2022 Annual Conference

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

Dr. Máximo Torero Cullen is the Chief Economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He joined the Organization in January 2019 as Assistant Director-General for the Economic and Social Development Department. Prior to joining FAO, he had been Executive Director at the World Bank Group since November 2016 and, before the Bank, Dr. Torero led the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). His major research work lies 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.

Dr. 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 (Peru) 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).

In 2000, Dr. Torero has received 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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Alberto Arroyo Schnell is Head of Policy and Programme at the European Regional Office of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He has held leading positions on EU environmental policy for the past 15 years, previously chairing the European Habitats Forum and working at WWF. His current focus is working together with the key sectors related to / impacted by / benefiting from biodiversity and nature, aiming to find ways to achieve the environmental targets jointly and to ensure ownership of these targets by all stakeholders. He has a background in Forestry Engineering.

More information
Website – www.iucn.org
Twitter – @IUCNBrussels
Facebook – iucnbrussels
LinkedIn – alberto-arroyo-schnel

Per Espen Stoknes is a TED Global speaker, a psychologist with PhD in economics, and serves as the director of Centre for Sustainability and Energy at the Norwegian Business School in Oslo. An experienced foresight facilitator and academic, he’s also serial entrepreneur, including co-founding clean-tech company GasPlas. Author of several books, among them Money & Soul (2009) and the award-winning book: What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming (2015). His latest book is Tomorrow’s Economy (2021) on MITPress. Per Espen has served as member of Norwegian Parliament, and on the EU Commission’s mission board on Horizon Europe’s Climate Change and Societal Adaptation. He has been a central contributor to the Club of Rome’s www.Earth4All.life project.

More information
Twitter – @estoknes
Facebook – estoknes
LinkedIn – per-espen-stoknes

Pavan Sukhdev is a scientist by education, an international banker by training, and an environmental economist by passion. Years of work in sustainability and the invisible economics of nature led to his appointment to head the United Nations’ “Green Economy Initiative” and to lead the G8+5 study TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity). He is also ex-President, WWF-International and UNEP Goodwill Ambassador. Pavan was awarded the McCluskey Fellowship (2011) by Yale University. At Yale, he taught a graduate course on TEEB and wrote his book “Corporation 2020-Transforming Business for Tomorrow’s World”. In this book, he advocates four changes in micro-policy and regulation which can rapidly transform today’s corporation to deliver tomorrow’s green and equitable “economy of permanence”. This led to his ongoing campaign (launched at Rio+20, 2012) on transforming business for tomorrow’s world. Pavan promotes tomorrow’s corporation, “Corporation 2020”, one with positive rather than negative externalities as the engine of tomorrow’s inclusive green economy. As founder and CEO of GIST, which delivers impact valuation and analytics, Pavan works with asset managers, C-suite executives and senior government officials on transition techniques, with an emphasis on metrics for sustainability. Pavan has served on the boards of Conservation International (CI), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), and on the TEEB Advisory Board and has won several awards for his work including the Blue Planet Prize (2016) and the Tyler Prize (2020). More information Website – www.gistimpact.com Twitter – @PavanSukhdev LinkedIn – avan-sukhdev-2780a614

Katrien has more than 17 years of experience in sustainable food systems. Throughout the years she has played an impactful role in building sustainable, healthy food systems. Before starting as a social entrepreneur since 2 years, she have been leading the sustainability team of a food retailer and has developed the food policy of the city of Ghent. The Ghent food policy has been rewarded with the Global Climate Action Award of the United Nations. She looks from a systemic approach at the food system and tackles the missing links: what is needed to further shift the food system towards a more sustainable, resilient food system? Katrien works on solutions related to local food and short food supply chains, food environments, access to food, food waste and circularity, monitoring, urban agriculture, etc. Let Us develops new solutions in partnership and collaboration with different types of stakeholders, both in the profit and non-profit sector.

More information
Website – www.letus.be
Twitter – @verbeke_katrien
Facebook – letuscocreatethefoodture
LinkedIn – Let Us

Heske Verburg is very passionate about a fair world with sustainable and inclusive supply chains. As Managing Director of Solidaridad Europe and member of the Executive Board of the global Solidaridad Network she strives for a world in which all we produce and consume can sustain us while respecting the planet, each other and the next generations. Solidaridad is an international organization present in 40 countries worldwide with a mission to enable farmers and workers to earn a decent income, shape their own future, and produce in balance with nature by working throughout the whole supply chain to make sustainability the norm.

Heske studied Management in International Organizations in Groningen and Grenoble, as well as Business Administration at the University of California at Berkeley. She began her career in the private sector, before working at UNICEF in various management positions. Before joining Solidaridad, Heske was Director at social enterprise Healthy Entrepreneurs, an organization which uses entrepreneurship to provide basic health care in remote areas. Heske is a Supervisory board member at the Netherlands Food Partnership, member of the Advisory board of the Environmental Sciences Group of Wageningen University and Research and a Worldconnector.

More information
Website – www.solidaridadnetwork.org
Twitter – solidaridadnetw
LinkedIn – heske-verburg-549536