabiity, particularly in the processing and seed potato industry and in fruits and vegetables.

Elina Kalela is CEO of Aari Forest GmbH. She holds a D.Sc. (eng) and M.Sc (eng) in Bioproduct chemistry & technology from Aalto University. Over the last 20 years she has worked in various positions in the European forest industry: in production, product management, sourcing and sales. Shortly before starting up Aari Forest GmbH Elina Kalela was working as freelancer consultant in Forest industry (Vision Hunters 2011-2021) and in UPM as Director in global sales (2007-2011). Since 2022 Elina Kalela has been, together with her team, steering and developing AARI Forest GmbH: a leading provider of holistic and innovative digitalized solutions for forest asset management. We build renewable raw material streams for industrial use aiming thus to promote the reduced the input of fossil Carbon into the ecosystem and thereby accelerating the transition to circular economy in Europe.

Dr. Kalibata leads the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) efforts with public and private partners to drive a food secure and prosperous Africa through sustainable agricultural growth that improves the productivity and livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers. Prior to joining AGRA, Dr. Kalibata was Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), where she drove programs that moved her country from a food insecure to a food secure status and became a reference point for other countries that sought to deliver agriculture transformation. She has recently been appointed by the UN Secretary-General as his Special Envoy for the 2021 Food Systems Summit with a view to mobilizing global re-thinking of food systems to support the achievement of the global development goals. She sits on various boards, councils and commissions including the Global Commission on Adaptation; the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate; the Global Panel for Agriculture & Food Systems for Nutrition; the Global Agriculture & Food Security Program (GAFSP); the Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum and; the Malabo-Montpellier Panel among others. Dr. Kalibata was awarded the Yara Prize, now the Africa Food Prize, in 2012; an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Liège, an Honorary Doctorate from MacGill University, Canada and the National Academy of Sciences’ Public Welfare Medal. She holds a doctorate in Entomology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. More information Website – www.agra.org Twitter – @AGRAAlliance Facebook – africangreenrevolution LinkedIn - agraalliance

Dr Karlsson has been president of the EEB, the largest environmental organisation in Europe, since 2005. He is an agronomist and holds a PhD in Environmental and Energy Systems. His research focuses on environmental policy and risk governance and he has been a member of several high level bodies and expert groups on environmental issues under the Swedish government and the European Commission. From 2002 to 2014, Dr Karlsson was president of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.

Ewa has many years of experience in working with innovations and solutions for sustainable development gained in Poland, Austria and Dubai. She worked with the first Polish fund of funds supporting VC funds as well as with public funds provided by EU, Switzerland, Norway. She also worked as a consultant and a partnership/business development manager in the private sector. She was one of the founding members of an NGO focused on sustainable and ethical consumption. At EIT Food, she collaborates with the agrifood industry, startups and other innovators to accelerate innovations in the Central Easter-Europe and Nordic countries. She is convinced that a transformation to a more sustainable, equitable and just food system is possible.

Jyrki Katainen is currently Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness. He joined the Commission in July 2014 as Vice-President for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the euro. Before that he served as Prime Minister of Finland, 2011-2014 and Minister of Finance, 2007-2011. He was Member of Finnish Parliament 1999-2014 for the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus). He was Member of the Finnish Delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly 2003-2007, Member of the Administrative Council of the Finnish Broadcasting Company 2003-2005, Member of the Finish Delegation to the Western European Union Parliamentary Assembly 2004-2005 and the Deputy Member of the Finnish Delegation to the Nordic Council 2001-2003. Jyrki Katainen has MSc in Political Science from the University of Tampere, Finland (1998) and he did an Erasmus exchange year at the University of Leicester, UK.

Elsi Katainen is a Finnish Member of the European Parliament in Renew Europe Group on her second parliamentary term. She is member and vice-chair of the AGRI committee and member of the TRAN committee. She is a teacher of natural resources and agricultural sciences by profession and has had a dairy farm together with her family, currently run by her son. Mrs Katainen acted as the rapporteur of CAP transitional regulation in 2020 and acts as her group’s negotiator in Biodiversity Strategy in the AGRI committee. She has worked as a rapporteur in Horizon Europe’s agri cluster and as shadow rapporteur for unfair trading practices directive in the food chain. Before joining the European Parliament, she served as a Member in the Finnish Parliament for 11 years. More information Website – www.elsikatainen.fi Twitter – @ElsiKatainen Facebook – EKatainen LinkedIn - elsi-katainen-73419518a

Dr. Katsura Keisuke has a Ph.D. in Agricultural Science from Kyoto University and his research interests include crop science and agronomy.

His most recent appointments are:
2005-2016: Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Japan
2013-2014：Visiting Associate Professor, International Cooperation Center for Agricultural Education, Nagoya University, Japan
2016 to date：Associate Professor, Graduate School of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan
2018 to 2019: Visiting Associate Professor, International Cooperation Center for Agricultural Education, Nagoya University, Japan

Eva Keretic introduces herself in the following way; "If there’s one thing I’ve mastered in the half century of my life, it’s to embrace an experience and create a story. Whether it be in song, or speech, or trying to save the planet. There I was at my first meeting with politicians and managing directors, hoping to finance an innovative vertical farm facility run on 100% renewable energy, and they started off with the normal introduction round. Their lists were long and impressive and I kept panicking at how I would even begin explaining my right and imminent necessity to be there amongst them. I decided the best plan of action was to go with the true story. I mean I did write, produce and perform 6 albums of original music. I did believe in and follow my desire to express my life stories with music and share them with the world. While doing it all I actually thought I might add something insightful to the lives of others through my experiences. In the end I’m sure I did. Whether it was for many or a chosen few I turned my life’s lessons and heartache into songs." Her roles have included; Member Hamburg Chamber of Commerce Committee for innovation and research 2020-21 (Head of the Foodworks Initiave), Ambassador for the Farm/Food/Climate Challenge for Project Together 2020-21 (Open Social Innovation Hub Germany), TEDx speaker October 2020 (Kassel, Germany), Creative Director for the ALOHAS Eco-Center 2017-2019 (a fully sustainable food and beverage production facility) and Climate Reality Leader with Al Gore 2017. She is also a singer/songwriter, composer, producer and she has released 6 albums. Her other roles include Managing Director and founder of "The Jamplan", agency for team building with songwriting and has composed various advertising songs as well as a children's English Learning CD. She was also Musical Director for the International Art Project "Many Children - One World" and her concert appearances include as a support act for Richard Marx, Vonda Shepard and Marius Müller-Westernhagen.

Ban Ki-moon took office on January 1, 2007 as the eighth Secretary General of the United Nations and on June 21, 2011 he was unanimously re-elected by the General Assembly to continue to serve until December 31, 2016. He has a bachelor's degree in international relations from Seoul National University and a master's degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Prior to his election as Secretary General, Mr. Ban was his country's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. His 37 years of service with the Ministry included postings in New Delhi, Washington D.C. and Vienna, with responsibility for a variety of portfolios, including Foreign Policy Adviser to the President, Chief National Security Adviser to the President, Deputy Minister for Policy Planning and Director-General of American Affairs.

Constantin Kinský is a Czech patron and financial advisor. He grew up in France, where he graduated from three universities and lived with his parents in Scotland for one year. He worked in the London and Paris branches of the Merill Lynch bank. In 1997, he returned to Moravia and manages the estate in Žďár nad Sázavou. He runs the family company Kinský Žďár, which manages 750 ha of ponds, forestry and agriculture. Since 2006, he has led a branch of the consulting firm Roland Berger. From 2011 to 2017, he chaired the French-Czech Chamber of Commerce. He is currently engaged in consulting in the financial sector on a freelance basis.

Mari Kiviniemi took up her duties as OECD Deputy Secretary-General in 2014. Her role consists of sharing her extensive experience to help increase the impact and relevance of OECD work and to contribute to the public policy challenges of promoting inclusive growth, jobs, equality and trust. She is responsible for the strategic oversight of the OECD’s work on Efficient and Effective Governance; Territorial Development; Trade and Agriculture, as well as Statistics. She is also responsible for advancing the Better Life Initiative. Ms. Kiviniemi was Finland’s Prime Minister from 2010 to 2011. Previously, she was Special Advisor on Economic Policy to the Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, Minister for European Affairs and Minister of Public Administration and Local Government. Elected for the first time at the age of 26, she was a Member of Parliament from 1995 to 2014, chairing and participating in a vast number of committees. She also held a variety of leadership positions in her political party, the Finnish Center Party. An economist by training, she studied political science at the University of Helsinki and holds a Master's degree in Social Sciences.

Mellany has been transforming the Klompe family farm, 360 hectares of arable land in The Netherlands, to become regenerative in its practices for the last 15 years.  Mellany is also on the board of the Collective Cooperative for the Hoeksche Waard (www.cchw.eu), a region in south Holland. There she has been instrumental in creating more than 800km of field margins and biodiversity lanes on the island to promote natural pest control, pollination and biodiversity. Through this initiative, the Hoeksche Waard is now the EU-example on this topic, and is a part of the EU-project FABulous farmers (https://www.fabulousfarmers.eu/en). Mellany is also expert in raising subsidies, measuring soil quality and is currently the Director of the Soil Heroes Foundation (www.soilheroesfoundation.com). Previously, Mellany worked for the Dutch Waterboards and local government. Mellany is a strong believer that nature provides the solutions to the world’s biggest problems and has dedicated her life to a more prosperous and healthy planet for future generations.

Georg Koenig is COO of Kiebitz, an organization that supports companies to invest in natural capital and create high quality nature-based solutions that build biodiversity, sequester carbon and regenerate the ecosystem.

Dr. Julia Köhn is a digital entrepreneur, philosopher and economist. She is currently the managing partner of PIELERS GmbH. In the past, Dr. Köhn has worked several times, worked in restructuring and restructuring consultancy and set up new digital business areas for various companies. After studying business administration, economics and philosophy at the University of Witten / Herdecke, Erasmus University Rotterdam and the University of Cambridge, she was awarded for her excellent research work and published by Springer Verlag under the title "Uncertainty in Economics". As a scholarship holder of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, she was a member of the doctoral program in Social Market Economy and a fellow at the Institute for New Economic Thinking. Today she advises as an expert to Ministries, associations and companies.

Petros Kokkalis has been actively involved in public service for the past 25 years, developing social innovation focused on human and sustainable development.

In 2019 he was elected MEP with the Progressive Alliance - Syriza ticket, representing Kosmos: an association seeking to put the SDGs in the heart of the European policymaking, and aiming at the empowerment and engagement of civil society and all stakeholders to take bottom-up action for implementing the European Green Deal and the SDGs.

He is a member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and a substitute member of the Committee on Budgets (BUDG), the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI), and the Committee on Fisheries (PECH). In the Intergroup on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development he is the co-chair of the SDGs Working Group.

He studied Modern History at the University of Hampshire, and earned his master's degree in public administration at Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

He is co-founder and secretary of the non-governmental environmental Organization Earth (2009 - present) whose work on environmental awareness and education for sustainable development has been awarded by the International Union for the Protection of the Environment (IUCN).

He was elected and served as the Vice-Mayor responsible for economic development and climate change in the municipality of Piraeus (2014 - 2019), where he promoted sustainable entrepreneurship and support of start-ups in the maritime economy.

The European Commission has acknowledged its work, awarding the Blue Growth Piraeus initiative at the European Entrepreneurship Promotion Competition 2018.

During his term of office he led the humanitarian support during the Refugee Crisis in the period 2015-2016 and served as the President of the Municipal Council for Refugees.

Belgin is Cargill’s Starchy business European Segment Leader for Renewability and Enrichment including plant proteins. Her 23-year career spans across several senior roles in Strategy, Mergers & Acquisitions, Finance, Commercial leadership and General Management.  She served diverse industries in B2B and B2C spaces while accumulating experiences by living in Europe, USA and Asia-Pacific. Dedicated to making a positive impact to our world and society through business with a purpose, she is passionate about Women & Leadership and creating a Sustainable World for future generations. She is currently based in Belgium and enjoys the pleasures of cooking for a vegetarian teenager and flexitarian husband.

Elisabeth Köstinger is an Austrian Member of the European Parliament since 2009 and Member of the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee. She is Deputy Head of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) Delegation in the European Parliament since 2011. Elisabeth is also Vice- President of the European Parliamentary Association, Vice- President of the Ecosocial Forum Europe and Spokeswoman for Food Safety of the EPP Group in the environment committee since 2014.

She is a full member of the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee (FEMM) and Vice-Chair of the “Sustainable Forest Management” working group of the EP Intergroup on “Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development”.

She also has several political functions at national level as Vice- President of the Austrian Farmers’ Federation, and President of the forestry platform “wald.zeit Österreich”.

Prior to her current position, she worked as freelancer in the field of communication and as an Assistant at the Carinthian Health Insurance Fund. She studied journalism and communication at the University of Klagenfurt.

Olena Kovalova is a former Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine (2015-2019), Director of Institute of Continuing Education of the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine (2020-2022) and an expert in Food Security and Food System Transformations.

She was a Facilitator of the Process of the National Dialogue on Food Systems Transformation in Ukraine and provided expert opinion on the preparation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative; cooperated with the World Bank, UN WFP, and UNIDO.

She is a Dr. Sc. Economics.

Dr. Benjamin Kowalski holds a degree in Forest Sciences and a PhD in Agricultural Economics. As Head of Science at Future Forest Initiative he is responsible for building an European innovation ecosystem for forestry and climate tech. His main tasks include initiating innovation projects between startups, forest actors and science as well as the organization of the annual Future Forest Forum, Germany's leading event for innovation in forestry.

Born in 1938, Bernie Krause was somewhat of a young musical prodigy, performing on a violin, cello, bass, viola, and harp, ultimately choosing guitar as his primary instrument. While an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, he did occasional studio sessions for Motown Records and also worked as a recording engineer and producer. From 1964 to 66, he studied electronic music with Pauline Oliveros and Stockhausen at Mills College in Oakland, California. While at Mills, Krause teamed with Paul Beaver. Beaver & Krause's album “In A Wild Sanctuary”, recorded in 1968 and '69, was the first to incorporate natural soundscapes as a component of the orchestration, and also to address the theme of ecology. By 1981, Krause, who found himself more interested in natural soundscapes than synthesizers, completed a doctoral degree with an internship in marine bio-acoustics. He continued his mission recording and archiving old growth bioacoustic environments from around the world, the scientific data of which has been recently transformed into large format works of art in Paris, Shanghai, Seoul, Milan, and London. The Krause natural soundscape collection consists of more than 5,000 hours of recordings - marine and terrestrial - of which, sadly, it is now estimated that over 50% comes from habitats that are altogether silent or so compromised by human intervention that the natural soundscapes are no longer viable.

Tamas Krisztin is a senior research scholar in the Integrated Biosphere Futures Research Group of the IIASA Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program. He is the scientific coordinator of the Horizon Europe LAMASUS Project, which focuses on providing a novel governance model based on multi-level stakeholder dialogues spanning the European Commission, through national and local administrations down to citizens, as well as creating the necessary tools for co-designing agriculture, forestry, and climate policies in support of the EU’s climate neutrality target.

Marjon Krol was born on a dairy farm in the South of the Netherlands. After a few years of working in international development cooperation, she has now been working for 20 years in the Southern Agricultural and Horticultural Organisation (ZLTO): an association of farmers in the South of the Netherlands. It is her mission to make our food system more sustainable and to help farmers take steps in that direction by connecting farmers with important developments in market and society, such as growing (urban) populations, the need to address climate change, to reduce food losses and to improve our soils. She has led various projects in the field of organic agriculture, short food supply chains and multifunctional agriculture, at national and EU level. Currently she is leading 2 major European projects on reducing food losses on the farm (the Food Heroes project) and on the development of revenue models for carbon sequestration in agricultural soils (the Carbon Farming project). She is also involved in projects related to the protein shift and the development and implementation of the Biodiversity Monitor in dairy farming in the Netherlands. She represents the Dutch Farmers Organisation LTO Netherlands in the Dutch Sustainable Food Alliance where national organizations of Food Manufacturers, Retailers, Caterers, Horeca and Companies in animal feed collaborate to increase sustainable food chains. Marjon has a Masters’ Degree in International Land and Water Management at Wageningen University. More information Website – www.zlto.nl Facebook – @marjon.krol.5 Twitter – @MarjonKrol LinkedIn – marjon-krol-b6223314

Anne Krueger joined the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) faculty in 2007 after leaving the International Monetary Fund, where she had served as First Deputy Managing Director from 2001-2006 and as Acting Managing Director for three months during 2005.

Jörg-Andreas Krüger was elected as NABU President for the first time on November 9, 2019 by the Federal Representatives' Meeting of NABU. He is a member of various steering committees and panels, including the German Council for Sustainable Development and the Future Commission on Agriculture.

Dik Kruijthoff is the Chairman of the supervisory board of CZVA, a dutch cooperative in southern Netherlands which includes 3100 active agricultural entrepreneurs, within all sectors of farming. The efforts on his farm paid off in 2017, when they won the Agricultural Enterprise of the Year award. He’s also knowledgeable in horticulture.

Kiki is Category Lead Sustainability Ruminants (Western Europe) for Cargill’s Animal Nutrition & Health business.

Bio to follow

Géraldine Kutas took reins of the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA), now CropLife Europe, as of September 2019. Previously she worked as head of international affairs at UNICA where she was responsible for defining and leading the organisation’s international activities becoming one of the key voices during the recently agreed EU-Mercosur trade deal. She worked for the meat industry as well as for intergovernmental organizations and the academia. Geraldine has over 15 years of experience in Public Affairs working in different continents. She brings a wealth of knowledge in agricultural and international trade policies, coupled with her passion for sustainability and fight against climate change. Géraldine holds an MA in Foreign Affairs from Georgetown University (Washington, DC) and a Ph.D. in International Economics from l’Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. More information Website – www.croplifeeurope.eu Twitter – @CropLifeEU LinkedIn – european-crop-protection-association-ecpa-

On 1 December 2019, Ms. Kyriakides became the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety.

During the COVID-19 crisis, she has been leading the Commission’s work to coordinate the EU’s health response and support Member States to tackle the pandemic. She is responsible for the EU’s Vaccine Strategy in order to procure safe and effective vaccines for all EU Member States and Europe’s broader neighbourhood. She is also responsible for the establishment of a strong European Health Union and supporting Member States to strengthen healthcare systems and deliver better patient outcomes for all EU citizens.

Previously, Commissioner Kyriakides worked as a clinical psychologist in the Mental Health Services of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Cyprus in the area of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, from 1979-2006. In 2006, she was elected to the Cyprus Parliament and was re-elected in 2011 and 2016 for the Democratic Rally party, of which she was the Vice-President.

David Laborde is the Director for Agrifood Economics division at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. He has been leading the division since February 2023. In this role, he supervises a number of flagship publications, such as the State of Food Security and Nutrition (SOFI) or the State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) and leads the work of the division on policy monitoring, policy reform, and realignment of incentives to support agrifood system transformation. He also provides leadership on two priority areas for the institution: resilience and bioeconomy.

Before joining FAO, David Laborde worked at the International Food Policy Research Institute of the CGIAR in Washington D.C. for 16 years as part of the Markets, Trade, and Institution Division. He led the research theme on Macroeconomics and Trade and was also a co-director of the Ceres2030 project.
David Laborde’s research interests include food security and nutrition, especially in the context of globalization and climate change. He has worked extensively on measuring and modelling domestic and border farm and food policies in a general equilibrium context, as well as on reforms of these policies facing environmental (climate change, biofuels, sustainability) and social (poverty) issues. Since 2015, he has been focusing on costing the roadmap to achieving SDG2 in a globalized context while considering the role of goods, capital, and migration flows while delivering on key climate actions.

David Laborde has developed a number of partial equilibrium models, in particular, the MIRAGE and MIRAGRODEP models, and databases such as MAcMapHS6 on tariffs as well as TASTE software. He has been a contributor to the GAP database and a GTAP research fellow since 2005. For his contributions, he received the Alan Powell award in 2018.

Throughout his career, David Laborde has published extensively, having more than 150 publications, and edited a number of books and high-level policy reports.

Frédéric Lambert is Director - Europe & International, Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Republic of France.

Philippe Lamberts studied Engineering in applied mathematics at the Catholic University of Louvain. From 1987 to 2009, he worked at IBM in various business positions. He was elected in June 2009 for a first term in the European Parliament. In May 2014, he was re-elected for a second term and appointed Co-President of the Green group in the European Parliament. His political career within the Belgian green party (Ecolo) started in 1991, where he served both at the local and federal levels. Since 1999, he became more and more involved with European politics and more specifically through the European Green Party (former European Federation of Green Parties), he was co-president from 2006 to 2012. As a Member of the European Parliament, he focuses on economic and financial questions, and has become a specialist on fiscal, banking and macroeconomic issues. Philippe Lamberts is currently Co-chair of the Greens/EFA political group with Ska Keller. During this term, he aims to reinforce the Greens both within and outside the EU institutions, and with civil society, and to continue his work on the financial regulation and social justice front. He is also a member of the Brexit steering group for the European Parliament.

Pascal Lamy (pascallamy.eu) holds various mandates at the global, European, and French levels. He is notably the President of the Paris Peace Forum, of the European branch of the Brunswick Group and coordinator of the Jacques Delors Institutes (Paris, Berlin, Brussels).

Pascal Lamy served two terms as Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from September 2005 to September 2013.

He graduated of the École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) in Paris, of the Faculty of Law (Sorbonne), of the Institut d’Études Politiques (IEP) and of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA). He began his career in the French civil service at the General Inspectorate of Finance and the Treasury. In 1981, he became advisor of the Minister of Economy and Finance, Jacques Delors, then Deputy Head of Prime Minister’s Pierre Mauroy cabinet in 1983. From 1985 to 1994, Pascal Lamy was the chief of staff of the President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, and his “sherpa” at the G7. In 1994, he joined the team in charge of the recovery of the French bank Crédit Lyonnais then becoming its CEO up to its privatization in 1999, before returning to the European Commission as Trade Commissioner (Romano Prodi’s Presidency) until the end of 2004.

After his mandate in Brussels, Pascal Lamy chaired for a brief sabbatical period the think tank working on European integration created by Jacques Delors, “Notre Europe” (now “Institut Jacques Delors”). He also became an associate professor at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris and an advisor to Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, President of the European Socialist Party. In 2005, he was elected to head the WTO.

Pascal Lamy has set out his commitment to European integration and his vision of a “controlled” globalization in several thought-provoking books.

Pascal Lamy chairs the Paris Peace Forum since 2019, the French National Committee of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC), the European Starfish mission (ocean), the Danone mission committee, the Aspen Africa-Europe meetings. He coordinates the Jacques Delors Institutes (Paris, Berlin, Brussels). He co-chairs the Antartica 2020 coalition. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the European Climate Foundation (ECF), Transparency International France, the Center on Regulation in Europe (CERRE), IFPRI (where he chairs the strategy and programs committee), the Musiciens du Louvre (Minkowski orchestra), the Institut Pierre-Mendès-France, Collegium International, the Institut Jean Monet, Senior Advisor to Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA) and the World Trade Board, member of the Advisory Board of Transparency International, the Oxford Martin School, the Back to Blue Initiative (The Economist), Covid Gap (Duke University) and the World Risk Report (WEF). He is a trustee of Europeum and Friends of Europe, an affiliated professor at HEC, China Europe International Business School CEIBS, Shanghai and the Centre for Economic Policy Research. He is also a member of the Global Foundation Roundtable (Rome), a member of the Steering Committee of the Colbert Foundation and a member of the Advisory Board of the Alpbach Forum and the Senior Advisory Council of the Beijing Forum.

Pascal Lamy also lectures, including to the benefit of Institut Jacques Delors, among other engagements on issues related to globalisation, global governance, international trade, international economics, regional integration, European and French issues.

As Chief of Staff for 44.moles, Cynthia Lanor supports the fast growth of the company through strategic planning, operational oversight, and project management. Drawing on their background in Economics and Global Management, they utilize their diverse experience to find innovative and pragmatic solutions for contemporary global issues.

Petra Laux is Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) at Syngenta Group, one of the world’s biggest agricultural technology companies. With over 56,000 employees in more than 90 countries, the company strives to transform agriculture with science-driven, technological innovations to deliver high productivity and high-quality food while fighting climate change and restoring nature.

As CSO, Petra leads a global team that identifies and implements sustainability priorities across the Syngenta Group organization. This encompasses both minimizing the environmental impact of Syngenta operations as well as driving the focus on technologies that help farmers to use existing farmland productively while restoring climate and nature.

Prior to joining Syngenta, Petra led the Global Public Affairs function at Novartis for over a decade. Acting as a highly respected link between business, society and the public sector, she was responsible for government relations, public policy, advocacy and reputation management, delivering impactful government affairs strategies for sustainable win-win solutions.

Archbishop Alain Paul Lebeaupin is the Apostolic nuncio to the European Community. Lebeaupin was ordained priest on 28 June 1975 for the Diocese of Nice after studying at the Pontifical French Seminary in Rome.  He holds a Doctorate in Civil Law and Masters in Canon Law and Theology. Monsignor Lebeaupin entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1979. His first appointment was to the Holy See Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York, USA (1979 - 1982) Later he served in the Apostolic Nunciature in the Dominican Republic (1982-1985) and at the Apostolic Delegation in Mozambique (1985 - 1989). Archbishop Lebeaupin was recalled to the Secretariat of State and served at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE - OSCE) From 1989 to 1998. On 27 March 1996, Archbishop Lebeaupin was concurrently appointed Charge d'affaires of the Apostolic Nunciature to the European Union. On 7 December 1998, with the title of Titular Archbishop of Vico Equense, Lebeaupin was appointed the Apostolic Nuncio to Ecuador. He was consecrated by Pope John Paul II on 6 January 1999. On 14 January 2005, Archbishop Lebeaupin was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Kenya and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to United Nations Environment Programme and UN-HABITAT (United Nations Human Settlements Programme). He arrived in Kenya on 28 April 2005. On 23 June 2012 he was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to European Community.

Ing. Jakob R.K. Leidekker started his career in the engineering firm Loo Plan, active on species inventarisation. He part-time worked at “IPC Groene Ruimte” (Training center Green Environment) and was a part-time consultant at the Royal Netherlands Hunting Association. His first steps in estate management were taken at the Dutch National Park Veluwezoom. In 2004 he switched to the National Park De Hoge Veluwe Foundation, where he has been Head of Operations since, responsible for the whole management (forest, heath, fauna, buildings, infrastructure, bicycles). He sits on behalf of the Private Federation Land ownership on the board of the Fauna Management Unit Gelderland.

Roman Leshchenko is acting Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine. He has extensive experience in legal support of international companies’ investments, M&A and financial support in agriculture. Mr. Leshchenko has over five years experience of managing a 15,000 hectare farm as CEO and owner. In 2020 Mr. Leshchenko continued his career as Head of State Service of Ukraine on Geodesy and Cadaster and as advisor of the President of Ukraine on Land Reform. Roman earned his master’s degree in Law and PhD in Finance Law from Kyiv National State University.

Helena Leurent is Director General of Consumers International, the membership organisation for 200 consumer advocacy groups around the world in more than 100 countries. Consumers International works with members and partners to empower consumers, to ensure consumers are treated safely, fairly and honestly worldwide, and to drive change in the marketplace on global consumer issues including digital access and rights, product safety, healthy and nutritious diets, and sustainability. More information Website – www.consumersinternational.org Twitter – @Consumers_Int Facebook – consumersinternational

Ursula von der Leyen is a Belgian-born German politician who served as Germany’s Minister of Defense (2013–19) and now serves as President of the European Commission (2019– ). As the President, Ursula von der Leyen is the Head of the European Commission and was appointed by national leaders and elected by the European Parliament.

According to the treaties, the President decides on the organisation of the Commission and allocates portfolios to individual Commissioners. The President also sets the Commission's policy agenda. The President also represents the Commission in European Council meetings, G7 and G20 summits, summits with non-EU countries and major debates in the European Parliament and the Council.

Nanna-Louise Linde is Microsoft’s Vice President of European Government Affairs with responsibility for Microsoft’s government affairs and public policy work across Europe since September 2022. Nanna-Louise leads a team of government affairs professionals tasked with strengthening Microsoft’s external relations with the EU institutions and governments across Europe and ensuring the company is a constructive partner in supporting policy makers in Europe achieve their goals and adapting smart legislation.

A competition lawyer by training, Nanna-Louise brings with her almost two decades of experience at Microsoft. Most recently, she has been leading Microsoft’s Corporate External & Legal Affairs team in 32 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, responsible for legal matters and relations with governments and other authorities. Prior to that, she was leading Government Affairs for Microsoft in Western Europe. Nanna-Louise and her teams have helped Microsoft build important partnerships with governments in Europe and position Microsoft as a trusted partner in the region, ranging from digitally preserving Greece’s cultural heritage as part of Microsoft’s AI for Cultural Heritage initiative to spearheading our efforts to support the Ukrainian Government, including through partnerships to strengthen cybersecurity and resilience.

Nanna-Louise is known to be a modern leader who empowers her team and facilitates cross country and cross group collaboration with a transparent and authentic approach.

Alex Lissitsa has been the CEO of the IMC (International Milk Company), one of the top 10 agricultural companies in Ukraine since May 2013. He leads and oversees the implementation of the company’s short- and long-term plans in accordance the business strategy. The IMC is an integrated agricultural business based in the north-central part of Ukraine (Chernihiv, Poltava, and Sumy regions) cultivating 136.6 thousand hectares of land and has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 2011. Alex Lissitsa has led the IMC to become one of the most efficient agricultural companies in Ukraine and has established close, long-term cooperation with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Alex Lissitsa is also a founder and president of the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB), which represents a new model of collaboration and has become the most influential agricultural association in Ukraine since its inception in 2007. Alex Lissitsa has a diploma in Enterprise Economics from the National Agricultural University of Ukraine (Kyiv), and has also earned a PhD degree in Agriculture at Humboldt University (Berlin, Germany). Dr. Lissitsa is author of several scientific articles published in internationally recognized professional journals. He has earned several honors and scholarships and has working experience in the EU, Australia, Brazil, and the USA.

Carl-Henrik Ljung is Market Manager in Sweden for Syngenta and Chairman of the Board for the Swedish Crop Protection Association. He works close to the market and the practical challenges farmers are facing, in the daily work for Syngenta and with broader industry specific topics in the work for the Swedish Crop Protection Association.

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Franc is Emeritus Professor at the University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty and former President of Slovenian Council for Environmental Protection. He is vice president of Council for Environmental Protection at Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. His current research activities include geochemistry and soil development, soil mapping and GIS, pollution monitoring, analytical methods in soil and environmental science, risk assessment of metal-polluted soils, the fate of pesticides in soil, and bioremediation of contaminated soils. He is also member of ESB-European Soil Bureau, former member of EEA-Scientific Comm., former member of EEAC-European Environment and Sustainable Development Adv. Councils and Alumni of The Prince of Wales’s Business & the Environment Programme (BEP).

Since 1991, Gabriel has managed land in La Mancha and Andalucia, Spain. Growing Manchego sheep for milk and dairy cows, on irrigated and non-irrigated land, as well as hunting properties. ICADE (Universidad Pontifica de Comillas) economics student. Vice President of the European Landowners' Organization (ELO), as well as a board member representing Spanish landowners. Member of the board of directors of Globalcaja (a cooperative bank).

Samo Login is founder of the Login5 Foundation, where he leads its main project LoginEKO. This project aims to transform the entire food system into a sustainable one.

After selling his stake in the popular Slovenian search engine portal Najdi.si almost two decades ago, where he held the position of founding CTO, Samo recognized that the proceeds fell short of making a significant impact on climate change. Given his Central European origin, earning the required funds was more feasible than raising money through a non-profit. He crafted a seven-year strategy that led to the establishment of Outfit7, a globally acclaimed media entertainment company renowned for its iconic "Talking Tom Cat", which became one of the fastest-growing entities in the industry. Seven years later, the company was sold for $1 billion. This success enabled Samo to pursue his original vision — helping humanity live healthier, better, and longer on our planet. So, LoginEKO was established in 2018 to create solutions for a sustainable future with healthy food for everyone.

Brent Loken is the Global Food Lead Scientist for WWF. His work focuses on using food as a lever for improving planetary health through education, conservation and research. He has a broad and varied background including founding both a progressive international school and conservation NGO and research into topics ranging from food and health to orangutans and clouded leopards. His commitment to improving planetary health has resulted in some important contributions including rediscovering what was thought to be an extinct monkey species, helping to protect one of the most biologically rich forests on Borneo, educating a generation of environmentalists, co-authoring one of the most influential scientific publications on human health and environmental sustainability and raising global awareness to the critical importance of food system transformation in stopping climate change, reversing biodiversity loss, and restoring nature. Rarely patient, Brent believes to achieve the SDGs and Paris Agreement in the short time that is available, it will be because of fast moving and innovative organizations and people that disrupt the status quo and actively show the world a better way. More information Website – www.wwf.org.uk Twitter – @brentloken

Pierluigi Londero works in the economic analysis unit of the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission. With a team of 20 people, he is responsible for providing economic and quantitative analysis needed for the conception, the management and the evaluation of the Common Agricultural Policy. Pierluigi graduated in economics from Rome University La Sapienza and since joining the European Commission in April 1999 has worked both on domestic and trade policy issues, including two major CAP reforms as well as providing supporting analysis for bilateral and multilateral negotiations. His team also produce the short-term outlook for grains, meat and dairy products, supply balance sheets for the current and next year published three times a year. The medium-term prospects for EU agricultural markets and income is also a product of his unit. His team is also in charge of coordination in terms of agricultural statistics with Eurostat. Pierluigi participates to both the G20 AMIS market information group and policy response forum.

Tony Long heads the World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) European Policy Office in Brussels which he started in 1989. Prior to this, he worked in the UK for various environmental organisations, including WWF and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), and two local authorities. He has also worked in the USA as a Harkness Fellow of the Commonwealth Fund of New York and a Congressional Fellow of the American Political Science Association. Mr Long is the author of several publications on environmental campaigning.

Ricardo has occupied his current position since 2013. He is responsible for the implementation of TNC’s regional Food Security Strategy to conciliate food production with natural habitat protection by promoting sustainable intensification. Prior to TNC, Ricardo was the Colombian Vice-Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Ariane Lotti is an agricultural entrepreneur and the Managing Partner of Tenuta San Carlo, an organic farm in central Italy that produces grain crops, has agritourism activities, plus includes land and forests managed for conservation goals. Before moving to Italy, she worked for over five years in Washington, D.C., on U.S. federal sustainable food and agriculture policy, with a particular focus on food safety regulations and the farm bill. She is a published author, and has worked and conducted research on organic and conventional farms in the U.S. and Europe. She is a representative from Italy to Ceja (the European Council of Young Farmers), the Vice President of Confagricultura Grosseto, a Trustee of Friends of Spannocchia, and an advisor to the Chewonki Foundation. She holds a Bachelors of Arts and a Masters of Environmental Management from Yale University.

Felix Prinz zu Löwenstein is an agricultural scientist and farmer. He takes a critical look at the problems of industrial agriculture. As chairman of the BÖLW (Bund Ökologische Lebensmittelwirtschaft) he contributes to the development of the organic food industry and to the creation of sustainable framework conditions. In 1996 he converted the Habitzheim estate, which has been family-owned for 500 years and which he took over in 1986 to organic farming. The farm was handed over to the next generation in 2014, but he still runs two small forestry operations in Germany and France.

Theresa Luber is a certified IAPM project manager with a background of "Human Geography and Sustainability" (M.Sc., LMU Munich, thesis: “Acceptance of urban agriculture in La Paz, Bolivia”). Working at blue! advancing European projects as senior project manager and consultant for EU projects since 2016, she mainly manage INTERREG B and LIFE projects. For LIFE Future Forest, she supports the project team around Ludwig Pertl in Landsberg am Lech, Germany, to implement sustainable forest management focusing on healthy and living soils. A main output is the easy-to-apply handbook on climate-resilient forest reconstructing for forest owners and municipalities. The project resulted from the INTERREG Alpine Space project “Links4Soils” in which the Alpine Soil Partnership was established. The development of both projects was guided by blue!, as is the current application for another INTERREG project (SOIL:OurInvisibleAlly).

Tomas Lundmark's background is in silviculture and forest ecophysiology. His current research is about carbon sequestration and carbon balance of managed boreal forests, growth, yield and effects on biodiversity of even-aged vs. uneven-aged management and forest fertilization. His area of expertise is beside silviculture in the field of nature-based carbon removals (boreal forests), monitoring, reporting, and certification methodologies relevant to carbon removals. He has developed models to calculate a verifiable carbon sink in managed boreal forests at the estate level. He has far reaching experiences in research leadership and is well recognized in in the Swedish forest sector and regularly engaged in commissions of trust both by governmental agencies and by the forestry business sector in Sweden as well as internationally.

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Daniela Lüth is an agricultural economist, PhD, with international experience in market and consumer research, data-driven decision making and driving change by using R&I.

She is a policy officer at the European Commission, DG Research and Innovation. She participates in the preparation of Horizon Europe Cluster 6 programmes in the field of food system and bioeconomy, follows the Horizon Europe Partnership Future FoodS and is responsible for the European Member States’ ‘Standing Committee of Agricultural Research’ (SCAR) network.

Antonia Lütteken is a Policy Officer in the unit ‘Environmental Sustainability’ of DG AGRI in the European Commission. The unit is responsible for the environmental and climatic sustainability aspects of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and provides guidance and support to colleagues in geographical units and Member States. In particular, the unit promotes the integration of climate change and environmental concerns into the CAP by supporting the design, development and implementation of targeted CAP measures (conditionality and green interventions) and helping ensure their consistency within the so-called green architecture of the CAP, in close relation with the relevant climate and environmental legislation and objectives at EU and international level. Antonia is team leader of the group focussing on environment and climate related subjects in the framework of support for rural development,  ensuring a consistent approach across Member States for those instruments in the past and current programming period of the CAP. Antonia holds a diploma and PhD in agricultural economics. She works in the Commission since 2004.

Mette Lykke is the CEO of Too Good To Go, the world's largest business to consumer (B2C) marketplace for surplus food. The app connects supermarkets, restaurants and bakeries that have surplus food with consumers who buy the food at a discount and save it from the bin. Too Good To Go is currently active in nine countries across Europe and has helped save over 10 million meals so far. Before joining the food waste revolution, Mette co-founded Endomondo, a popular social fitness community with 35 million users.

Ellen MacArthur made yachting history in 2005, when she became the fastest solo sailor to circumnavigate the globe and remains the UK’s most successful offshore racer ever, having won the Ostar, the Route du Rhum and finished second in the Vendée Globe at just 24 years of age. Having become acutely aware of the finite nature of the resources our linear economy relies upon, she stepped away from professional sailing to launch the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2010, which works with education, business and government to accelerate the transition to a regenerative circular economy. The Foundation has published seminal macro-economic reports featuring analysis by McKinsey, which have received accolades at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Dame Ellen acted as Vice-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Meta-Council on the circular economy, and has sat on the European Commission’s Resource Efficiency Platform between 2012 and 2014. She received the French Legion of Honour from President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008, three years after having been knighted by Queen Elizabeth.

Alessandro Malavolti was born in Italy in 1971, he graduated in Business Administration at the University of Modena (Italy). He joined the family business – the AMA group, leader in the production and distribution of components and accessories for agricultural and lawn care machinery – after completing his studies in 1994, and held various positions of responsibility within the company until becoming CEO in 1998. Member of the Board of the Territorial Association of Confindustria of Reggio Emilia from 2007 to 2011 and of the Executive Council from 2011 to 2013, then permanent invitee in the Extended Body of Unindustria Reggio Emilia from 2015 to 2017. Director of FederUnacoma from 2006 to 2012, President of Comacomp (Association of Component manufacturers) from 2012 to 2017, Vice President of FederUnacoma from 2013 to 2017, President of FederUnacoma from 2017 to 2023 and Vice-President of CEMA from 2022.

Francis Malige is Managing Director of Financial Institutions at the EBRD.
He leads the Bank’s investments in the financial sector, including banks and insurance companies, non-bank financial institutions and capital market infrastructure companies, across three continents.
He took up his role in August 2018.

A French national, Mr Malige joined the EBRD in February 2010 as a Director in the Financial Institutions team, where he successfully developed the Bank’s business in the Western Balkans, eastern Europe, Türkiye and, later, the southern and eastern Mediterranean region.

From 2014 to 2018, he served as Managing Director, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, leading the Bank’s operations and policy initiatives in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Before joining the EBRD, he was Managing Director for Corporate Development at BNP Paribas, focusing on bank acquisitions. His earlier career was in accounting and consulting, at Arthur Andersen and McKinsey & Company, where he served clients in industry, high tech and construction, as well as financial services.

Mr Malige is a graduate of ESCP Europe, a French business school. In addition to his native French, he is fluent in German, Italian and English.

Angelo Di Mambro is a journalist specialised in EU policies about environment, climate, agriculture, food and health. Angelo joined Euractiv in January 2024 as editor for EU agriculture and food policies. Based in Brussels since 2011, he has authored publications on the global challenges facing agriculture, the Common Agricultural Policy, innovation in agriculture and emerging plant pests, gave presentations on food risk communication, and coordinated multimedia projects for news organisations and international scientific consortia. In 2019-23, he covered the EU Green Deal for ANSA, Italy's leading news agency.

Georgios Manassakis received his Integrated Master Diploma from the Agricultural University of Athens, School of Agricultural Production, Infrastructure & Environment, Department of Plant Production Science, specializing in Agronomy, Plant Breeding and Biometrics. Subsequently, he received the Master's degree in "Plant Sciences" from Wageningen University & Research and specialized in Plant Pathology and Entomology. He worked as an intern at the Laboratory of Sericulture and Beekeeping (AUA), the Laboratory of Agronomy (AUA), as well as in the Laboratory of Chemical Ecology & Natural Products at the Institute of Biosciences and Applications of the NCSR Demokritos. Currently Georgios is a project manager in WINGS ICT Solutions in a variety of research projects, ensuring their smooth execution from conception to completion, by leading interdisciplinary teams and utilizing the expertise gained from practical research.

More information LinkedIn – rose-marcario-06703716 Website - www.patagonia.com

Colm Markey is a Member of the European Parliament representing the constituency of Midlands North-West. Stretching from Connemara to Drogheda, Athlone to Malin Head, this is a diverse constituency with a variety of issues.

Colm lives in Togher, Co. Louth on his family farm, with his partner Aisling and their two young children. As a farmer, an entrepreneur, and a family man he understands many of the issues that affect our communities.

He is a former President of Macra na Feirme and has been a public representative for over a decade. With Brexit and Covid, CAP reform and our environment on the agenda the need for a constructive voice in Europe has never been more important. In his role in Macra he was involved in negotiations on behalf of members at both national and European levels.

Colm has a strong interest in Community Development and has secured vital funding for local recreation and community facilities. When appointed as MEP, he was serving as Chair of the Louth Leader partnership which has helped to establish over 200 sole traders and small businesses in the previous 12 months. He has also served on the Board of IFAC, The National Economic and Social Council and the National Youth Council of Ireland.

Elisabeth Claverie de Saint Martin studied at France’s prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure and Ecole Nationale d’Administration, and began her career as a researcher in microeconomics. She joined the Civil Service in 1993, and quickly began work under the direct authority of three French ministers (Finance, Research and Foreign Affairs), and for the Spanish government. In 2013, she was appointed Senior Advisor to the Executive Director for France at the World Bank and the IMF in Washington DC, where she worked to build and steer public development aid policy. In 2016, she returned to France and was appointed Deputy Director for sustainable development at the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs Directorate General for Globalization, Culture, Education and International Development. This varied career has made her acutely sensitive to biodiversity and climate issues within the European and multilateral framework. Elisabeth Claverie de Saint Martin joined CIRAD in 2018, as Director General in charge of Research and Strategy, before being appointed CEO on 16 June 2021.

Berry Marttin, born and raised in Brazil, is a member of the Managing Board of Rabobank. Over the course of his career at Rabobank, he has gained extensive experience as an international banker in both wholesale and retail banking working in various senior executive positions in Australia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Curacao and Brazil. Mr Marttin moved to the Netherlands in 2004 to become Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rabobank Amsterdam. As from 2009 he joined the Managing Board with special focus on Rabobank’s international Wholesale (ad interim) and Rural banking activities and further responsibilities including Leasing (DLL), Rabo Partnerships, Sustainability & Climate, F&A knowledge & networks and Rabobank Foundation. His principal other activities outside Rabobank include serving as Member of the Supervisory Board of ARISE Invest and as President of the EACB (European Association of  Co-operative Banks). Moreover, Mr Marttin serves as the first Chairman of the global Steering Committee of the Food Action Alliance, where World Economic Forum together with IFAD, WBCSD, CIAT, AfDB and Rabobank and over 20 global leaders unite to deploy large scale action through game changing initiatives for food systems transformation. More information Website – www.rabobank.com Twitter – @BerryMarttin LinkedIn - BerryMarttin

Samuel is a winegrower from Southern France. He works with his brother on what was once their grandparents’ farm and has 20 hectares of organic vines in “PDO Languedoc” and “PGI Pays d’Oc”. Samuel studied viticulture and oenology and did internships in the USA on vineyard management. He got involved in Jeunes Agriculteurs (JA), the French young farmers’ organisation, as Secretary General and then President of JA Hérault, and Treasurer of JA Languedoc Roussillon. In 2018, he joined the national Board of JA in charge of European and international issues, the food chain and quality labels. In 2019, he was elected Vice-President of CEJA and is since January 2021 the current President of the organisation. More information Website – www.ceja.eu Twitter – @MasseSamuel1 Facebook – cejayoungfarmers LinkedIn - ceja-european-council-of-young-farmers

An astronaut, the first person to tweet from space, a recurring character on The Big Bang Theory, and now a New York Times bestselling author, Mike grew up a working class kid whose seemingly unreachable dream of becoming an astronaut and flying in space was realized in an unlikely journey that was driven by determination and commitment, and accomplished with hard work and humor. After two missions to the Hubble Telescope and four space walks to make critical repairs to the telescope, Mike is now the Senior Adviser for Space Programs at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, a Columbia University professor, an author, a television host, a frequent guest on morning shows, news programs, talk shows, and late night television, and an in-demand speaker for audiences seeking a unique perspective on teamwork, innovation, and leadership from a down to earth spaceman.

Mike shares with audiences personal stories of inspiration, innovation, teamwork and leadership as drawn from his experiences in one of the greatest and most dangerous jobs someone can have—NASA astronaut. Through humor and storytelling, he highlights the pursuit and achievement of a childhood dream, the dedication and teamwork necessary to train for one of NASA’s most difficult space missions, the determination needed to face tragedies like the Columbia space shuttle accident, and the innovation and leadership necessary to overcome seemingly insurmountable trials when in space and beyond. He leaves his audiences understanding the value of having passion for what you do, of perseverance in achieving a goal, of building a team to meet great challenges, and of creativity and innovation in problem solving. He also inspires audiences with the awe and beauty of space and shares his thoughts on the future—both personal and in regard to the ever-changing and competitive space program.

As seen by his title, Erik Mathijs is a professor at the faculty of bioscience engineering at KU Leuven and is also the vice-dean of education. He focuses mainly on questions regarding the transition into sustainable food economies, mainly questions on system innovations, how they emerge, what stands in their way and the development of tools and methods.

Alan Matthews is Professor Emeritus of European Agricultural Policy in the Department of Economics, School of Social Sciences and Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. His major research interests are agricultural policy analysis, the impact of international trade on developing countries, and computable general equilibrium analysis of trade and agricultural policy reforms. He has previously worked as a consultant to the OECD, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations and the UN Industrial Development Organisation, and has been a panel member in a number of WTO Dispute Settlement procedures.

Harald Mauser represents the European Forest Institute in Brussels as Liaison Officer. He holds a Master and PhD degrees in forestry from the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna. He was successively CEO of the private company Umwelt data Ltd., dealing with aerial photo interpretation and remote Sensing, senior researcher in remote sensing at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Director of the Austrian Federal Research and Training Centre for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape, and EU Affairs officer of the Austrian Forest-based Sector Cooperation Platform.

Peter Mayer is the Managing Director of the Austrian Research Centre for Forests (BFW), responsible for the development and implementation of the overall strategy and financial operations of BFW. From 2003 to 2010 he was Executive Director of IUFRO, the International Union of Forest Research Organizations. From 1998 to 2003 Peter Mayer was the head of the Liaison Unit of Forest Europe responsible for developing pan-European forest policy. He holds a Masters degree in forestry and political science and a PhD in forest policy.

Tyler McCann is the Managing Director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute. His career in agri-food policy includes working for federal ministers, farm groups, industry associations and agri-food businesses. Tyler operates a beef and goat farm with his wife and children in Western Quebec.

Mairead McGuinness has spent over 20 years working in the EU Institutions. In December 2024, she completed her term as the European Commissioner for financial services, financial stability and Capital Markets Union. Her focus was on ensuring the strength and stability of the financial sector, so that it can deliver for people, society and the economy. She also prioritised financial wellbeing and financial literacy. Before joining the Commission in October 2020, Ms McGuinness was First Vice-President of the European Parliament. She served as an MEP from Ireland for 16 years. In 2024, Ms. McGuinness was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science by University College Dublin (UCD), in recognition of her outstanding achievements as a member of the EU Commission and her contributions to the Agri-Food sector in Ireland and the European Union. Prior to becoming an MEP, she was an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and commentator for 24 years.

Experienced in the fields of policy research, editing, communications, and project management, Katie McRobert has been part of the Australian Farm Institute team since late 2017, holding roles as Senior Researcher and General Manager before becoming Executive Director in April 2024. Prior to joining AFI, Katie worked as a global Content and Community Manager for Rabobank, liaising with farming clients to build knowledge banks, and as the National Editor for FarmOnline. Katie has an MBA from Griffith University specialising in Sustainable Business. She is currently Chair of the CSIRO Drought Resilience Mission Advisory Group, and a member of the Australian Agricultural Traceability Governance Group, the CSIRO Agriculture & Food external advisory group, and the NSW Farm Writers Committee. At the AFI, Katie’s role gives her the opportunity to deep dive into evidence-based policy research focused on the sustainability of agrifood systems – work she feels proud and privileged to be part of.

Max Meister is a natural resource management expert with a strong focus on soil science, water management, and plant nutrition. He earned his Master’s degree in Natural Resource Management in 2020, further specializing in soil science.

After completing his studies, he began working at NABU (Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union, Germany) on integrated pest management (IPM). He later transitioned into soil policy, where his focus expanded to conservation agriculture and regenerative farming. His work is dedicated to advancing sustainable soil management practices that enhance environmental and ecosystem health.

Currently, he is actively engaged in European soil policy, working on the Soil Monitoring Law and the Carbon Removal and Carbon Farming Regulation (CRCF) at the EU level. As part of this, he is a member of the European Commission Expert Group on CRCF. Additionally, he contributes to the development of standards for soil ecosystem functions as a member of a DIN (German National Standardization Body) expert panel.

Amelie Michalke is a research assistant at the University of Greifswald and works in the project “HoMaBiLe - How much is the dish?”, which deals with externalities of agricultural production. Amelie graduated from the University of Augsburg as a Master of Science in 2019 with a degree in industrial engineering. She has since become an expert in the field of true (ecological and social) prices in the context of food production.

More information
Website – www.homabile.de

Ladislav Miko was Deputy Director-General for the Food Chain in the European Commission’s health and food safety department (DG SANTE) since January 2011. His portfolio covered issues of food safety throughout the whole food chain, including plant and animal health, pesticides, biotechnology, food hygiene, nutrition and food sustainability. He was also acting Director-General in 2014 to 2015. From 2005 to 2010, he was Director for Nature in the Commission’s environment department. He was recently appointed special advisor to Czech Minister of Environment. During the Czech Presidency of the EU in 2009 he was appointed minister of the environment in the Czech government. Before he started his career in the Commission, he was deputy minister in the Czech environment ministry. Before that, he worked for nine years as a professional soil biologist in the Slovak Academy of Sciences. He holds a doctorate in zoology and ecology and he is Associate Professor of Prague University of Life Sciences and Guest Professor at University of Antwerp.

In January 2022 Emmanuelle Mikosz took the role of 'Forum for the Future of Agriculture' Programme Director. Previously she was the coordinator of the regional events of the Forum. Since 2005 Emmanuelle has been an ELO adviser specialised in property rights, agricultural and environmental policies dedicated to Central & Eastern European countries. Trained as a lawyer, she earned a Master of Arts degree from the College of Europe (Natolin). Emmanuelle is involved on a daily basis with the formulation of ELO members' positions regarding national land laws and management of enterprises. The European Landowners’ Organization - ELO asbl, created in 1972, is a unique federation of national associations from the EU27, which represents the interests of the landowners, land and forest managers and rural entrepreneurs at the European political level. Emmanuelle is the Editor-in-Chief of the ELO bimonthly "Countryside Magazine", edited in English, French and Spanish. She is also an expert representing ELO at different international events as well as at the European Commission Civil dialogue groups or biogeographical consultations processes. She has a personal interest in innovation and research policies, including aviation and protection of data regulations. She believes that the future of European agriculture relies on sustainable development hand in hand with the protection of biodiversity and access to water.

Heather Mills is the founder of the international multi award winning plant based ethical Vegan food company VBites.VBites exports to 24 countries and growing, offers over 130 plant-based products and has won an incredible 80 awards. Heather has encountered an unusual life of extraordinary circumstances. A woman that has an inert ability to defy and conquer anything that falls in her path. In 1993 Heather suffered the loss of her left leg below the knee due to an accident. To save her amputated leg from constant infection she went on a plant-based diet, which ultimately inspired her to create a food range replacing meat, fish and dairy products with a direct plant based replication.

Carina’s career began in the business world working as a sustainability consultant for Environmental Resources Management, before she realised our planetary ecological crisis would not be solved in the corporate boardrooms in which it was created. She has since worked with several  system change campaigning and movement building organisations, including Changing Markets in the UK and the New Economy Coalition in the US. A committed permaculturalist, she founded The Orchard Project, a charity working with community groups in cities across the UK to plant and nurture community orchards in public urban spaces. Carina has also been a Visiting Research Fellow of the Global Development and Environment Institute of Tufts University and is a Research Fellow of the Schumacher Institute. Her book, Frugal Value: Designing Business for a Crowded Planet (Routledge, 2017), provides a blueprint for organisations in an ecologically viable system of production and consumption. More information Website – www.feedbackglobal.org Twitter – @feedbackorg Facebook – @feedbackorg LinkedIn – carina-millstone-a96203ab

Leonardo Mirone is Purchasing Director for Raw Materials at Barilla G. e R. f.lli. He is responsible for setting strategies and targets globally for the purchasing of all the raw materials, moreover is responsible for the Supply Chain Sustainability Projects of the Company. He is involved in the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (BCFN, www.barillacfn.com), a foundation born in 2009 with the goal of analyzing major global issues connected with food and nutrition. He’s also vice-president of the EAC committee in Caobisco (Chocolate, Biscuit and Confectionery of Europe). More information LinkedIn – leonardo-mirone-7397b7198 Website - www.barillagroup.com

Dr Bram Moeskops is Managing Director of FiBL Europe. Based in Brussels, FiBL Europe represents the four national FiBL research institutes and ÖMKI. Bram Moeskops leads the Brussels office and, together with his team, helps to ensure that FiBL's broad knowledge is made available to policymakers and stakeholders in Brussels. Based in Brussels, FiBL Europe represents the four national FiBL research institutes (FiBL Switzerland, FiBL Germany, FiBL Austria, FiBL France) and the Hungarian Research Institute of Organic Agriculture ÖMKi at a European level.

Bram Moeskops brings an impressive track record to FiBL Europe, having dedicated over a decade to his role as Research & Innovation Manager at IFOAM Organics Europe, an organisation with members from 34 countries working for organic agriculture in Europe. He also assumed responsibility for the scientific coordination of the European Technology Platform for Organic Food and Farming "TP Organics." During his tenure, he skilfully fostered an extensive network comprising European Union and national policymakers, scientists and stakeholders within the European agricultural and food sectors.

Bram Moeskops holds a PhD in Soil Science, a Master in Bioscience Engineering and a Master’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy.

Prior to her appointment, Ms. Mohammed served as Minister of Environment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria where she steered the country’s efforts on climate action and efforts to protect the natural environment. Ms. Mohammed first joined the United Nations in 2012 as Special Adviser to former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with the responsibility for post-2015 development planning. She led the process that resulted in global agreement around the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the creation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Ms. Mohammed began her career working on the design of schools and clinics in Nigeria. She served as an advocate focused on increasing access to education and other social services, before moving into the public sector, where she rose to the position of adviser to four successive Presidents on poverty, public sector reform, and sustainable development. Ms. Mohammed has been conferred several honorary doctorates and has served as an adjunct professor, lecturing on international development. The recipient of various global awards, Ms. Mohammed has served on numerous international advisory boards and panels. She is the mother of six children and has two grandchildren. More information Website – www.un.org Twitter – @AminaJMohammed

Tobias Möllney studied Socioeconomics at the University of Hamburg (B.A.) and Environmental and Resource Economics at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (M.Sc.) from 2015 to 2022. Since December 2022 he is junior researcher at the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) in the research field “Ecological Economics and Environmental Policy”. Core focus of his work is the spatially explicit analysis and valuation of ecosystem services, primarily regulating services of urban greenery and green climate adaptation measures. To underpin consideration of these essential contributions of nature to human wellbeing in public debate and policymaking an essential part of his work is the development of intuitive visualizations and interactive tools to make their abstract values more tangible.

Mai Thin Yu Mon is a young indigenous peoples rights activist since her bachelor studies and contributing to building the indigenous peoples’ youth network in the Asia region. She has been working with indigenous youths and indigenous women at grassroots level in Myanmar. She is also engaging with different government agencies regarding climate change in Myanmar, making efforts to ensure the respect and protection of indigenous peoples rights. She has also been promoting the role of women and young girls in decision making at different levels in indigenous communities. Being an advocate on indigenous peoples’ rights to land and natural resources, she has been actively trying to include indigenous youths and women for sustainable development goals 1, 5, 13 and 15. She has actively been engaged with the advocacy and campaign on the indigenous peoples’ rights at the national, Asia regional and international level. Currently, she is the youth focal person of the Asia region to the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus. She is the Director of the Indigenous Peoples Development Program of the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO), and executive member of the Myanmar Indigenous Peoples Network, which comprises 19 indigenous peoples' organizations in Myanmar. She is also representing indigenous youths to the Executive Council of Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact ( AIPP ) which is working in 14 countries with 48 member organizations. She has been engaged in dialogue and negotiations with the ASEAN regional governments, particularly in Myanmar, on the cause of indigenous peoples’ rights. She has also been engaged as a resource person on the human rights and indigenous peoples’ rights, and the promotional works on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the national and Asia regional level. She has been an active member of the Asia Indigenous Peoples Caucus during the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues sessions, particularly in 2016 and 2017, and attended as resource speakers to various side events. In 2016, she led the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus of delivering statement in the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. In January 2018, she contributed as an expert to the Expert Group Meeting on the sustainable development on the indigenous peoples land and territories that took place in New York, UN Headquarters in preparation for the 17^th session of the UNPFII. She has actively been engaged with other international forum in relating to indigenous peoples issues and took part interactive dialogues, such as, other UN agencies - IFAD and FAO.

Felix Montecuccoli is owner and manager of the family estate “Gut Mitterau” (1,000 ha Forest, 200 ha arable land) and President of the Association of Land & Forest Owner in Austria. He is former Chairman of the “Wintertagung”, the largest annual conference for Agriculture and Forestry in Austria, former Chairman of the Cooperation-Agreement between Forestry, Timber based Industries and Wood based Industries, and Chairman of the working group on electronic measurement of roundwood.

He is a Board Member of the European Private Forest owners Association (CEPF), Member of the advisory board of Federal Research and Training Centre for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape and Board Member of the European Landowners’ Organization. Prior to his current position, he was a Member of the
advisory board at the federal ministry for agriculture, forestry, water and environment.

Mr. Montecuccoli graduated at the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Vienna (BOKU).

Jean Moreau is founder and CEO of Phenix, the pioneering French smart food waste management leader. After starting out in banking, he left to solve the problem of food waste. Jean started his career as a banker in mergers and acquisitions. It’s a job with a lot of advantages, but he often felt something was missing. Increasingly he wanted to do something that had a positive social and environmental impact. He began to realise what a problem food waste is and launched the French start-up Phenix. His vision is to use technology for good to solve the problem of wasted, unsold food produce and products. More information Website – www.wearephenix.com Facebook – phenix.antigaspi LinkedIn – phenix

Gabriel Mörner is a Swedish landowner and entrepreneur. He has been managing the family agricultural business since 2016 and before that he was an advisor on agriculture and forestry. He is a member of the Swedish Landowners Association and is the chairman of the forest committee in the Swedish Landowners Association. He was an expert in the governmental forest inquiry in 2019/2020.

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Jelmer works for Rabobank to develop innovative, meaningful and pragmatic solutions in the Food & Agri domain. He is responsible for project Acorn that supports smallholder farmers in the transition to agroforestry supported with additional income from Carbon Removal Units that are verified with the help of remote sensing to allow for scale. As former strategy consultant he has ample experience in bringing strategy into practice. During his period at World Food Programme he experienced farmer needs in developing countries at first hand.

Evangelia Mourmoura has worked at the European Commission since 2017 and her current role is Administrator, European Commission - Data protection and governance. She has a Bachelor's degree in Biology, a Master in Research, Cellular abd Integrative Biology and is a Doctor of Philosophy in Physiology, Physiopathology and Pharmacology.

Dr Cherry Muijsson is a chief investment officer in BlackRock's Multi Asset Strategies team. She is responsible for portfolio construction, asset allocation, and portfolio research. She leads BlackRock's investment case for nature and biodiversity and works closely with asset owners to identify risks and opportunities. Previously, she was a strategic advisor to official institutions within BlackRock's Financial Markets Advisory on financial stability and bank balance sheet management. She holds a PhD from Cambridge University in Macroeconomics and her work has been published in international journals. She is passionate about nature conservation and works with NGOs, including as a non-executive director for Biflores, which focuses on terrestrial and marine conservation in Bravia, Cabo Verde.

Anne-Sophie Mulier has a master’s degree in bioengineering, specialising in agro- and ecosystems. From 2017, she researched supportive systems of community-based woodland restoration and woodland ecosystem services development in rural areas in the north-Ethiopian Tigray region. She also worked for the Flemish Inter-University Council investigating the potential of bio-digesters in rural areas by a CO2 compensation project evaluation. Since 2018 she has been active as the project officer for the EU’s LIFE+ Project "Land Is For Ever", focussing on tools and instruments to engage private landowners in national and regional conservation efforts in EU Member States.

Mike Muller is also a Visiting Adjunct Professor in the University of the Witwatersrand Graduate School of Governance. Previous to that he was Director-General of South Africa’s Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. He represented South Africa at the UN Commission for Sustainable Development and chaired the Water Dome programme at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Alexander Müller is a former FAO Assistant Director-General (2006-2013), and State Secretary for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture, Germany (2001 -2005). He has vast experience in global sustainability governance, as inter alia: Chair of the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition; member of the UN Environmental Management Group; and Lead, Voluntary Guidelines for Responsible Governance of Land, and TEEBAgriFood.

More information
Website – www.tmg-thinktank.com

David Nabarro is the Co-Director of the Imperial College Institute of Global Health Innovation at the Imperial College London and supports systems leadership for sustainable development through his Switzerland based social enterprise 4SD. Furthermore, he is Advisor at the Global Commission on Adaptation in Rotterdam. He secured his medical qualification in 1974 and has worked in over 50 countries – in communities and hospitals, governments, civil society, universities, and in United Nations (UN) programs. David worked for the British government in the 1990s as head of Health and Population and director for Human Development in the UK Department for International Development. From 1999 to 2017 he held leadership roles in the UN system on disease outbreaks and health issues, food insecurity and nutrition, climate change and sustainable development. In October 2018, David received the World Food Prize together with Lawrence Haddad for their leadership in raising the profile and building coalitions for action for better nutrition across the Sustainable Development Goals. More information Twitter – @davidnabarro LinkedIn - davidnabarro

Elisabet joined the CAP and Food team at the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) in October 2022. Her work focuses on developing a sustainable food system in the EU and reducing the impacts of agriculture to the environment. Before joining IEEP, Elisabet worked for several years at the RISE Foundation, co-authoring several reports focused on the sustainable management of resources in agriculture. She also previously worked as a researcher at the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (Spain), and the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), focusing on soil erosion and its impact on the carbon cycle.

Elisabet holds a BS in Environmental Sciences from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and a PhD in Physical Geography from the University of Murcia. She is fluent in English, Catalan, Spanish and French.

Vanessa Nakate, 24, is a climate activist from Uganda and founder of the Africa-based Rise Up Movement. She began striking for the climate in her home town of Kampala in January 2019, after witnessing droughts and flooding devastating communities in Uganda. She now campaigns internationally to highlight the impacts of climate change already playing out in Africa, as well as promoting key climate solutions such as educating girls. In 2020, Vanessa was named a UN Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as being listed one of the BBC's 100 Women of the year and the 100 most influential young Africans. More information Website – www.vanessanakate.com Twitter – @vanessa_vash

Giuseppe Natale holds the position of Chief Executive Officer at Valagro SpA. In 1980 he founded Farmer Italia s.n.c., today known as Valagro SpA, a multinational leader in the production and marketing of environmentally-friendly fertilisers for agricultural production, lawns, gardening and various industrial applications. In the Nineties, he led the company towards internationalisation, initially on the European market and thereafter in the rest of the world. Today Valagro has 13 branch offices in 3 continents and, through its distributors, covers more than 80 countries all over the world. Also during the Nineties, Giuseppe Natale pushed for the acquisition of two Norwegian companies, Algea and Nordtang, thereby marking the beginning of the differentiation of the Valagro group into the human and animal nutrition sectors, as well as that of the cosmetics industry. In a setting where change is the only constant, Giuseppe Natale has restructured the company several times, focusing on organisation by divisions of business, which would allow the Group to grow at an international level, thanks also to innovation, one of the company's constant strong points and to maintaining valuable contact with clients from various businesses, something always at the centre of the company’s activities. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Algea A.S. (Norway), Director of Valagro Holding S.r.l., Valagro Hellas S.A. (Greece), Valagro France (France), Valagro Andina Ltda (Columbia), Valagro UK (United Kingdom), Valagro USA Inc., Valagro Mexicana  (Mexico), Valagro Iberia (Spain), Valagro Do Brasil LTDA (Brazil), Maxicrop NZ (New Zealand), Valagro Tarim Ticaret (Turkey), Valagro BioSciences LTD, Valagro (Shanghai) Trading Co Ltd and Valagro Brazil Manufacturing Industria e Comercio del Fertilizantes LtDA. From its foundation to 2018 he served as Chairman of EBIC European Biostimulant Industry Council. He currently serves as Board of Directors member of IFA International Fertilizer Association (Paris), which includes 540 companies from 85 Countries, and member of IFA Strategic Advisory Team.

Chandni Navalkha is the Associate Director for Sustainably Managed Land and Water Resources at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she works on projects to advance and accelerate the enduring protection of land and water resources worldwide. Chandni manages the activities of the International Land Conservation Network, which brings together private and civic land conservation practitioners from around the world to share expertise, experience, and inspiration through exchange, collaboration and peer learning. Prior to joining the Lincoln Institute, Chandni was a fellow with the Sri Lanka Program for Forest Conservation, conducting research on the impacts of conservation on local livelihoods. She has worked for organizations in North America, Latin America, and South Asia supporting urban, peri-urban, and rural communities undertaking voluntary land and resource conservation, and earlier in her career worked in change management for private and public sector organizations as a consultant with Accenture. Chandni holds a Master's in Environmental Science from the Yale School of the Environment.

Jeff Nawn is the founder and CEO of North Hill Group, a mission-driven firm that specializes in regulatory, government and consumer affairs for the food and agricultural sectors. Jeff has more than two decades of experience in international trade policy and market access analysis and negotiations, as well as in developing and executing domestic and international regulatory advocacy strategies. Throughout his career, both in the public and private sectors, Jeff has gained first-hand experience in balancing the demands of market access, agricultural innovation, regulatory approvals, sustainability, and consumer acceptance.

Chairwoman of the Board of the Agricultural Cooperative Všestary, manager and executive of a number of other companies. Member of the Board of the regional branch of the Czech Agrarian Chamber in Hradec Králové and the Association of Sugar Growers of Bohemia. Chairwoman of the Review Panel of the Association of Owners, Operators and Users of Irrigation Facilities of the Czech Republic and member of the Supervisory Board of the Vegetable Union of Bohemia and Moravia. Her name is associated primarily with the success of Všestarská cibule (Všestary Onion), registered in the EU Register of Protected Geographical Indications of Origin. Under her leadership, the company was able to react flexibly to climate change and, in addition to onions, also became the largest domestic producer of broccoli. She holds a number of top management and social awards. She is one of the few women in the Czech Republic who have been awarded the honorary title of Lady Pro. She is often referred to as the first lady of Czech agriculture. She supports community life and helps non-profit organizations in the region, supports the preservation of the nation's cultural heritage by financing the restoration of church buildings. It organizes the Všestary Onion Celebrations, which are attended by over 3,000 people. She is being invited, on a regular basis, as an expert in the field of agricultural production and leadership for discussions at various forums for both professionals and the general public. She personally advocates the promotion of Czech agriculture, raising awareness of the quality of Czech agricultural production and the importance of agriculture for maintaining the landscape and developing life in the countryside. More information Website – www.vsestary.cz Facebook – zdvsestary

Jeen Nijboer is Food and Agri project manager at Rabobank Nederland. He started his career at Rabobank almost 20 years ago and has a strong affinity with the agricultural sector, given that he grew up on a dairy farm. He is involved in sustainability projects for the primary agricultural sectors. In this context, work is being done on the development of a biodiversitymonitor in collaboration with parties in the chain and WWF and the Open Soil Index. In addition, the development of the use of data into information for decision support for farmers is part of the work. Rabobank has three important pillars, namely access to finance, access to networks and access to knowledge. With the Global Farmers platform, Rabobank wants to give its agricultural customers worldwide substance to these pillars. This will contribute to a need from our customers to be able to further develop entrepreneurship to contribute to the global food issue: Growing a better world together.

Therese Noorlander is European sustainability director at the Coca-Cola Company. Therese is responsible for driving the corporate sustainability agenda in Europe. This means ensuring her organization meets the sustainability commitments. Her organization has many global commitments in place ranging from environmental sustainability to social sustainability topics. For example, World Without Waste focusing on packaging and women empowerment goal called 5by20 focusing on economic empowerment and inclusion of women. She also works with The Coca-Cola Company’s bottling partners to co-ordinate and align on the implementation of their joint sustainability commitments in Europe. Therese studied business administration at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam (the Netherlands). She has experience in both the public and the private sector, having previously worked at Heineken, Nutricia Advanced Medical Nutrition, Pfizer and the Dutch Ministry of Health. After 6 years in the public sector, she joined Coca-Cola. There she started as Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability Director in the Netherlands. Since 2018 she is responsible to lead Sustainability in Europe for Coca-Cola.

Niels Peter Nørring has worked on European and global agriculture- and climate polices since 1985 – for the past 25 years as director in the Danish Agriculture and Food Council (DAFC) that represents Danish farmers and some of Europe’s biggest farmers’ owned cooperatives in the dairy, pork, grains and seed sectors.

2024 DAFC became party to the historic ‘Tripartite Agreement’ between the Danish government, farmers, environmentalists, industry and labor union representatives that establishes the world’s first carbon tax on agriculture livestock emissions, and finances a voluntary, locally driven and inclusive process that is mandated and required to lead to the enactment of some 250.000 hectares of new forest in Denmark, completing the repurposing of some 15 percent of the country’s farm land.

The ‘Tripartite Agreement’ sprung from years of preparatory work. 2019 Nørring championed Danish agriculture’s vision to become climate neutral by 2050 – a first of its kind among farmers and cooperative organizations in the world. Subsequently, he has worked with changing Danish governments to help implement the country’s very ambitious 2030 target of 70% GHG emissions reductions compared to emissions in 1990, including a 55-65% sub-target for agriculture to reduce emissions. In this work his focus has been on increasing production of renewable energy and building solid foundations for carbon sequestration and Power to X industrial clusters, in a manner that does not threaten food production. Niels Peter Nørring has engaged in numerous dialogues and partnerships with governments and NGOs in Denmark and internationally; because high national ambitions only have real climate impact if solutions are shared globally.

Niels Peter Nørring is Climate Director at the Danish Agriculture and Food Council in Copenhagen, and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Science from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark. Nørring previously served as Agriculture Attaché at the Danish EU Representation, and as Secretary to the Danish Minister of Agriculture.

Geographer, Ph.D. in Drought Risk Management in the Mediterranean, with over 20 years of work in freshwater and climate-related risks for different organizations (Universities of Lisbon, Algarve, Seville, and Lincoln-Nebraska; World Water Council; European Commission - JRC; WWF Mediterranean). Currently Freshwater Consultant for ANP|WWF Portugal, based in the Algarve and managing several projects on semi-arid forestry restoration, transboundary river basin management and freshwater habitats conservation. More information Website – www.wwf.pt Twitter – @WWF_Portugal Facebook – portugalWWF LinkedIn – afonso-do-ó-b281981a

Ben has had a long and varied involvement in the New Zealand meat industry having been responsible for activities in Research and Development, Technical Policy, Environmental Policy, Market Access and Advocacy. Currently he manages interactions between the New Zealand Meat Board/Beef + Lamb New Zealand and European (including UK) farmer groups and regulators. He also has involvement on the International Meat Secretariat’s Sustainability and Animal Care Committees, the International Beef Alliance, the FAO Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance Partnership (FAO) steering committee, the UECBV Footprint Category Rules Technical Committee and is overseeing Lifecycle Analysis work on sheepmeat and beef production in New Zealand. More information Twitter – @NZMeatBruss Website – www.beeflambnz.com

Rose O’Donovan has been Editor of AGRA FACTS since March 2010, having previously served as Deputy Editor on the agricultural publication for nearly three years. Prior to working as a journalist, she dealt with international relations on the EU satellite navigation programme at the Galileo Joint Undertaking. Following the completion of a Master of Science at University College Cork (Ireland), Rose moved to Brussels in 2004 to work as an intern in the Cabinet of former European Parliament President, Pat Cox. Hailing from a farming background in West Cork, Rose is also the Brussels correspondent for The Southern Star - a regional newspaper based in Skibbereen. More information Twitter – @agrafacts LinkedIn - rose-o-donovan-91927517

John Gilliland, is Director of Global Agriculture and Sustainability at Devenish, an innovative livestock nutrition company which creates complete solutions, improving animal, human and environmental health, simultaneously. John Gilliland is highly respected and recognised as an excellent leader and communicator across the breadth of the Agri Food and Sustainable Land Management Sectors. He has been an award-winning farmer in Ireland, President of the Ulster Farmers Union; a Non Executive Director of SRUC, and an Energy Regulator in N. Ireland; while at the same time, he has been a policy adviser for Devolved, National and European Governments on Biotechnology, Climate Change and Sustainability. More information Website – www.devenishnutrition.com Twitter – @DevenishNutri LinkedIn – devenish-nutrition

Barbara Pia Oberč is a policy and project officer at IUCN’s European Regional Office in Brussels, where one of her key focus areas is sustainable agriculture. She has a background in sustainable development. She has previously worked as a consultant at Ecorys, carrying out research projects to inform EU environmental policy. She was also a trainee at the European Commission, focusing on agri-environment-climate measures, and at the UNFCCC, focusing on nationally appropriate mitigation actions.

More information
LinkedIn – bpoberc

Antoine was Head of the Global Challenges and SDGs team at the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) since August 2021. In July 2023 he was appointed Research Director. Antoine is a specialist in environmental and more generally sustainability-related policies at the EU and global level. He joined IEEP in August 2021 as Head of Programme for Global Challenges and SDGs to work primarily on the coherence of the EU’s internal and external policies and on the greening of the EU’s trade policy. He previously worked for over twelve years in providing technical assistance for the sustainable development of countries in the global south. Antoine holds a MA in European Politics from the Institute of Political Studies of Rennes. He is a native speaker of French and fluent in English. He also speaks Spanish and Italian.

Femi Oke is an international journalist, broadcaster and moderator. Since the 1980s, she has worked for BBC television and radio, Sky TV, all UK terrestrial television networks, CNN and US public radio. Oke’s reporting has been recognised by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Communications Agency and InterAction. She's British by birth, Nigerian by parentage and a Washingtonian by zip code.

Claudia Olazábal is holder of a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Radiochemistry from the University of Strasbourg and a Master’s degree in Science from the University of Texas at Austin. She worked for three years in the Sustainable Resources - Consumption and Waste Unit, then became Policy Officer and Head of the Soil Sector dealing with the development of Community policy on soil protection in the Agriculture, Forests and Soil Unit. She was for 4 years the Deputy Head of the Biodiversity Unit and was appointed Head of the Agriculture, Forests and Soil Unit in 2013, which became the Land Use & Management Unit in 2016. All these positions are held in the Directorate General for the Environment of the European Commission.

Marc Palahí is a leading expert on forests and global change, with a new vision of the transformational role forests can play in fighting climate change and developing a circular bioeconomy. He has been Director of the European Forest Institute since 2015, driving its development as a pan-European science-policy platform, and working to connect knowledge to action at the interface of science, policy and business. Marc has a PhD in forestry and economics and his work, which has featured in Nature and other high-level scientific journals, focuses on the development of a sustainable circular bioeconomy that prospers in harmony with Nature. Marc leads the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance established by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales under his Sustainable Markets Initiative.

José Pereira Palha has been Agricultural Manager of two family agricultural holdings, which specialize in cereals, oilseeds, and cattle, since 2000. He has been a Member of the Board of the CAP – Portuguese Farmers Confederation, since 2014 and is President of the Direction of ANPOC - National Association of Producers of Cereals, Oilseeds and Protein crops (since 2014). He is also a representative of the Cereals sector in several National and European institutions and is a regular speaker at seminars and events related to the cereals sector, farming, innovation and environment. He is author of several articles and publications on the sector of the Cereals, Farming, innovation, and environment José is an expert appointed by the CAP in the Working Group of COPA-COGECA and the Civil Agri- cultural Dialogue Group of DG Agri of the European Commission in Brussels since 2014. More information Facebook – jose.palha.39 LinkedIn – jose-palha-595a0129

Gunnar Palme is President of the Swedish Landowners' Association, which was founded in 1960, and is the umbrella organization for five regional landowners' associations. Gunnar holds a Bachelor of law at the University of Stockholm and is the former President and CEO, Assi Domän AB and Munksjö AB; Former Vice President, Atlas Copco Group and former CEO and Chairman, Finn Power Oy, Finland. He is a member of many boards and is an Academy Member of the Royal Swedish Land and Forest Academy.

Prior to his current function as President Global Crop Protection, Jon Parr was Chief Operating Officer EAME & Latin America from 2015 to 2016. Before that, he was Head of Global Crops & Assets for Syngenta from 2014, Regional Director for EAME from 2009 to 2013, Head of Syngenta Flowers from 2007 to 2008, Head of Marketing and Strategy from 2004 to 2007 and European Manufacturing Manager from 2000 to 2003. Before joining Syngenta, he worked at AstraZeneca: as a Factory Manager from 1998 to 2000, Global Product Manager Fungicides from 1996 to1998 and Supply Chain Project Manager from 1994 to 1996. From 1987 to 1994, he held project and engineering management functions at Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). Apart from his function in Syngenta, Jon Parr holds no other mandates in the supreme executive bodies of listed or non-listed companies. Jon Parr is currently serving as a member of the UK Government Investment Council. He is a Chartered Engineer and also holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in Civil Engineering from the University of Southampton, as well as a master’s degree in Management from the University of McGill, Canada, and a Diploma in International Management from the INSEAD Institute.

Ivan Paspaldzhiev is Senior Consultant at denkstatt – the leading sustainability consultancy in Central & Eastern Europe, headquartered in Vienna & with offices Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia, and a long-term partnership with German consultancy sustainable AG. Ivan leads denkstatt’s services for Natural & Social Capital management. As such, he helps companies understand and manage their impacts and dependencies on nature, the economy and society toward creating shared value. He has particular experience in projects for the retail & food & beverages sectors. Ivan’s work includes developing The Coca-Cola Company’s methodology for assessing the ecosystem service benefits of water replenishment projects, as well as multiple natural capital studies with leading wholesalers & retailers such as Metro AG. His wider experience includes topics such as life-cycle assessment & product sustainability, TCFD & climate strategy, as well as impact assessment of environmental policies (primarily for the European Commission). Prior to joining denkstatt, he worked on climate change model development for the UK Hadley Centre. He holds a degree in Ecological and Environmental Sciences from the University of Edinburgh, and is currently working toward a second degree in Big Data Analytics.

Born in 1991 and raised in Coimbra, Lídia Pereira graduated in Economics at the University of Coimbra and holds a Master’s degree in European Economic Studies from the College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium). She worked as a consultant in the financial sector. Since 2018, she serves as President of the Youth of the European People’s Party (YEPP). She was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2019. She is a Member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and a Substitute Member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. She is a Member of the Delegation for relations with the People’s Republic of China and the Delegation for relations with the United States.

She has been a MEP since 2019.

Ignacio currently works on different projects dealing with environmental and agricultural economics, mainly from the quantitative side. Including the issues of policy data analysis, result dissemination and team work management in the agri-environmental research are particularly attractive for Ignacio. Lately he has dedicated more and more time to the analysis of world grain markets

During his research period in Bonn (years 2001 to 2006), he was able to gain significant responsibility in project management and at the same time finish his Doctorate studies on Agricultural Economics, focusing his thesis work on climate change mitigation instruments. From 2007 to 2009, he worked as an economist in the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (Joint Research Center, European Commission) where he was strongly involved in the conceptualisation and implementation model networks for agricultural policy analysis. There he coordinated different projects, related to medium-term market developments in agriculture, biofuel economics, economic implications of the ‘health-check’ reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, compilation of large-scale databases and the analysis of greenhouse gases from agriculture.

Javier Peris studied Biological Sciences at the University of Valencia and continued there to complete his doctorate in Biodiversity and Conservation. In October 2014, Javier joined Syngenta Crop Protection Basel in the Global R&D Insect Control team. Since 2017, he is working on the Global R&D Disease Control team. Currently, Javier also assumes biodiversity responsibilities to investigate and preserve the biodiversity of agricultural landscapes. Javier is an active collaborator of several Natural History Museums and international research centres thanks to his experience in natural enemies and parasitoid wasps that have allowed him to receive the Swiss Entomological Society Award and the Natural Science Award University of Valencia.

Jean-Marc Peterschmitt is Managing Director for the Corporate Sector, Banking Department, leading the Bank's activities with corporate clients across all Countries of Operations, working with five Directors responsible for Manufacturing and Services, Food and Agribusiness, Real Estate, Telecommunications, Media and Technology, and Natural Resources sectors.

As Chief Operating Officer for the Client Services Group, Mr Peterschmitt supports the EBRD First Vice President in the design, execution and supervision of relevant managerial and business issues across the Client Services Group (Banking and Policy and Partnerships).

He joined the EBRD in London in 1992. He became Country Head for Bulgaria in 1998, based in Sofia, Director for the Western Balkans in 2001, before joining the Financial Institutions group as Director in 2004. In 2011, Mr Peterschmitt became Managing Director for Central and South-Eastern Europe, responsible for leading the Bank’s operations in 17 countries in this region. He took on the role of Managing Director for the Corporate Sector in 2016. In 2022 he also served as interim Managing Director for Corporate Strategy and member of the Executive Committee, responsible for formulating the Bank’s corporate strategy and leading on cross-departmental special initiatives.

Before joining the EBRD, Mr Peterschmitt worked at the French Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

A French national, Mr Peterschmitt has an Engineering Master’s degree from AgroParisTech and an MBA from INSEAD.

Dominik holds a BSc in Earth Sciences from TU Graz, Austria, and completed an MSc in "Forestry System Transformation" at the University of Sustainable Development in Eberswalde, Germany. His master's degree included a specialization in the ecosystem service provision of forests. At Skyseed, he is part of the sales team and serves as a project manager overseeing seeding and reforestation measures.

Galina Peycheva-Miteva is a Bulgarian land manager, landowner and activist. Galina studied Econometrics and Statistics in New York and graduated in 2005, when she joined the family farm. She started her active agricultural activity in 2007 by managing 1,650 ha of land. She was instrumental in creating the family vineyard, lavender fields and rose fields. She changed the direction of the family business towards crop diversity adding milk thistle, coriander, alfalfa, grass mixes, cotton and acacia to the traditional wheat, barley and sunflower. She changed the method of farming from conventional to minimum disturbance and has made numerous efforts to preserve and improve soil fertility, fight water and wind erosion and has in the process certified as biologic over 580 ha of arable land. She allocated 200 ha of her arable land to be converted to pasture grass land in order to ensure the sustainable long-term management of the land. For those efforts, she was awarded the prestigious Soil Award in Brussels, in 2017. She was named Business Woman of the Year for 2017 by the Agrobusiness Magazine of Bulgaria. She is a member of the Bulgarian Landowners Association, sits on the board of ELO and the Friends of the Countryside and is active in policy-making. She is the proud recipient of the Soil Award for 2017 and has been developing the family business towards a sustainable and regenerative future.

Alberto Piaggesi, Global Head of Biostimulant Research at Valagro, now part of Syngenta, is an experienced director of research and development with a solid working path in the chemical and agricultural industry and expertise in the biostimulants sector at a global level. He holds a PhD in Plant Physiology from Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna di Pisa.

Zeno Piatti grew up on his family farm in Lower Austria. After he graduated in Agriculture, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis at UCL – Louvain la Neuve and Corvinus University (2016) he started to take over his family farm and is now a second generation organic farmer. During takeover process of his farm he got elected to vice president of the Association of Austrian Land and Forest Owners (2018) and represents the agricultural interests of Austrian farmers. He co-founded the Austrian Agroforestry Association (2020) and works on a better legal framework for Agroforestry in Austria and the EU.

Within John Deere, Prof. Dr. Pickel manages research and development of advanced technology. Peter Pickel and his team lead all governmentally funded R&D activities in EU zone and external technology relationships. In 2019, Pickel became honorary professor at the University of Kaiserslautern.

Peter Pickel studied mechanical engineering with a focus on production technology at the Technical University of Berlin and holds a PhD from the same university. His PhD thesis focused on agricultural machinery. In 2000 (till 2010) he became a full tenured professor for agricultural engineering, communal machinery and environmental technologies at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (Saxony Anhalt, Germany) where he also was the dean of the Agricultural Faculty from 2003 to 2006. Peter Pickel is the chairman of the VDI Society Technologies of Life Sciences (VDI: German society of engineers). As an expert for agricultural engineering he has been a member of the Bioeconomy Panel of the European Commission from 2013 to 2015. Since 2009 he is a full member of the Club of Bologna (CoB). He has been being a member of management committee since 2016.

More information
Website – www.deere.com
LinkedIn – peter-pickel-188a22b2

Graduated in Law at the University of Bologna (IT), LL.M. in European Business Law at the University of Nijmegen (NL). Formerly a lawyer at the Milan Bar, for 20 years Marco has been dealing full-time with consumer protection, first in Altroconsumo, the most representative Italian consumers organization, as Head of External Relations and, more recently, from 2016 as Director of Public Affairs & Media Relations and Executive Board Member at Euroconsumers, the world’s leading consumer cluster in terms of innovative information, personalized services and defense of consumer’s rights, gathering five national consumer organizations, Test-Aankoop/Test-Achats (Belgium), Altroconsumo (Italy), DECOProteste (Portugal), OCU (Spain), Proteste (Brazil) and giving voice to a total of more than 1.5 million people. We work closely together with Consumers International to ensure consumers are safe, that markets are fair and benefit from honest relations with businesses and authorities. Our European member groups are also part of the umbrella network of BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation. Together we advocate for EU policies that benefit consumers in their daily lives. Marco is a communication and policy expert, a passionate user of the Internet and, above all, he believes in innovation as a lever for social, economic and democratic development. More information Website – www.euroconsumers.org Twitter – @pierani Twitter – @euroconsumers LinkedIn – @pierani LinkedIn – @company/euroconsumers

After graduating from the Lisbon Agronomy Institute, António Sevinate Pinto worked as the Marketing Director of Rhône-Poulenc Portugal for almost 20 years. After working as the General Director of Rhône-Poulenc Portugal and Member of the Strategy Committee of Rhône-Poulenc Europe, he founded LUSOSEM – a Portuguese Seed a Plant Protection Product company. In addition to this, António Sevinate Pinto was the founder and the first President of the Portuguese Crop Protection Association (ANIPLA). At the present, he accommodates his work in LUSOSEM with the role of a non-executive Director of AGROBEJA (Products for Agriculture and Animal Production), member of the board of GROQUIFAR (The Portuguese Chemical and Phytopharmaceutical wholesalers Association) and head of the board of ANSEME.

Johanna leads sustainability work in Stora Enso Wood Product division. Prior joining Stora Enso, Johanna has long career in sustainability in stock listed companies covering different industries. She holds master’s degree in environmental engineering.

Elisa is a journalist (graduate in Information Sciences at the University of Navarra). She is specialized in agriculture and has been working at a trade media paper called Europa Agraria for 15 years (eight of them leading this newspaper). She is focused on written press (on paper or online), and has also experience in television and radio, blogs and podcasts. Since 2013 she is a freelance professional working in the field of communication, collaborating with various companies and media groups of agriculture and food, and with experience in event facilitation. In July 2020, she was elected President of the Association of Agri-Food Journalists of Spain, APAE, and since 2017 she has been co-director of the postgraduate Expert Course in Agri-Food Communication (the only degree in this subject that exists in Spain).

Nicola Pochettino is director of the Environment and Natural Resources Department at the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Luxembourg, covering water, bioeconomy and circular economy. Prior to joining the EIB, he worked at the International Energy Agency in Paris and in various positions in the financial sector and the energy industry, both in Italy and the UK. Nicola is a CFA charterholder; he holds a master of science in nuclear engineering from the Polytechnic of Turin and a master's degree in economics and management of the energy and the environment.

Maelenn Poitrenaud is in charge of innovation and development for SEDE, Veolia subsidiaries dedicated to agronomical valorization (including composts, digestates, fertilizers, biosolids) and relationships with farmers. As an engineer she worked several years in research and innovation at Veolia to develop and optimize biological treatments of organic residues and to ensure safe and useful valorization of composts and other products of these processes. She has also managed for many years, with the French National Research Institut of Agronomy (INRA), a long term field trial dedicated to the study of composts. She is also in charge of coordinating the collaboration within Veolia with the FNSEA (French National Federation of Farmers' Unions - the majority trade union in the agricultural profession in France). This collaboration focuses on water uses and reuse and circular economy in agriculture.

Geneviève Pons was in charge of environmental and climate matters in Mr. Jacques Delors’ Cabinet during his last mandates as President of the European Commission (EC) (1991-1995). She is an Honorary Director of the EC where she held several management positions before becoming Director of the ILO’s Legal Service in 2013, and Director of the WWF’s European Office in 2015. From November 2017, she heads Europe Jacques Delors, the latest in the family of think tanks carrying on Jacques Delors’ European vision. She is a graduate from Sciences Po Paris, the Sorbonne, and ENA. Geneviève is considered by Politico as one of the most influential women in Brussels, notably in the field of environment. She is a member of the EU Mission: Restore our Ocean and Waters, chaired by Pascal Lamy. She is co-chair with Pascal Lamy of the Antarctica2020 coalition, which aims to protect vast marine areas around Antarctica. She is also co-chair with Sébastien Treyer (IDDRI) of Ifremer Stakeholders Committee. Geneviève Pons has published a series of papers, notably on trade and the environment. She is also Vice President of Transparency International Europe, and a member of the jury for the European Book Prize. Geneviève Pons is a Knight of the Legion of Honour. More information Website – www.institutdelors.eu/en/

Silviu Popovici became Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo Europe in August 2019. Prior to this assignment, he served as President, Europe Sub-Saharan Africa from September 2017 to March 2019 when he was named Chief Executive Officer, Europe Sub-Saharan Africa. He previously headed PepsiCo’s business in Russia, Ukraine and CIS (The Commonwealth of Independent States) for two years and prior to that, spent three years as president, PepsiCo Russia. He previously held senior leadership roles at Wimm-Bill-Dann, running both their beverage and dairy businesses. Prior to joining PepsiCo, Popovici held several general management positions with the Coca-Cola system in Eastern Europe.

Popovici has extensive experience in a number of areas, including sales, marketing, operations and general management, with global companies: Bristol-Myers Squibb and Coca-Cola HBC in Romania, Russia, and Ukraine.

Silviu holds a Bachelor in Physics and an MBA from the London Business School. He also completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School.

More information
Website – www.pepsico.com

Dr Janez Potočnik graduated from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. After a successful career starting in 1989 in Slovenia as a researcher at the Institute of Economic Research, Director of the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development (1994), he was appointed Head of the Negotiating Team for the Accession of Slovenia to the EU (1998). He was also Director of Government Office for European Affairs (2000), Minister Councillor at the Office of the Prime Minister (2001) and Minister responsible for European Affairs (2002). In 2004 he joined the European Commission, first as "shadow Commissioner for Enlargement and then as Commissioner responsible for Science and Research. In 2010 Dr Potočnik became Commissioner for Environment. His term ended in November 2014 and he was appointed as a Co-Chair of UN Environment International Resource Panel and was also appointed as a Chairman of The Forum for the Future of Agriculture and RISE Foundation and a Member of the European Policy Centre's Advisory Council. From April 2016 he is also the Partner in SYSTEMIQ. More information Twitter – @JanezPotocnik22 Facebook – potocnikjanez LinkedIn - janez-potocnik-872470a7

Full biography to follow soon. More information Twitter – @sophieprimas Facebook – sophie.primas

Alžběta Procházková, completed her MA studies at Charles University in Prague and her PhD studies at the University of South Bohemia. In her PhD thesis she focused on the importance of plants’ water and energy fluxes for microclimate and the surrounding ecosystems. With her main interest being eco-physiology of plants and role of vegetation in functioning of landscape in particular, she has dedicated herself to environmental coaching and agricultural landscape protection. Since 2021 she has worked for Čmelák, the Czech environmental NGO, focusing on lobbying for higher green ambitions for eco-schemes in the legislation process of the Czech Strategic plan of the CAP. In 2022 she joined in WWF Central and Eastern Europe, Prague.

Alexandre Tiedtke Quintanilha is a Portuguese scientist, former director of the Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular of the University of Porto and Professor at ICBAS - Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences. More information Website – www.parlamento.pt

Alain-Dominique Quintart is the Head of Government & Public Affairs EAME and the Head of Syngenta Brussels office. He joined the Brussels office in September 2007. He previously held senior management positions with Syngenta, Global Head for the worldwide Flowers Seeds activity, Country Head for Syngenta Crop Protection in Belgium and Portugal, Marketing Head in France and in Switzerland for the European Region. He started his career with Syngenta in 1991 in the UK as European Product Manager for Animal Health. Alain-Dominique Quintart has been involved in managing mergers and acquisitions, setting business strategies and ensuring their implementation and delivery. He has a Master of Science in Engineering from UCLouvain and an MBA from Insead.

Lesley is a researcher at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a progressive UK think tank. She is currently working on a major project developing policy responses to environmental breakdown. The launch report, ‘This Is A Crisis: Facing up to the age of environmental breakdown’, finds that mainstream political and policy debates have failed to recognise that human impacts on the environment have reached a critical stage, potentially eroding the conditions upon which socioeconomic stability is possible. Lesley holds an MSc in International Relations from the University of Edinburgh, and a BA in French and German from the University of Exeter.

With 20 years of experience across multiple venture-backed ag-tech companies, Anna joined Vestaron as President & CEO in April 2018 to help lead the transformation of Vestaron from the R&D phase of its development through its commercial phase.  Before Vestaron, Anna was founder and CEO of NexSteppe, a company focused on the development and commercialization of optimized crops for the biobased economy.  Prior to this, Anna led commercial and business development at Ceres, an agricultural biotechnology company.  Anna started her professional career at McKinsey & Co, focused on corporate strategy, assessment of new business initiatives, and business building in various technology sectors.  Anna holds a JD from Yale Law School and a Master’s Degree in Genetics from the University of Michigan.  In 2016, she was awarded BIO's Rosalind Franklin award for female leadership in industrial biotechnology.

Emily Rees is a Senior Fellow at ECIPE and Managing Director at Trade Strategies, a trade and regulatory advisory consultancy. A Franco-British national, Emily comes from an extensive career in trade policy and economic diplomacy, having led Brazil’s trade and investment agency relations with the European Union and served as Deputy Trade Attaché of France to Brazil. An economist by training, Emily’s expertise lies at the intersection of trade, sustainability and agriculture. Her areas of interest include “new generation” trade issues including animal welfare, anti-microbial resistance, environmental food standards and values in trade. A regular guest lecturer in international political economy, her analyses are regularly featured in European and Latin America media, including The Economist, Financial Times, BBC World Service, Valor Econômico, Globo Rural and Estado de São Paulo. More information Website – www.ecipe.org Twitter – @emilyrees_eu

As strategic lead in the Global Food & Energy Networks team, Martin strategically connects Rabobank with the world’s leading public and private institutions on food (system) and energy transition. His focus is the European Commission, he has a broad network in Brussels. In addition to Brussels, he is also internationally connected to the Food System transition. He is active in the working group for the FAO report The State of Food and Agriculture 2023 and 2024: Revealing the true cost of food to transform agrifood systems, and on secondment from Rabobank to the WBCSD on the COP28 Action Agenda Regenerative Landscapes. Currently also chairman of the Expert Group within the EACB (European Association of Cooperative Banks) focusing on the strategic dialogue on the future of agriculture initiated by Ursula von der Leyen.

The Global Food & Energy team focuses on driving the European and global big conversation around funding, finance and de-risking and regulatory frameworks. And, also action agendas around key solutions such as sustainable farming practices, food losses and waste reduction, smallholder farmer ecosystems, impact finance, (renewable energy) project finance and the True Value of Food incorporation in policy and business interventions. The team is focal point for a meaningful contribution of Rabobank to the global roadmap with key events (UN FSS, UNFCCC, UNGA etc.) and action agendas to help implement the 2030 SDG’s.

Lukas Reininger is a Project Manager and head of the internal timber expert group
at Werner Sobek AG in Stuttgart, Germany. He holds a M.Sc. in Civil Engineering
from the University of Stuttgart with a focus on Structural Engineering. Previously
he has been a Project Engineer at the mass timber specialist Eurban Ltd. in London,
United Kingdom (2015-2018). Between his bachelor and master studies he has
been a Freelance Structural Engineer at str.ucture GmbH in Stuttgart, Germany
(2013-2014).

As Director of Carbon Policy & Strategic Partnerships, Meredith Reisfield works across topic areas, including policy, science, demand, and supply, to bring agriculture to the forefront of solutions for climate change. A key component of her role at Indigo includes leading Indigo’s engagement with NGOs, policy, academic partners. Previously, Meredith worked in sustainability consulting at Quantis, leading sector teams advising clients across the food, apparel, and cosmetics industries. She holds a Masters in Sustainable Systems from the University of Michigan and a BA in Environment, Economics, and Politics from Claremont McKenna College.

Robert has worked all his 33-year career in Syngenta, starting as an environmental chemist in R&D, progressing through regulatory and marketing roles in the UK, Chile, Brazil, Italy and latterly as Managing Director of the Iberia (Spain & Portuguese) business before taking on his current role as Head of Business Sustainability for the EAME Region in Syngenta Crop Protection in January of this year. He has a thorough understanding of global agricultural trends & challenges and speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian fluently.

Robert is passionate about agriculture and working to ensure that farmers can sustainably produce the best quality food as well as providing stability for their families, communities & generations to come.

Robert lives in Madrid and is married with 2 children, his hobbies include reading, travel, food, wine & golf, as well as spending time with his family.

Anna Richert is Senior Expert of Sustainable Food at WWF Sweden. She has extensive knowledge of food system aspects such as supply chain sustainability, consumer information and sustainable agriculture. Her work includes mobilizing consumers, corporates and decisionmakers for sustainable food systems.

Giulia Riedo is currently working for the WWF EPO as Agriculture and Sustainable Food System Policy Officer. Previously she worked for the UNFAO, among others, on food production resilience and climate change adaptation.

Jeremy Rifkin is the bestselling author of 20 books on the impact of scientific and technological changes on the society. His vision of post carbon economy through a Third Industrial Revolution has been endorsed by the European Union, the United States as well as by several chiefs of state. Jeremy Rifkin is the President of the TIR Consulting Group LLC and a senior lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania.

Cliona is the Chief Executive Director of Foundation Earth that aims to drive systemic change across the agro-food sector. She has broad background in the environmental sector having worked as an environmental specialist for over 23 years, starting as an expert in Environmental Impact Assessment evaluating UK development plans for the county of Surrey and Network Rail Power Supply Upgrade initiative.

Further on in her career, Cliona worked closely with the European Commission, holding roles such as Chairperson of the Enterprise Europe Network Environment Sector Group, driving the uptake of resource efficiency and circular economy solutions for SMEs across Europe and as an expert with the DG RTD on advancing the circular economy, climate policy and innovation agenda as a member of the Circular Economy Expert Finance Group and the EU Coordination Group of the Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform.

Throughout her career and as the Head of Circular Economy at EIT Climate-KIC, Europe´s largest public-private innovation partnership on climate innovating, she has worked across Europe with public authorities to design, develop and deliver large scale, multi-sectorial plans for decarbonization and transition to low-carbon, circular technologies, processes, and plans. She worked very closely with the Government of Slovenia to develop a national circular economy transition plan across multiple industrial value chains, including the agriculture sector. In addition, Cliona is the leading circular economy expert Foundation COTEC, Spain´s leading innovation expert group and has served as an expert evaluator and judge of climate and circular economy initiatives.

Julia Riss is heading the REWE Group Brussels Office for EU Public Affairs since 2017. Before joining REWE Group, she worked for several years at a global communications agency.

Ms Riss holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics and Law from the University of Münster as well as an LL.M in European Law from Leiden University.

More information Website – www.rewe-group.com
Twitter – @juliaBXL
LinkedIn – julia-riss-30820573