Gene Alexander, PhD

Chief Technical Officer
Body Surface Translations, Inc.
@GeneAlexChapman

Gene Alexander, PhD, is the chief technical officer of Body Surface Translations, Inc. He holds a PhD in electrical engineering/computer science, has taught computer vision biomechanics in the department of mechanical engineering at Stanford University and entrepreneurship in the Argyros School of Business and Economics at Chapman University. Alexander has cofounded multiple successful companies in the medical device and human movement areas. His technical expertise is in complex optical/software/hardware system design for computer vision of human biomechanical activities. Alexander holds nine issued US patents and is a veteran of the United States Army.

William Asiko

Executive Director, Grow Africa
World Economic Forum
@WilliamAsiko
 

William Asiko is the executive director of Grow Africa. Based in South Africa, Grow Africa works to accelerate private sector investments in African agriculture. Prior to that, Asiko was the CEO of the Investment Climate Facility for Africa (ICF) an international organization based in Tanzania that works with African governments to help improve the enabling environment for business and commerce in their countries. Until his appointment as CEO of ICF in May 2013, Asiko was the president of The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation. His career with The Coca-Cola Company spanned nearly 20 years in varying roles of increasing responsibility starting in 1995 as in house corporate attorney in his home country, Kenya, and included tours of duty in the United States, Morocco, the United Kingdom, and South Africa.
 

Today, Grow Africa is working with over 200 domestic and international companies to actualize their investment commitments across 12 countries. Since 2012 nearly $10 billion has been committed by these companies and to-date over $2.3 billion of this amount has been invested in commercial activity in all 12 Grow Africa countries. Grow Africa is committed to increasing the rate of conversion of commitments into investments to over 50% of total commitments and to increasing commitments by at least $1 billion every year to 2020.

Nick Austin

Director, Agricultural Development
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
 

Nick Austin is director of agricultural development  within the Global Development Program at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In this role he leads the team that works to reduce poverty for millions of farming families in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia by increasing agricultural productivity in a sustainable way.

Austin joined the foundation in 2017. Previously, he was interim executive director, CGIAR, based in Montpellier, France, and prior to that served for seven years as CEO of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), where he was responsible for leading the centre’s effort to improve the incomes and livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the developing world. Austin has held senior executive roles for over a decade, was a member of the Portfolio Executive of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and served for seven years on the CGIAR Fund Council.

Austin holds a PhD in irrigation and water quality from the University of Melbourne, a master’s degree in sustainable management from the University of Sydney, and a bachelor’s of engineering in agriculture with honors (University of Melbourne). He is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has held a number of directorships on private and not for profit companies.

Kasey Bryant Bamberger

Partner/Manager, Bryant Agricultural Enterprise
Lead Farmer, Ohio, Farm Journal Foundation
 

Kasey Bamberger is a partner and manager at Bryant Agricultural Enterprise, a 14,500 acre farm located in south west Ohio. Bryant Ag's annual commodity production consists of corn, soybeans, and wheat. Bamberger is a third generation partner at Bryant Ag and the first female to join the family operation. Bryant Ag continuously strives to maximize operating efficiencies, while utilizing the most cutting edge technology, to help make the most precise environmental and economic decisions for optimal crop productions. Bamberger received her bachelors in business management from Wright State University.

Douglas Bereuter

President Emeritus, The Asia Foundation
Former Member, US House of Representatives, Nebraska
 

Douglas Bereuter is the president emeritus of The Asia Foundation, a nongovernmental development organization, which he led for more than six years following his service as a member of the US House of Representatives for 26 years. During his congressional career, he was a leading member of the House International Relations Committee, where he served as vice chairman for six years, chaired the Asia-Pacific Subcommittee and later the Europe Subcommittee, had long tenures on its subcommittees on Economic Policy and Trade and Human Rights, and was president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. He also served on the House Financial Services Committee for 23 years and on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, retiring as its vice chairman. Mr. Bereuter graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Nebraska and has two Masters degrees from Harvard University in both city planning and public administration. He served as an infantry and intelligence officer in the US Army, practiced and taught graduate courses in urban and regional planning, led various agencies and programs in Nebraska State Government, and served one four-year term as a Nebraska state senator. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the World Affairs Council of Northern California, and served six years on the State Department's International Security Advisory Board. He also serves on the boards of the Arbor Day Foundation and the Nebraska Community Foundation.

Catherine Bertini

Distinguished Fellow, Global Food and Agriculture
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
@C_A_Bertini

Catherine Bertini is distinguished fellow of global agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. For five years, she cochaired the Council's Global Food and Agriculture Program. She also chaired the Council's Girls in Rural Economies project as well as the Council's work on domestic agriculture.
 

Ms. Bertini is also a professor of public administration and international affairs at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.
 

She previously served as UN under secretary-general for management (2003-2005), UN security coordinator from late 2003 to 2005, and as executive director of the UN World Food Program (WFP), the world's largest international humanitarian agency (1992-2002).
 

For two years, Bertini was senior fellow, agricultural development, at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Before serving in the UN, she was USDA assistant secretary for food and consumer services, where she ran the nation's then $33 billion domestic food assistance programs. She was fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and policymaker in residence at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.
 

Ms. Bertini is the 2003 World Food Prize Laureate. She is a presidential appointee to the Board of International Food and Agricultural Development. In 2012, she served as a member of the Department of State’s Accountability Review Board on Benghazi.

Harsh Kumar Bhanwala

Chairman
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, India
 

Harsh Kumar Bhanwala is chairman of NABARD since December 18, 2013. He is a management graduate from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and also holds a doctorate in the field.

Established by an act of Indian Parliament in 1982, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is India's largest development financial institution with a balance sheet of $50 billion. NABARD is the first institution in India to be accredited as a National Implementing Entity by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) & Adaptation Fund Board of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Bhanwala has consistently espoused the cause of enhancing farmers' income through creation of agri & irrigation infrastructure. Under his chairmanship, NABARD is carrying out major institutional development initiatives. Over 200 rural co-operative banks, that serve the rural masses, have been brought under Core Banking Solution platform, enabling them to mainstream their services on par with commercial banks. Under his guidance, a program for the digitization of self-help groups (SHGs) aiming to cover eight million SHGs constituting 100 million households across the country is underway. Digitization of SHG accounts has brought about transparency, enhanced bankers’ comfort in credit appraisal and facilitated provision of hassle free credit & banking services to millions of poor households at their doorsteps. Bhanwala is guiding the implementation of an ambitious government sponsored multiyear, multistate irrigation scheme (LTIF) that envisages bringing 7.6 million hectares under irrigation, increasing net irrigated area of the country by 20%. During his tenure at the India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd. (IIFCL), he pioneered the 'Credit Enhancement Scheme' that took a holistic view of the credit needs of customers and ensured sufficient availability of funds to successfully complete the large infrastructure projects.
 

Bhanwala guides six national level institutions as a member of their boards including India's Federal Deposit Insurer (DICGC).

Alesha Black

Director, Global Food and Agriculture Prograrm
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
@GlobalAgDev


Alesha Black is the director the Global Food and Agriculture Program at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Black joined the Council from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she focused on the foundation’s strategic partnerships for agricultural development. She worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from 2007 to 2015, where she coordinated foundation partnerships with China, Brazil, and the United States, as well as UN agencies working to support smallholder farmers. Before that, she managed a portfolio of investments working to connect smallholder farmers to better market access opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa. Black also co-led important activities to link nutrition and agriculture programs at the foundation and contributed to numerous strategic projects at the beginning of the Agricultural Development program, including the first Gender Impact Strategy, initial impact measurement framework, and early foundation advocacy activities to raise the profile of smallholder agriculture.

Black received her bachelor’s in journalism and psychology from the University of Arizona and her master’s in international relations from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

Euler Bropleh

Founder & Managing Director
VestedWorld
@eulerbropleh

Euler Bropleh is the founder and a managing director at VestedWorld, a venture fund that invests in early stage companies poised to achieve significant growth in developing countries. Bropleh founded VestedWorld in 2014, envisioning a smarter, more effective model for spurring sustainable economic growth in underserved regions. Prior to starting VestedWorld, Bropleh was a corporate lawyer specializing in venture capital, private equity and merger, and acquisition transactions. Bropleh holds a JD from University of Chicago Law School, a graduate diploma in international strategy and economics from the University of St. Andrews (Scotland), and a BA in international studies from Emory University. Bropleh is a native of Liberia and has traveled extensively throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe. Bropleh is a member of the Council’s presidential transition plan task force.

Tim Brosnan

Chair
Small Foundation

Tim Brosnan is founder and executive chair of Small Foundation (SF), an Irish-registered charity. SF's vision is Africa permanently free from extreme poverty and chronic hunger by 2030. It supports initiatives that improve the relevant business ecosystems in rural sub-Saharan Africa by expanding the access of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to knowledge, skilled human resources, finance, technology, and markets.

He is cofounder and chair of Abbey Capital Ltd, a specialist investment manager in global managed futures. He is CEO and CIO of Cavendish Capital Ltd, the holding company for Abbey Capital and a trader in international futures markets.

John Castellaw

United States Marine Corps (Retired)
President
Farmspace Systems LLC

John “Glad” Castellaw is founder and chief executive officer of Farmspace Systems LLC., a provider of precision agricultural aerial (drone) services and equipment.
 

He graduated from the University of Tennessee, Martin (UTM) with a degree in agriculture and a commission in the Marines.  
 

For 36 years he led Marines around the world while flying more than two dozen different aircrafts. Castellaw participated in humanitarian operations in Africa, the former Soviet Union, and the Philippines; served with the United Nations (UN) during the Siege of Sarajevo; commanded the American forces in the multinational security operation in East Timor; and was the chief of staff of the US Central Command at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His last tours were in the Pentagon where he oversaw Marine Aviation and then the Marine Corps budget.
 

He returned to Tennessee in 2008 where he operates the family farm and sits as a director for the Bank of Crockett. In 2010 Castellaw founded and is the former president of the non-profit Crockett Policy Institute where he created the “SOLDIER 2 CIVILIAN” program to help veterans find jobs in precision agriculture.  
 

Castellaw, a recognized national security expert, is a member of the USGLC National Security Advisory Council, lectures on National Security at UTM, serves on several Washington, DC, based groups including the Nuclear Security Working Group (NSWG), the Iran Futures Group, the Climate Security Working Group (CSWG), and sits on the American Security Project (ASP) board of directors. He also consults with major defense firms and a Hollywood film company.
 

His honors, in addition to a number of military decorations, include membership in the UTM Army Reserve Officer Training Corps Hall of Fame, selection as the 1990 Marine Aviator of the Year, and as a recipient of the 2016 R. Clayton McWhorter Innovation Award given by the Ned Ray McWherter Institute. He was awarded the Order of Timor Leste (East Timor) by Prime Minister de Araujo for his service to that country.
 

Castellaw has provided commentary for various media outlets including the BBC, El Arabia, The Tennessean, The Commercial Appeal, The Knoxville News Sentinel, The Jackson Sun, and The Washington Times. He recently appeared in a National Geographic network series on climate change.

Jason Clay

Senior Vice President, Markets and Food
World Wildlife Fund

Jason Clay leads the Market Transformation work of WWF-US for agriculture, aquaculture, business and industry, finance, fisheries and forests. Over the course of his career he has worked on a family farm and in the US Department of Agriculture. He has taught at Harvard and Yale and spent more than 30 years with human rights and environmental organizations. In 1989, Clay invented Rainforest Marketing, one of the first fair-trade ecolabels in the United States, and was responsible for co-creating Rainforest Crunch and more than 200 other products with combined retail sales of $100 million. From 1999-2003, he codirected a consortium with WWF, World Bank, UN Food and Agriculture Organization and National Aquaculture Centres of Asia/Pacific to identify the most significant environmental and social impacts of shrimp aquaculture and analyze better management practices that measurably reduce them. Since then he has co-convened (with the IFC and others) multi-stakeholder roundtables of producers, investors, buyers, researchers and NGOs to identify and reduce the social and environmental impacts of such products as salmon, soy, sugarcane, cotton, and tilapia. Clay leads WWF’s efforts to work with private sector companies to improve their supply chain management, particularly with regard to ingredient sourcing as well as carbon and water impacts. He also leads WWF's efforts to transform entire sectors by improving their overall performance. He is the author of more than 15 books, 400 articles, and 700 invited presentations. His most recent books are World Aquaculture and the Environment, Exploring the Links between International Business and Poverty Reduction: A Case Study of Unilever in Indonesia, and World Agriculture and the Environment. In addition to his role at WWF, Dr. Clay is National Geographic's first ever Food and Agriculture Fellow. He also won the 2012 James Beard Award for his work on global food sustainability. Clay studied at Harvard University and the London School of Economics before receiving a PhD in anthropology and international agriculture from Cornell University. 

Ivo H. Daalder

President
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
@IvoHDaalder

Ivo H. Daalder has been president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs since July 2013. Prior to joining the Council, Daalder served as the Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for more than four years. Daalder also served on the National Security Council staff as director for European Affairs from 1995-97.

 
Ambassador Daalder is a widely-published author. His most recent books include In the Shadow of the Oval Office: Profiles of the National Security Advisers and the Presidents they Served—From JFK to George W. Bush (with I. M. Destler) and the award-winning America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy (with James M. Lindsay). Other books include Beyond Preemption: Force and Legitimacy in a Changing World (2007); Crescent of Crisis: US-European Strategy for the Greater Middle East(2006); and Winning Ugly: NATO’s War to Save Kosovo(2000). Daalder is a frequent contributor to the opinion pages of the world’s leading newspapers, and a regular commentator on international affairs on television and radio.

 
Before his appointment as ambassador to NATO by President Obama in 2009, Daalder was a senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, specializing in American foreign policy, European security and transatlantic relations, and national security affairs. Prior to joining Brookings in 1998, he was an associate professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy and director of research at its Center for International and Security Studies.

 
Ambassador Daalder serves on the board of UI LABS, on the leadership board of the chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and on the Advisory Committee of the Secretary of State's Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society, for which he also cochairs the Global Cities Working Group.

 
Ambassador Daalder was educated at Oxford and Georgetown Universities, and received his PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is married to Elisa D. Harris, and they have two sons.

Pablo Diego-Rosell

Senior Researcher
Gallup
@PDiegoRosell

Pablo Diego-Rosell is a Gallup senior social scientist with more than 12 years of professional research and evaluation experience in an international setting, with a focus on advanced design, analytics, and mixed methods research. Diego-Rosell has significant experience as an evaluator of USAID/Food for Peace food and agriculture programs in Guatemala, Haiti, Madagascar, Malawi, Nepal, Niger, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. He was also a lead evaluator for the Feed the Future program in Haiti. Diego-Rosell currently supports the FIES project for FAO and is involved in several initiatives led by Gallup to define and develop a comprehensive suite of diet quality indicators.

Bineta Diop

AUC Special Envoy on Women, Peace, and Security
African Union
@AUBinetaDiop

Mme Bineta Diop was appointed as special envoy of the chairperson of the African Union Commission on Women, Peace, and Security in January 2014. She is the founder and president of Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS), an international NGO that seeks to foster, strengthen and promote the leadership role of women in peace processes in Africa.
 

She has advocated for the rights of women on the continent for more than thirty years, contributing to the drive to achieve gender parity at the African Union Commission’s leadership, the adoption of the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa as well as the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

 
In 2014, Mme Diop cochaired the World Economic Forum on Africa. In 2011, she was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine. She has received many other awards including the Swiss Award.

Gebisa Ejeta

Distinguished Professor, Plant Breeding and Genetics and International Agriculture
Director, Center for Global Food Security
Purdue University
 

Gebisa Ejeta is distinguished professor of plant breeding and genetics and international agriculture and serves as executive director of the Center for Global Food Security at Purdue University. Professor Ejeta has been a member of the faculty of Purdue University since 1984. His career has been devoted to education, research, and international development with contributions in human and institutional capacity building, in technology development and transfer, and in advocacy for science in support of the cause of the poor. He has served in advisory roles to several international development agencies. He currently serves on the boards of the Global Food and Agriculture Program at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the National Academy of Sciences Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources (BANR), and the Global Crop Diversity Trust. Professor Ejeta is the 2009 World Food Prize Laureate and a recipient of a national medal of honor from the President of Ethiopia. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, the American Society of Agronomy, and the Crop Science Society of America. Professor Ejeta has served the United States Government in several capacities, including as special advisor to the USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah, as Science Envoy of the US State Department, and was appointed by President Obama as member of the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD) in 2010. He was more recently appointed by Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to the first UN Scientific Advisory Board.

Elisabeth Fischer

Head, Good Growth Plan Customer Marketing
Syngenta Corporation
@Elmafis

Elisabeth Fischer is the head of Good Growth Plan Customer Marketing, for Switzerland-based Syngenta Corporation. She leads a global team that supports the company’s business objectives through implementing an agricultural sustainability agenda and reports on progress towards the ambitious Good Growth Plan targets. She’s passionate about data-driven business solutions that improve smallholder livelihoods.

Fischer joined Syngenta as a public policy and sustainability manager in 2012, based at the company’s headquarters in Basel. In 2016, she relocated to Greensboro, NC, to build transparent and auditable reporting frameworks for farm sustainability. Fischer has a MA in Economics and a PhD in Agricultural Sciences. She grew up in Berlin, Germany.

Suzanne E. Fry

Director, Strategic Futures Group
National Intelligence Council
@odni_nic

Suzanne Fry is director of the Strategic Futures Group at the National Intelligence Council (NIC), where she is responsible for global issues and long-range analysis as well as the Global Trends series, the NIC’s flagship unclassified assessment of the future strategic landscape. The most recent report, Global Trends: Paradox of Progress, was published in January.

 
Prior to joining the NIC, Fry worked a range of governance, instability, and strategic warning issues worldwide and led the US Intelligence Community’s Political Instability Task Force. Fry received her PhD in politics from New York University and BA in government and international studies from the University of Notre Dame. She is originally from San Diego, CA.

Rikin Gandhi

CEO
Digital Green
@digitalgreenorg

Rikin Gandhi is CEO of Digital Green. His interests include sustainable agriculture and technology for socioeconomic development. He received a master's in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from MIT and a bachelor's in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. Gandhi is a licensed private pilot and received patents for linguistic search algorithms that he helped develop at Oracle. Gandhi ventured to rural India to start up a social enterprise to develop biofuels. He then joined Microsoft Research as a researcher in the Technology for Emerging Markets team that incubated Digital Green. Digital Green is now an independent, not-for-profit organization that works with more than 1.5 million farmers across South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, DFID, Google, and others.

Dan Glickman

Former US Secretary of Agriculture
Former Member, US House of Representatives, Kansas
Senior Fellow, The Bipartisan Policy Center
Vice President, The Aspen Institute
@DanRGlickman

Dan Glickman is a cochair of the Global Food and Agriculture Program at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He is vice president of The Aspen Institute and executive director of The Aspen Institute Congressional Program, which was established in 1983. Glickman also serves as a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center where he is cochair of its Democracy Project. He chairs the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, created in the 2014 Farm Bill to fund new and innovative research projects in the areas of food and agriculture. Prior to joining The Aspen Institute, Glickman served as US Secretary of Agriculture in the Clinton Administration. He also represented the 4th Congressional district of Kansas for 18 years in the US House of Representatives, where 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 the George Washington University. He is a member of the Kansas and District of Columbia Bars.

Jason Hafemeister

Acting Deputy Under Secretary
, Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services
US Department of Agriculture

Jason Hafemeister is the acting deputy under secretary for farm and foreign agricultural services at the Department of Agriculture (USDA). During the current transition he oversees USDA’s domestic farm and international programs. He has been involved in agricultural farm and trade policy for over 25 years, including almost 20 at USDA and the Office of the US Trade Representative. His responsibilities have included serving as the lead U.S. negotiator on agriculture in the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Doha Round negotiations, the Central America Free Trade Agreement, and China’s accession to the WTO. He also was part of the negotiating team for the Uruguay Round agreements on agriculture and sanitary and phytosanitary measures and has worked on WTO dispute settlement. In the private sector he spent 6 years working as a trade consultant helping clients with policy and market analysis and export promotion projects. Hafemeister grew up on California’s scenic central coast. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley, a master’s degree from the University of California at San Diego, and a law degree from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He is married with two small children. Before that, he used to enjoy reading and sport.

Krysta Harden

Vice President, Public Policy
Chief Sustainability Officer
DuPont Co.
@DuPontSpotlight

Krysta Harden is vice president of public policy and chief sustainability officer, joining DuPont in February 2016.

Most recently, she served as deputy secretary of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), where she helped to shape food and agriculture policy, including leading implementation of the 2014 Farm Bill. At USDA and throughout her career in agriculture, Harden has focused on growing the ranks of agriculture and expanding opportunity for women, young people, immigrants, socially disadvantaged producers, returning veterans and retirees. Prior to her service as deputy secretary, she held USDA leadership positions as chief of staff to the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and assistant secretary for Congressional Relations. Preceding her service at USDA, Harden spent five years as CEO of the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD), providing national leadership for natural resource conservation and representing thousands of conservation districts across the nation.

In addition to serving as CEO of the National Association of Conservation Districts, she also has worked with the American Soybean Association as senior vice president of Gordley Associates, where she concentrated on conservation and renewable energy issues. She also served 12 years on Capitol Hill, as staff director for the House subcommittee on Peanuts and Tobacco and as chief of staff and press secretary for former Congressman Charles Hatcher.

Harden received her BA in journalism from the University of Georgia.

Jim Hershey

Executive Director, WISHH
American Soybean Association
@jhersheywishh

Jim Hershey is the executive director of the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) at the American Soybean Association (ASA). This innovative program combines funds from US soybean farmers and federal contracts with staff and partner resources to strengthen agricultural value chains in emerging markets; this improves food security and fosters trade and long-term demand for soy. Hershey earned his BA in American Culture and a certificate in African Studies at Northwestern University. After two years in the Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa with the Peace Corps, Hershey attended the American Graduate School of International Management in Arizona, where he received his master’s in international management. Prior to building the WISHH Program, Hershey held other export development positions with the American Soybean Association and the USA Rice Council.

Aubrey Hruby

Cofounder
Africa Expert Network
@aubreyhruby

Astrid Jakobs de Pádua

Minister Counselor, Food and Agriculture
German Embassy Washington, DC

Astrid Jakobs de Pádua has been serving as minister counselor for food and agriculture at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Washington, DC, since 2014. She served in the Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture as an advisor for international fisheries policies (1992-1997), international relations with the Americas and Africa (2002-2006), and as a senior adviser for cabinet, parliament, and protocol issues (2006-2008). In 2008 she was promoted to head of division for food security in the German Agriculture Ministry. In 1995, she was posted for six month to the German Permanent Representation to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome and from 1998 to 2002 to the German Embassy in Buenos Aires with responsibility for Food and Agriculture. Jakobs has a degree in law.

Thomas Jayne

University Foundation Professor
Michigan State University
@jayne_thom

Thomas Jayne’s career has been devoted to working with African colleagues to respond to the region’s major agricultural policy challenges. Jayne is a university foundation professor of agricultural, food, and resource economics at Michigan State University, and codirector of the Alliance for African Partnership, a university-wide initiative to promote long-term partnerships between African research organizations, MSU and other international organizations. Jayne is also a distinguished fellow of the African Association of Agricultural Economists. He has mentored dozens of young African professionals and played a major role in building MSU’s partnerships with African agricultural policy research institutes, serving as codirector of several grants from USAID, DFID and the Gates Foundation focusing on building sustainable research capacity in Africa. Over the past decade, he has received six distinguished research excellence awards from various professional and academic organizations, including the 2009 Outstanding Article Award in Agricultural Economics.

Steve Johanns

CEO, Founder
Veriown
@VeriownCEO

Steve Johanns has over 20 years of experience in energy, infrastructure, and innovation. He is the founder and CEO of Veriown Global Holdings; a distributed generation and microgrid service provider with a focus on electrifying the 1.2 billion people without access to electricity and banking systems in India and Sub-Saharan Africa. Johanns leads a US and global team of experts in the development of renewable energy projects, as well as, advanced microgrid innovations using new block chain enabled fintech solutions for micro financing and micro energy transactions. He was the former chairman of the Illinois Science and Technology Institute. Johanns has also advised and presented to financial institutions, as well as, government and utility officials in Africa and India; showing the impact and opportunity created by the convergence of cleantech, fintech, and IoT to finance and get clean, renewable, reliable, electricity anywhere, anytime, for anyone.

Agnes Kalibata

President
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

As president of AGRA, Agnes Kalibata leads the organization’s efforts with public and private partners to ensure a food secure and prosperous Africa through rapid, sustainable agricultural growth, improving the productivity and livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers.

Prior to joining AGRA in September 2014, Kalibata was Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI). In this role, she was widely considered to be one of the most successful agriculture ministers in sub-Saharan Africa. Kalibata has held several other leadership positions, including permanent secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and deputy vice chancellor of the University of Rwanda. She also worked for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Uganda, and various other agricultural development organizations. She sits on various boards including the International Fertilizer Development Corporation (IFDC), the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), the Africa Risk Capacity, and is a member of the Global Agenda Council of the WEF.

Kalibata has a distinguished track record as an agricultural scientist, policy maker and thought leader. She holds a doctorate in entomology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. 

A.G. Kawamura

Cochair, Solutions from the Land

A.G. Kawamura is a third generation grower and shipper from Orange County, California. From 2003 to 2010 he was the secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.  He is cochair of Solutions From the Land, a nationally acclaimed nonprofit that is developing innovative and sustainable collaborations for 21st century agriculture. He serves on several boards and committees including the Ag Advisory Committee for the AGree Initiative; the Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources, a policy arm of the National Academy of Sciences’ Natural Resource Council; American Farmland Trust Board; Farm Foundation Round Table; and Western Growers Association Board. Kawamura serves on the boards of the Delta Vision Foundation and the Southern California Water Committee. For over 35 years Kawamura has pursued a lifelong goal to work towards an end to hunger and malnutrition. He has worked closely with Second Harvest and Orange County Food Banks to create exciting projects that address nutrition and hunger.  As a progressive urban farmer, Kawamura has a lifetime of experience working within the shrinking rural and urban boundaries of southern California. Through their company, Orange County Produce, LLC, he and his brother Matt are engaged in building an interactive, 21st century 100-acre agricultural showcase at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California.

Jake Kendall

Director, Digital Financial Services Innovation Lab
Caribou Digital    
@theDFSLab

Jake Kendall is the director of the Digital Financial Services Innovation Lab (DFS Lab) housed at Caribou Digital. The DFS Lab engages in seed stage investing and rapid prototyping of internally-generated ideas with the aim to create breakthrough fintech innovations that will profitably bring households in developing countries from the cash economy into the digital financial realm.

Formerly Kendall was deputy director of research and emerging technologies within the Financial Services for the Poor Team at the Gates Foundation where his team helped create the global data architecture for tracking financial inclusion and fund the critical research to inform the field.

Prior to joining the foundation, he spent time as an economist with the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) at the World Bank, in two start-ups in the field of cryptography, and a fisherman in Alaska.

Anne W. Kepple

Senior Consultant, Statistics Division
UN Food and Agriculture Organization

Anne W. Kepple is a senior consultant with the Statistics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). She holds a PhD in nutrition from Cornell University where she witnessed the seeds being planted for experience-based food security measures and studied the link between food security information and policy. Originally from the United States, she has been a permanent resident of Brazil since 1993 and worked as a consultant for FAO-Brazil and the Secretariat of Evaluation of the Brazilian Ministry of Social Development and Fight Against Hunger. Currently she is part of FAO´s Food Security and Nutrition Statistics team which is responsible for supporting countries as they gear up for monitoring Sustainable Development Goal target 2.1: End hunger and ensure access to food for all.

Niamh King

Vice President, Programs and Strategic Content
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
@kingniamh

Niamh King is the vice president for programs and strategic content at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, where she has worked since March 2007. Under her direction, the Council on Global Affairs’ Programs team organizes over 200 events annually, which convened more than 40,000 people in 2015, and includes the signature annual events the Chicago Forum on Global Cities, the Global Health Symposium, and the Global Food Security Symposium. Prior to joining the Council on Global Affairs, she held positions with Intel, the European Commission, FÁS, and the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. She is a member of the board of directors of The America Ireland Fund Chicago Regional Advisory Board, the Women’s Board of the University of Chicago, the Chicago Project on Security & Terrorism, and the Japan America Society of Chicago.  King earned a BA in international relations and history from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her MA in development studies from the Institute of Social Studies at Erasmus University in The Hague, Netherlands.

Katharine Kreis

Director, Strategic Initiatives
Lead, Nutrition Innovation
PATH

Katharine Kreis is the director of strategic initiatives at PATH, and is currently leading work in nutrition innovation. This group, which is an incubator within PATH, works on developing, testing, and bringing to scale new tools, technologies, and methodologies to help mitigate malnutrition in all its forms working across sectors and disciplines. Kreis has an extensive background in global health and international development and previously held the position of director, strategic programs, at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) where she was also part of the executive team. Prior to working at GAIN, Kreis led the nutrition team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She also served as a foreign service officer with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) working in a number of countries including Bolivia, Cambodia, Namibia, Ghana, and the Dominican Republic. She has worked for the International Medical Corps, and Catholic Relief Services, based in Africa. She also was a Peace Corps volunteer. She has held a number of positions on international advisory groups including the World Economic Forum, the Micronutrient Forum Steering Committee, and several WHO steering committees. She holds a master's of public health dual degree in international health and epidemiology from the University of Michigan.

Jesse Larios

Manager, Foster Feed Yard
Lead Farmer, California, Farm Journal Foundation

Jesse Larios is the manager at Foster Feed Yard, a 36,000-head capacity yard located in the Imperial Valley. He takes a lot of pride in working for a fourth generation family farm, with more than 64 years of experience raising beef in the desert southwest. His father and three uncles also enjoyed working at the farm for a combined 163 years (43, 44, 40, and 36 years respectively). His family emigrated from Mexico when he was an infant, and he experienced hunger growing up. Larios received his BS in agricultural economists from California State University at Fresno.

Josette Lewis

Associate Director, World Food Center
University of California-Davis
@UCDavisFood

Dr. Josette Lewis joined UC Davis in 2013 to launch the World Food Center. Prior to the World Food Center, she worked in international business development with Arcadia Biosciences. Before Arcadia, Lewis spent 16 years at the US Agency for International Development, in a variety of areas of agricultural research and development. As director of the Office of agriculture at USAID, she worked with senior levels of the administration to launch Feed the Future. Lewis served on the US Secretary of Agriculture’s advisory committee on Agricultural Biotechnology in the 21st Century, the Foundation for Agricultural Research’s Food Systems Innovation Advisory Committee, is a member of the board of directors for the International Life Sciences Institute Research Foundation, and is a member of the James Beard Foundation Impact Program Advisory Committee.

Edward Luce

Chief US Commentator and Columnist
Financial Times
@edwardgluce

Edward Luce is the chief US commentator and columnist for the Financial Times. He writes a weekly column on US politics, economy, and foreign policy. Previously, he served as the FT’s Washington bureau chief. He has also worked as the FT’s South Asia bureau chief in New Delhi, capital markets editor in London, and as the Philippines correspondent. Luce was previously the speechwriter for Lawrence H. Summers. He is the author of In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India, and Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent.

Andrew Mack

Principal
AMGlobal Consulting
@amackglobal and @amglobal

Andrew Mack is principal of AMGlobal Consulting, a specialized Washington, DC-based consulting firm that helps companies and NGOs do more business – and better business – in emerging markets.
 

Leveraging partnerships, technology, and social enterprise, Mack works to unlock the tremendous entrepreneurial energy in the Global South to achieve lasting business and social impact.
 

A former World Bank team leader and banker with experience in over 80 countries, Mack has worked with clients including Fortune 100 corporations, development banks and major NGOs, and is internationally recognized for his work on economic development and internet policy across the developing world with a special focus in Africa and Latin America. He has designed and implemented solutions in areas from road safety, and nutrition to emergency preparedness, ag effectiveness and more.
 

Mack holds a bachelor of arts magna cum laude from Amherst College and a master's degree in international economics from Johns Hopkins SAIS. He speaks and works in Spanish, French, and Portuguese.

John Dramani Mahama

Former President, Republic of Ghana
@JDMahama
 

John Dramani Mahama was the president of the Republic of Ghana from January 2013 to January 2017.
 

President Mahama had previously served as vice president of the Republic of Ghana under the late President John Evans Atta Mills. He took over the reins of government on the passing of President Mills on July 24, 2012, and assumed the role of head of state, head of government, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
 

Ghana, under President Mahama witnessed a massive infrastructure development drive that has solidly positioned the country for its next phase of development as a lower middle income country. At the end of his term in office, Mahama guided the country through a peaceful transition that demonstrated the strength and robustness of Ghana as a democratic example.
 

President Mahama attended the University of Ghana, Legon, where he received his bachelor of arts degree in 1981. He furthered his education by embarking on post graduate studies in communication also at the University of Ghana, in the School of communication studies, which he completed in 1986. His thirst for knowledge took him to Moscow, Russia, for a post graduate diploma in social psychology from the Institute of Social Sciences.
 

John Mahama is an avid reader, author and historian. Over the course of his career he has written for several newspapers and authored a number of publications. He published his first book, a memoir entitled, My First Coup D'etat and other true stories from the lost decades of Africa.

John M. Mandyck

Chief Sustainability Officer
United Technologies Corporation
@JohnMandyck

John Mandyck serves as chief sustainability officer for United Technologies Corporation. A global leader in the aerospace, food refrigeration and commercial building industries, United Technologies provides high-technology systems and services that move the world forward with well-known global brands such as Carrier, Otis, Pratt & Whitney and UTC Aerospace Systems.

Mandyck chairs the corporate advisory board of the World Green Building Council, and serves as chairman of the board of directors for the Urban Green Council in New York City. He is a member of the corporate council at the Harvard University Center for Health and the Global Environment. He is also on the adjunct faculty for the University of Connecticut School of Business. Mandyck is the coauthor of the book Food Foolish, which explores the hidden connection between food waste, hunger and climate change.

Throughout his career, Mandyck has worked with governments, universities and organizations around the globe to accelerate environmental sustainability in an increasingly urbanizing world. He blogs on sustainability issues on The Huffington Post.

Jerry Moran

Member, US Senate (R-KS)
@JerryMoran

Kansans first elected Jerry Moran to the United States Senate in 2010.


Senator Moran is as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and chairman of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee.
 

He also maintains roles on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and related agencies.
 

Prior to his election to the Senate in November 2010, Moran served Kansans in the “Big First” Congressional district for seven terms in the US House of Representatives, as well as eight years in the Kansas State Senate – spending the last two years as majority leader. As a senior member of the US House Agriculture Committee, then-Congressman Moran worked with colleagues to craft legislation that allowed Kansas farms and ranches to remain viable in today’s competitive global marketplace, and participated in the implementation of two Farm Bills. Moran was also an active member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, as well as the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee where he served as chairman of the Health Subcommittee.

Alaa Murabit

High-Level Commissioner, SDG Global Advocate
United Nations
@almmura

Alaa Murabit is a UN High-Level Commissioner for Health Employment and Economic Growth, one of only 17 Sustainable Development Goal Global Advocates appointed by the UN Secretary General and a MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow. She was recently named a 2017 “Forbes 30 Under 30”. Her TED Talk, “What my religion really says about women” was “TED Talk of the Day” and one of four “moving TED Talks to watch right now” by The New York Times.

At the age of 15 Murabit completed high school and moved from Saskatoon, Canada to Libya, where she completed medical school and driven by her desire to create inclusive processes and institutions, founded VLW in 2011 at the age of 21. With a strong focus on challenging societal and cultural norms and utilizing traditional and historical role models Murabit champions women’s participation in peace processes and conflict mediation. Her programs, such as the groundbreaking “Noor Campaign” have been replicated internationally.

Nicknamed “The Libyan Doogie Howser” by Jon Stewart and applauded for her innovative and inclusive approach to security, Murabit is a champion for inclusive peace processes, and acts as advisor to numerous international security boards, governments and organizations, serving as a board trustee for International Alert and Keeping Children Safe.

An Ashoka Fellow, Murabit is the youngest Marisa Bellisario International Humanitarian Award recipient, a New York Times “International Trust Women Hero 2014”, Newsweek’s “25 under 25 to watch”, a BBC “100 Top Woman”, and SAFE Global Hero.    

Wairimu Muthike

Head of Business Development
ACRE Africa

Wairimu Muthike is an experienced practitioner in the field of insurance products for sustainable agriculture in Africa, and is passionate about emerging markets and product development/adaptation. She was part of a core team that expanded ACRE Africa’s operations in Rwanda in 2012 and led the exercise for the Tanzania market in 2014.

Muthike has been with ACRE Africa; a pioneering company in the field of weather index insurance and specialist in agriculture insurance, since 2010. This has accorded her over six years of experience implementing and supporting farmer-driven, development focused index insurance products and processes to assist emerging markets, increase the productivity of smallholder farmers, and reduce climate risk threats.  Her current position fuses her passion for agriculture, education and gender inclusion.

Her strengths are in the development and implementation of participatory processes for outreach within rural communities leveraging on stakeholder involvement. 

Femi Oke

International Journalist and Moderator
NABJ
@FemiOke

Jehiel Oliver

Founder/CEO
Hello Tractor
@hellotractor

Lisa Palmer

Journalist and Author
Senior Fellow, National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center
@Lisa_Palmer

Lisa Palmer is a journalist and research fellow who has documented the science, environment, and social challenges of a changing global environment for over 17 years. She is the author of Hot, Hungry Planet: The Fight to Stop a Global Food Crisis in the Face of Climate Change (St. Martin’s Press; Forthcoming in May 2017). Her work has appeared in Nature, Nature Climate Change, Yale E360, The Guardian, Nautilus, The New York Times, Slate, Ensia, and many others. Palmer is presently a resident senior fellow at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center in Annapolis, Maryland. Previously, she was a public policy scholar at The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She lives in Maryland.

Rajul Pandya-Lorch

Chief of Staff, Director General’s Office
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Rajul Pandya-Lorch, a Kenyan citizen of Indian origin, has been chief of staff in the director general's office since 2005.
 

From 1998 to 2017, Pandya-Lorch served as head of IFPRI's 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture, and the Environment Initiative, a global initiative that seeks to identify solutions for meeting world food needs while reducing poverty and protecting the environment. She has facilitated five major international conferences on (1) “Building Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security,” in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on May 15-17, 2014; “Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health,” in New Delhi, India, on February 10-12, 2011; (3)“Taking Action for the World’s Poor and Hungry People,” in Beijing, China, on October 17-19, 2007; (4) “Assuring Food and Nutrition Security in Africa by 2020”, in Kampala, Uganda on April 1-3, 2004; and (5) “Sustainable Food Security for All by 2020,” in Bonn, Germany on September 4-6, 2001. Other major projects she has led include “Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development” that documents evidence on policies, programs, and investments in agricultural development that have significantly reduced hunger.
 

In recognition of her achievements, the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) presented Pandya-Lorch and David Spielman with its 2010 Quality of Communication Award for their work on Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development. She has also received the American Agricultural Economics Association’s 2002 award for Distinguished Policy Contribution, along with Per Pinstrup-Andersen and Mark Rosegrant. Pandya-Lorch earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Wellesley College and a master's degree in public and international affairs from Princeton University.

Jerry Parkes

CEO
Injaro Investments Limited

Jerry Parkes is the CEO of Injaro Investments Limited, manager of a $50 million fund focused on agricultural SMEs in Africa. Injaro is a member of the ImpactAssets 50 (2015), a list of the global top 50 impact investment managers.

Prior to Injaro, Parkes was a director at Knox D'Arcy Investment Management, a UK-based fund manager focusing on small to mid-sized companies. His previous experience also includes roles with Accenture, Merrill Lynch, UBS, and Technoserve.

He holds a MEng in electronic and electrical engineering from the University of Manchester and an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Martin Parr

Programme Manager, GODAN Secretariat
Head of Open Data, CABI
@parr2_parr

Head of Open Data at CABI and programme manager for the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative (GODAN) Secretariat. Close to 20 years’ experience in international development, the role of ICTs in development, and research communications approaches.

Rhiannan Price

Senior Manager, Seeing a Better World Program
DigitalGlobe
@rhiprice and @DigitalGlobe

As the senior manager of the Seeing a Better World Program at DigitalGlobe, Rhiannan Price works with global development partners worldwide to support their initiatives with geospatial data and technologies. This encompasses work in global health, food & nutrition security, environmental sustainability, human rights as well as other sectors. Prior to joining DigitalGlobe, she worked for several years in data management for international agriculture and has lived in Uganda, Tanzania, and Dominica. Price has an MA in international human rights from the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies and a BA in philosophy, politics, and the public as well as French from Xavier University.

Natalia Pshenichnaya

Head, mNutrition, GSMA
 

Natalia Pshenichnaya is the head of the GSMA mNutrition, comprising of mHealth and mAgri programmes. She is overseeing the portfolio of projects across Africa and Asia as well as investment decisions and implementation support to operator members and partners.

She has been working on mobile solutions for rural since 2010, mostly overseeing implementation of mobile agriculture services across Asia and Africa. Pshenichnaya is leading on GSMA’s research in mobile agriculture space and has published variety of resources for the agriculture development practitioners. Prior to working with GSMA, Pshenichnaya has worked with a mobile operator MegaFon in Russia specialising in VAS development and marketing.

She holds an MBA from the University of Oxford and MS in economics from the University of St. Petersburg, Russia.

Khaoula Ramdi

Investment Director
Investisseurs et Partenaires

Khaoula is an investment director at Investisseurs et Partenaires (I&P), a French impact investor investing in SMEs in sub-Saharan Africa since 2002. Before joining I&P, Ramdi worked at Sarona, an impact-oriented fund of fund based in Canada. She previously worked in the private equity sector in Morocco and started her professional career at Ernst & Young Paris. Ramdi graduated from Dauphine University Paris and from ISCAE Casablanca.

Sarah Richardson

Founder, Chief Scientific Officer
Ignition Genomics
@thegermwrangler

Sarah Richardson hails from west Baltimore. She earned a BS in biology from the University of Maryland in 2004 and a PhD in human genetics and molecular biology from Johns Hopkins University in 2011. She specializes in the design of genomes: as a distinguished postdoctoral fellow of genomics at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory she worked on massive scale synthetic biology projects and the integration of computational genomics with experimental genomics, and as chief scientific officer of Ignition Genomics she leads the construction of genetic toolkits for non-model prokaryotes. All of which is to say that she uses DNA to teach bacteria to do tricks on command. Trained in both computational and molecular biology, she has a unique perspective on the emerging technologies fostered by synthetic biology.

David T. Ruchiu

Africa Director
Farm Concern International
@farmconcern

David T. Ruchiu is the Africa Director at Farm Concern International (FCI) since 2010. He is based in Nairobi and oversees the African FCI portfolio besides being the chief technical advisor on Agricultural Finance & Rural Economics at FCI.

Previously, Ruchiu worked as the executive director/CEO and founder for Vision Fund Micro Finance Company in Kenya. He too worked for World Vision in Kenya as the economic development advisor having previously been a team leader & micro credit specialist with the United Nations in Kenya.

Ruchiu studied his graduate and post-graduate studies in agri-economics and entrepreneurship both in Kenya and away. He has extensive experience, exposure and training from African, European, and Asian countries. He has numerous civic responsibilities and sits in various boards in the Eastern Africa Region.

Sunil Sanghvi

Senior Partner
Director, McKinsey Center for Agricultural Transformation and Food Security
McKinsey & Company, Inc.

 

Sunil Sanghvi is the leader of McKinsey’s Center for Agricultural Transformation and Food Security (MCAF), and former leader of its global agriculture practice. He serves clients on a wide range of strategy, organization, and operational projects.

Sanghvi first joined McKinsey in 1986, served for a year at the World Bank in 1991-2, and then rejoined McKinsey.

Recently, Sanghvi’s primary focus is on economic development and agricultural projects for governments and foundations. Examples of his work include guiding a leading foundation on its strategy and grant-making approaches for smallholder agriculture, and supporting three African governments on end-to-end agricultural transformations.

Sanghvi was also the lead McKinsey adviser for the creation of the “New Vision for Agriculture Roadmap,” prepared for the World Economic Forum.

Sanghvi serves on the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid for USAID (United States Agency for International Development).

Sharon Schmickle

Independent Journalist
@SharonSchmickle

Sharon Schmickle has worked as a journalism coach in five African countries, focusing on coverage of small-scale agriculture, under the projects Biosciences for Farming in Africa and SmartVillages. She also collaborated with Tanzanian journalists in a project supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Their agricultural coverage ran in the Washington Post, The Des Moines Register, Changamoto newspaper (Swahili) and ORS Community Radio (Maasai). As Washington correspondent and international correspondent for the Minneapolis Star Tribune she won numerous national awards including Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1996. She also reported for the news site MinnPost. 

Dan Schmitz

Regional Head Nutrition R&D and Scientific Affairs, Americas
Global Head of Product Development
Abbott       
 

Dan Schmitz is responsible for R&D for the United States, Canada, and Latin America as well as global head of product development for Abbott's nutrition business. He is a member of the board of directors of AOAC (Assoc. Official Analytical Chemists). He was a principal in the creation of the Stakeholder Panel for Infant Formula and Adult Nutritionals (SPIFAN) which is driving modern global standard test methods. He is a fellow of the Food Systems Leadership Institute and was recently profiled in the book It-Factor Leadership for his role in establishing a malnutrition factory in Haiti. In 2014 he was profiled in Fortune as a “Heroes of the 500." Schmitz is active in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Partnership Training Institute Network (PTIN) and has been a strong contributor to food safety capacity building throughout the region. Schmitz has published extensively in the area of nutritional analysis.

Liz Schrayer

President and CEO
US Global Leadership Coalition

Liz Schrayer serves as president and CEO of the US Global Leadership Coalition, a broad-based network of over 500 businesses and NGOs that advocates for strong US global leadership through development and diplomacy alongside defense. Under Schrayer’s leadership, the USGLC has grown to a nationwide network of advocates in all 50 states and boasts a bipartisan advisory council, chaired by General Colin Powell which includes every living former Secretary of State, and a National Security Advisory Council consisting of nearly 200 retired three and four-star generals and admirals.
 

Over the last two years, Schrayer led the USGLC’s 2016 election engagement efforts throughout the country, briefing nearly all of the presidential candidates and campaigns, the transition teams, and more than 160 Congressional candidates on the importance of America’s civilian tools, including why promoting food security is so critical to advancing US interests throughout the world. Prior to starting the USGLC two decades ago, Schrayer served as the national political director of AIPAC.

Matt Shakhovskoy

Executive Director
Initiative for Smallholder Finance
 

Matt Shakhovskoy is the executive director of the Initiative for Smallholder Finance, a multi-donor effort designed to demonstrate how specific products and services can expand the reach of financing for smallholder farmers. Over the past ten years Shakhovskoy has worked in the areas of private equity and development advisory for a number of leading organizations including Agis Investments, Dalberg, and Deloitte. Over this time Shakhovskoy has been involved in over 60 projects in 25 countries working with partners such as the Gates Foundation, the World Bank, USAID, MTN, and the G8.
 

Shakhovskoy holds a MSc in sustainable development from the University of London and bachelor’s of business and economics from the University of Queensland.

Ambassador Daniel V. Speckhard

President and CEO
Lutheran World Relief
@LuthWorldRelief

A former US ambassador to Greece and Belarus, Speckhard has had a long and distinguished career in in the public and private sector in service to his country and communities.

He is currently the president and CEO of Lutheran World Relief, an international development and relief organization working in over 30 developing countries to reduce poverty, alleviate suffering, and promote justice.  An innovator and transformational leader, Ambassador Speckhard has led the development of public private partnerships with corporations, foundations, governments, and local communities to break the cycle of poverty for tens of thousands of subsistence farmers living in extreme poverty.  Last year the organization was highlighted by the top consumer rating organization as one of five best charities for your donations for international relief and development.

For the last five years, Ambassador Speckhard has also been a non-resident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution global economy and development program.  Prior to joining LWR, Speckhard was a senior advisor to Palantir Technologies, a Silicon Valley company at the forefront of using technology to drive innovative change across the government, commercial, and nonprofit sector, and was also a consultant to businesses interested in international markets and development.

During his nearly three decades in public service, Ambassador Speckhard spent 13 years overseas building a deep understanding of the complex world we live in.  This included serving for two years apart from his family in Iraq as the deputy chief of mission and head of reconstruction, working to end the conflict and rebuild the war-torn country.  Prior to that he was a senior official at NATO where he led the directorate responsible for strengthening peace in Europe by bringing seven new members into the Alliance and managing the relationship with Russia. During this time he was awarded the NATO Service Medal for his contribution to peacebuilding in the Balkans.

During his time at the State Department, Speckhard was deeply involved in relations with Russia and the new independent states of the former Soviet Union, becoming an expert in the challenges faced by countries undertaking fundamental economic transitions. He served as deputy to the ambassador-at-large for the region and went on to serve as ambassador to Belarus where he was a strong voice for democracy, human rights and freedom in a country struggling under an authoritarian regime.  Ambassador Speckhard finished his public service as ambassador to Greece, deeply involved in engaging the country during its economic crisis and working to promote stability in the region.

Speckhard has a master’s degree in economics, a master’s degree in public policy and administration, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and started his career in government as a Presidential Management Fellow.

Anna Swaithes

Corporate Sustainability Adviser
@annaswaithes

Anna Swaithes has spent the past decade working in corporate sustainability, and is currently working as an independent adviser. Until November 2016, Swaithes was sustainable development director for SABMiller plc, leading its Prosper strategy globally - to enable category and brand growth, drive operational efficiency and license to operate, and deliver positive impact for society. She joined SABMiller as head of water and food security policy, and led global sustainable agriculture strategy for two years prior to taking on the broader sustainable development portfolio. She was a board member of the WEF New Vision for Agriculture. Prior to joining SABMiller, Swaithes was head of development, Cocoa Partnership at Kraft Foods. She led the multi-stakeholder Cadbury Cocoa Partnership from its establishment in 2008 until 2012, including developing a groundbreaking community-centered partnership in Ghana with the Ghanaian government, UNDP, NGOs and commercial partners, and designing Kraft Foods’ sustainable cocoa strategy. From 2001 to 2007, Swaithes was a strategy consultant, leading projects in the food and drink, automotive, and logistics sectors.

Roger Thurow

Senior Fellow, Global Food and Agriculture
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
@RogerThurow

Roger Thurow joined the Chicago Council on Global Affairs as senior fellow on global food and agriculture in January 2010 after three decades at The Wall Street Journal. For 20 years, he was a foreign correspondent based in Europe and Africa. His coverage of global affairs spanned the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the release of Nelson Mandela, the end of apartheid, the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and the humanitarian crises of the first decade of this century–along with 10 Olympic Games.

In 2003, he and Journal colleague Scott Kilman wrote a series of stories on famine in Africa that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting. Their reporting on humanitarian and development issues was also honored by the United Nations. Thurow and Kilman are authors of the book ENOUGH: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty. In 2009, they were awarded Action Against Hunger’s Humanitarian Award. He is also the author of The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change, and his most recent book, The First 1,000 Days: A Crucial Time for Mothers and Children—and the World, was published in May 2016.

Thurow is an expert on agricultural development and speaks often on high-visibility platforms related to nutrition, hunger, and agriculture in the United States, Europe, and Africa. In 2013, he spoke about the power smallholder farmers in Africa at TedxChange Seattle event, hosted by Melinda Gates. Thurow graduated from the University of Iowa. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife Anne, and their two children, Brian and Aishling.

The Council is grateful to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for providing core support of Roger Thurow's work. The Council also thanks the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and Kelly and Jim McShane for their generous support.

Mark Titterington

Global Head, Corporate Affairs
Syngenta Corporation

Prior to his current role, Mark Titterington was the head of corporate affairs for Syngenta in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. His departmental responsibilities extend from government relations to product and farm stewardship and food chain engagement. Since joining Syngenta he has been part of the team which championed sustainable agriculture and is a founding director of the Brussels-based Forum for the Future of Agriculture. He is also a former adviser at the United Nations where he worked on agriculture trade issues.Mark Titterington is global head of corporate affairs for Syngenta and a member of the Syngenta Executive Team. Prior to his current role, Titterington was the head of corporate affairs for Syngenta in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. His departmental responsibilities extend from government relations to product and farm stewardship and food chain engagement. Since joining Syngenta he has been part of the team which championed sustainable agriculture, and he was a member of the original team to develop the Syngenta Good Growth Plan. Titterington is a founding director of the Brussels-based Forum for the Future of Agriculture and a member of the Transatlantic Policy Network’s Business Advisory Panel. He is also a former adviser at the United Nations where he worked on agriculture trade issues.

Titterington holds a BA in politics and economics and an MA in international relations from the University of Birmingham.

Ann M. Veneman

Former Executive Director, UN Children’s Fund
Former United States Secretary of Agriculture

Ann M. Veneman has a distinguished career in public service, serving as the executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) from 2005 to 2010 and as the United States Secretary of Agriculture from 2001 to 2005. Veneman’s leadership and vision has been recognized both nationally and internationally.  In 2009 she was named to the Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women list, and she has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors.
 

At UNICEF Veneman directed a staff of over 11,000 in more than 150 countries around the world. She worked to support child health and nutrition; quality basic education for all; access to clean water and sanitation; and the protection of children and women from violence, exploitation, and HIV/AIDS. She traveled to more than 70 countries to review the plight of children; to witness the devastation caused by natural disaster, conflict, disease, and exploitation; and to advance programs aimed at improving and saving lives.
 

As secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Veneman directed one of most diverse federal agencies with a budget of $113 billion and 110,000 employees.  She also served as secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture from 1995 to 1999, overseeing the state agency responsible for nation’s largest agricultural producing region.  From 1986 to 1993, she served in various positions in the USDA, including deputy secretary, deputy undersecretary for international affairs, and associate administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service. At USDA, Veneman advanced an expanded trade agenda, food protection, progressive farm policy, responsible forest policy, and stronger nutrition programs.  
 

Veneman currently serves on the boards of directors for Alexion and Nestlé SA. Alexion is a global biopharmaceutical company that combines groundbreaking science with a steadfast commitment to meeting the needs of patients living with severe, life-threatening, and often ultra-rare diseases. Nestlé is the world's leading nutrition, health, and wellness company, providing consumers a wide range of food and beverage products.   

 
Veneman is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and The Trilateral Commission. She is a frequent speaker on a range of topics including poverty alleviation, empowering women and girls, food security and nutrition, and global health.
 

Throughout her career Veneman has served on a number of advisory councils, committees, and non-profit boards, particularly those involving higher education. Currently she is on the boards of the National 4-H Council, the Global Innovative Health Technology Fund and Landesa. She is also a cochair of the Bipartisan Policy Center initiative on Obesity and Physical Activity and on the Bipartisan Policy Center Commission on Political Reform. She serves on the advisory boards of BRAC, The FEED Project, Pencils of Promise, Roosevelt House, Terra Vesco, the Global Food and Agriculture Program at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Omega Women’s Leadership Center, Living Goods, Runa Tea, Aloha, and Driptech. In 2012 she served as a fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy.  
 

A lawyer by training, Veneman has practiced law in both California and in Washington, DC. Early in her career, she was a deputy public defender. Veneman holds a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, Davis; a master’s degree in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley; and a juris doctor degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She has been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from several universities and colleges.

Devry Boughner Vorwerk

Corporate Vice President, Corporate Affairs
Cargill
@Cargill

Devry Boughner Vorwerk serves as corporate vice president, global corporate affairs for Cargill, where she oversees the company's global branding, communications, corporate responsibility and government relations efforts.
 

Spanning a tenure of nearly 12 years, Vorwerk led Cargill’s global government relations activities in Washington and corporate affairs for Latin America, which included management and oversight of government relations, communications, and corporate responsibility across the region; and, separately, served as director of Cargill's international business relations, specialized in its Asia Pacific trade and investment portfolio, which included short assignments living in India and China.
 

Prior to joining Cargill, Vorwerk worked at the US International Trade Commission in the Office of Industries and as economic advisor to the chairman. She also served as senior economist in agricultural affairs at the Office of the US Trade Representative, which is part of the executive office of the president.
 

Vorwerk holds a dual degree in agricultural economics and managerial economics from the University of California, Davis. She also holds a master's of science in agricultural economics, with a specialization in public policy and international trade, from Cornell University.

William Warshauer

President and CEO
TechnoServe

William Warshauer is the president and CEO of TechnoServe, a nonprofit that works with enterprising people in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses, and industries. In his leadership role, Warshauer is responsible for overall progress toward the achievement of TechnoServe's mission.

Warshauer brings more than 25 years of experience in international development and the private sector to his position. He launched his career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone and has since worked in over 40 developing countries. Prior to joining TechnoServe, Warshauer served as CEO of Pact, Inc. and president of the Pact Global Microfinance Fund, executive vice president for health and development solutions with Voxiva Inc., and executive vice president at PSI.

Margaret M. Zeigler

Executive Director
Global Harvest Initiative
@Harvest2050_MZ and @Harvest2050

Margaret Zeigler is the executive director of the Global Harvest Initiative (GHI), a collaborative private-sector voice that advances sustainable agriculture solutions for meeting the world’s growing demand for food, feed, fiber and fuel. GHI proposes policies that enhance global agricultural productivity while conserving natural resources and mitigating climate change. She coauthors the annual Global Agricultural Productivity Report® (GAP Report®) launched each year at the World Food Prize. She is a leader in the international agriculture and food security arena and works in cooperation with United Nations agencies, NGO’s, US government and the OECD, regional development institutions, foundations and the private sector. Dr. Zeigler holds a PhD and MA in geography and international development studies and is a regular media contributor.