2016 Vienna

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.

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.

Juan Gonzalez-Valero is Head Public Policy and Sustainability at Syngenta. He is integrating sustainability aspects into core business practice. He has shaped the company’s ‘Good Growth Plan’ and oversees its implementation and company performance against it.

He is lecturer in leadership skills at the University of St.-Gallen.

Prior to his current position, he served as Head of Ecological Risk Assessment, Head of Sustainable Use and Stewardship, and Head of Corporate Responsibility within Syngenta. Before joining Syngenta, he was Head Ecotoxicology at Novartis.

He served on the board of a number of non-forprofit organizations, among them the Fair Labor Association and the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

Dr. Gonzalez-Valero earned his PH.D in Biology, from the University of Hamburg with specialization in Ecology and Environmental Toxicology.

Tassos Haniotis is the Director of Strategy, Simplification and Policy Analysis in the Directorate General for Agriculture of the European Commission. 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 is currently a member of the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium Executive Committee. More information Twitter – @TassosHaniotis

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

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.

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).

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

Nikolaus Schauerhuber is an independent author of various cultural and music programs at ORF-Radio Ö1, auctioneer at Springer Auktionen and currently responsible for the construction of the vineyard Schloss Potzneusiedl.

Prior to his current position, he worked as a presenter and editor for ORF-Radio, Ö1 and as a manager and auctioneer of Kinsky-Kunstauktionen.

Mr. Schauerhuber studied history and history of art at the University of Vienna.

Hermann Schultes is President of the Austrian and Lower Austrian Chamber of Agriculture, Chairman of the Lower Austrian Farmers Association and member of the Austrian parliament. He is a farmer since 1972 and is running a family business together with his son.

Prior to his current position, he was President of the Austrian Beet Growers Association and Vice-President of the Austrian Chamber of Agriculture. He received several awards including the Decoration of Merit in Gold to the Republic of Austria.

He graduated at the Agricultural College Wieselburg.

Niels Treschow is the owner of Sannarp Estate and Executive Director of Sannarp AB, which runs the operations of the estate. He has been a board member, from 1998 to 2009 and 2013 to present, and director of agricultural committee, 2005 to present, of the Swedish Landowners’ Association.

From 1988 to 1990 he was sales director of administrative software for Management Science of America Inc. in Stockholm. From 1986 to 1987 he was a consultant at MSA Inc administrative software and before that, from 1983 to 1985, he worked for Ross Systems Inc. in New York and San Francisco.

Previously he has also worked for California & Hawaiian Sugar Company Inc. He has been a board member of the local district of Danske Bank since 2005 and is Chairman of the Board AB Jordberga Gård, Klagstorp, Sweden since 1998. He has a degree and MSc in Agriculture Resource Economics.