2025: Innovation, AI & Digitalisation

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jurgen Tack studied biology (marine ecology) at Brussels Free University where he also obtained his PhD in Sciences. Within the Framework of the Kenya Belgium Project in Marine Sciences (Coastal Farms Kenya) he developed a number of oyster farms along the Kenyan coast. In 2000 he joined the team of the Belgian Biodiversity Platform (Belgian Science Policy Office) where he was responsible for European and international science policy in the field of biodiversity and biodiversity related research. In 2007 he became the CEO of the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (a research organization under the umbrella of the Flemish Authority). In 2015 he became Secretary-General of the National Science Foundation (Flanders) In 2016 he took the position of Scientific Director at the European Landowners’ Organization (ELO), CEO at Landelijk Vlaanderen (Flemish Landowners’ Organisation) and CEO of the Aanspreekpunt Privaat Beheer Natuur en Bos (an advisory organ for private landowners on the management of nature and forest). In 2023 he became Secretary-General of the European Landowners Organisation (ELO). He coordinates several EU projects on private land conservation. On behalf of ELO he chairs the European Commission’s Large Carnivore Platform and acts as expert for the EU Biodiversity Platform and the EU Expert Group on Cultural Heritage.

Mark has enjoyed a long career in the agri-food sector having previously worked at the United Nations and for Syngenta where he held a number of senior leadership positions in corporate affairs and business sustainability in the EAME region and globally. After leaving Syngenta in 2017, Mark became Chief Executive of EngineeringUK, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to inspiring and nurturing STEM skills in young people. Mark later became Head of Marketing and Public Affairs for Indigo Agriculture Europe GmbH. Mark is a co-founder and senior adviser to the Forum for the Future of Agriculture and a Senior Fellow at the Transatlantic Policy Network.