2025 Growing agricultural resilience through innovative crop nutrition

Barry Cowen was elected in June 2024 to the European Parliament as an MEP for the Midlands North-West constituency. He now serves on the European Parliament’s Agriculture and International Trade committees where he focuses on securing better outcomes for farmers, advancing renewable energy and safeguarding Ireland’s pro-enterprise economy.

A native of county Offaly, Barry has over three decades of experience in public office, beginning as a local councillor and later serving as a member of Dáil Éireann from 2011 to 2024 where he represented the Laois-Offaly constituency.

During his time in national politics, Barry held several prominent roles within Fianna Fáil, including key spokesperson and Programme for Government negotiating team positions, as well as serving as Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in 2020.

Marilda is Senior Agriculture and Land-use Policy Officer at BirdLife Europe and Centra 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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Rachel Dolby has 17 years’ experience as a qualified solicitor specialising as a projects and infrastructure lawyer in private practice and in industry.

She trained at a leading international law firm before moving to a competitor firm to specialise in projects work before moving into industry in 2009, working for the investments division of a major contractor specialising in infrastructure projects.

Rachel joined the Woodsmith Project in 2016 as Senior Legal Counsel, working across a wide range of legal issues with a particular focus on construction and engineering contracts and project related legal issues, including land, permitting and safety matters.

Since 2020, Rachel has led the Crop Nutrients legal support function.

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.

Gijs Schilthuis is Director ‘Sustainability’ at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development since December 2024. Since 2008, he has worked in different capacities on agricultural policy reform in this Directorate-General, including as head of unit for Policy Perspectives from 2019-2024. He first joined the European Commission in 2005 at the Directorate-General for Health and Consumers. Prior to joining the Commission, he worked at the European Parliament as a parliamentary assistant. He earned a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Wageningen University in 2000. He is a Dutch national.

Mark joined SpiritsEUROPE as their Director-General in September 2025, having enjoyed a long career in the agri-food sector, principally at Syngenta where he held several senior leadership and executive level positions in corporate affairs and business sustainability in the EAME region and globally. After leaving Syngenta in 2017, Mark became the CEO of EngineeringUK before joining Indigo Ag, where he held a variety of different roles before becoming Head of Corporate Affairs and a Member of the Executive Team in 2024. Mark is a Co-founder and a former Director of the Forum for the Future of Agriculture. He is now a Member of the Forum’s Advisory Council and a Senior Fellow at the Transatlantic Policy Network.