Kunlé Adeyemi

Founder/Principal
NLÉ
@NLEWORKS

 

Kunlé Adeyemi is an architect, designer, and urban researcher. He is the founder/principal of NLÉ, an architecture, design, and urbanism practice he founded in 2010 which focuses on developing cities and communities. Adeyemi’s notable works include Makoko Floating School, an innovative prototype floating structure located on the lagoon heart of Lagos. This acclaimed project is part of an extensive research project African Water Cities developed by NLÉ. Before founding NLÉ, Adeyemi worked for OMA, where he led the design, development, and execution of high profile projects such as the Shenzhen Stock Exchange tower in China, the Qatar National Library, and the Prada Transformer in Seoul. Adeyemi is an international speaker and thought leader serving as jurors for the 2014 AIA award and 2016 RIBA international Prize. Adeyemi is also a 2017 Aga Khan Design Critic in Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He holds an honorary doctorate degree in Architecture from Hasselt University, Belgium.

Joy Basu

Food and Agriculture Lead
The Rise Fund (TPG)
 

Joy Basu is the Rise Fund’s impact sector lead for food and agriculture. Prior to joining TPG, Basu was a consultant at McKinsey & Company. While there, she focused on agricultural development, working with businesses, development banks, and foundations to improve agricultural productivity in emerging markets. Basu served as project manager to the World Economic Forum’s New Vision for Agriculture, a collaboration amongst multinational companies to improve the social, environmental, and economic impact delivered by the private-sector. Basu also worked for the Agricultural Transformation Agency in Addis Ababa, a special-delivery unit focused on better enabling the agricultural sector as a driver of economic growth and social opportunity. Basu earned a JD and MBA from Stanford University with a certificate in public management and social innovation.

Douglas Bereuter

Former Member
United States House of Representatives (R-NE)

Douglas Bereuter is president emeritus of the Asia Foundation, a nongovernmental development organization he led for more than six years following his 26-year service as a member of the US House of Representatives. 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. He served as an infantry and intelligence officer in the US Army and served one four-year term as Nebraska state senator. Bereuter has a master’s degrees from Harvard University in both city planning and public administration.

Catherine Bertini

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

Catherine Bertini is a distinguished fellow of global food and agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. She also chairs the Council’s Girls in Rural Economies projects.

For five years, she cochaired the Council’s Global Food and Agriculture program, and she cochaired the Council’s work on domestic agriculture during two Farm Bill seasons.

Previously, she was executive director of the United Nations World Food Program (1992 to 2002), the world’s largest international humanitarian agency. She was awarded the World Food Prize (WFP) in 2003 for her groundbreaking work with WFP. She served as UN Under Secretary General for Management and as the UN Security Coordinator (2003 to 2005). She taught graduate students at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and the Ford School at the University of Michigan, and was a fellow at the Kennedy School at Harvard University. Bertini served in the US government as USDA assistant secretary for food and consumer services, nominated by President George H.W. Bush, as director of the office of family assistance at DHHS, and as an appointee of both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama to the board of International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD). She was part of the early agriculture team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Currently, she is a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow.
 

Alesha Black

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


Alesha Black is the director of 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 partnership 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 MA in international relations from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

Helena Bottemiller Evich

Reporter, Food and Agriculture
POLITICO
@HarvestPlus

Helena Bottemiller Evich is a senior food and agriculture reporter for POLITICO Pro. Before joining POLITICO, she spent four years reporting on food politics and policy at Food Safety News, where she covered Congress, the Food and Drug Administration and the US Department of Agriculture. Bottemiller Evich’s work has also appeared in the Columbia Journalism Review and on NBC News. Her reporting has taken her to the Louisiana coast during the Gulf oil spill, Arizona lettuce fields, North Carolina hog farms, and the occasional presidential turkey pardoning. A native of Washington state and an alumna of Claremont McKenna College, she now lives in Washington, DC, with her husband.

Howdy Bouis

Interim CEO
HarvestPlus
@HarvestPlus

Howarth “Howdy” Bouis is the founder and interim CEO of HarvestPlus. He was awarded the 2016 World Food Prize for his pioneering work that helped take biofortification from an idea in the 1990’s to today when over 26 million households benefit from biofortified crops globally. Bouis received his BA in economics from Stanford University and his MA and PhD from Stanford University's Food Research Institute.

Reuben E. Brigety II

Dean, Elliott School of International Affairs
George Washington University
@RealDeanB

Reuben E. Brigety has served as dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University (GW) since October 2015. Prior to joining GW, Brigety served as representative of the United States to the African Union and permanent representative of the United States to the UN Economic Commission of Africa. From December 2009 to November 2011, Ambassador Brigety served as deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of African Affairs and as deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. Prior to that, Brigety served as a senior advisor for development and security to the US Central Command Assessment Team in Washington, DC and in Doha, Qatar. A 1995 distinguished midshipman graduate of the US Naval Academy, Brigety earned his MPhil and PhD in international relations from the University of Cambridge.

Robert Burnet

CEO
Well Told Story
@robburnet

 

Rob Burnet is CEO of Well Told Story, a two-time Emmy Award-winning media research and production company based in Kenya and Tanzania that uses insight, data, and multi-platform media to create social and economic value. Well Told Story’s flagship youth media brand Shujaaz reaches over six million young people across Kenya and Tanzania. Rooted in research-driven content and delivered at huge scale across analogue and interactive digital channels, Shujaaz generates informed new national discourse, norm and behavior change in health, governance, and livelihoods. Its impact is tracked and monitored through rigorous academic study. Burnet has been based in East Africa for more than 20 years. Before founding Well Told Story in 2009, he worked as a program officer with the Ford Foundation, a public interest television producer, and a curator of contemporary art.

Ariane Campbell

Associate Program Manager, Youth Livelihoods
Mastercard Foundation
@MastercardFdn

Ariane Campbell is an associate program manager with the Youth Livelihoods team at the Mastercard Foundation. Since joining in 2014, she has supported several projects focused on youth employment and entrepreneurship in agriculture. Campbell was also a co-organizer of the Foundation’s 2017 Young Africa Works Summit which focused on youth driving agricultural transformation in Africa. She previously worked in international education for six years teaching and then working in recruitment. Campbell holds a BA in international development from the University of Guelph and an MA in immigration and settlement studies from Ryerson University.

Margaret Catley-Carlson

Board of Directors
Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture


Margaret Catley-Carlson has served for over 20+ years on multiple boards of organizations with a focus on improved water resource management, agricultural productivity, and rural development. She currently serves as PAC chair of the International Commission on Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), vice chair Canadian Water Network Board. Catley-Carlson is also a member of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Development, International Fertilizer Development Council, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and Thinker in Residence for Belgian Academy of Sciences. She has also served as chair for the Global Water Partnership and was a member of the Council of Advisors of the World Food Prize, Library of Alexandria in Egypt, and the Robert Daughterly Institute on Water for Food. Catley-Carlson has ten honorary degrees and is an Officer of the Order of Canada.
 

Jessica Francisca Colaço

Director of Growth
Brave Venture Labs
@JessicaColaco

Jessica Francisca Colaço is a TED fellow and cofounder of Brave Venture Labs. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Brave is a talent sourcing company which focuses on building talent pipelines of people for full-time tech roles in emerging cities across Africa. Colaço cofounded iHub with Erik Hersman in 2010 and served in various leadership positions including director of partnerships and community and founding manager. In 2014, Colaço served as the ACM-W Nairobi chapter chair and was part of the Department of International Development’s Digital Advisory Panel team as a member and advisor in 2015. Colaço currently serves a Blackbox Connect ambassador and advisor to the Switch Point Conference. She was named one of the top 40 women under 40 years in Kenya’s business scene by Business Daily on 2009, 2011 and 2012. Colaço holds a BS in computer science from the School of Computing and Informatics at the University of Nairobi.
 

Bob Corker

US Senator (R-TN)
Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
@SenBobCorker

Bob Corker is in his second term as US senator for Tennessee and serves as chairman of the foreign relations committee. He is also an active member of the banking committee and the budget committee. Corker was Tennessee’s commissioner of finance and mayor of Chattanooga before being elected to the Senate in 2006, but he spent most of his life in business. It’s that results-driven businessman’s perspective that allowed him to make a mark early in his Senate tenure and become a pragmatic thought leader on fiscal, financial, and foreign relations issues. As an advocate for using limited foreign aid dollars more efficiently to advance US interests, Senator Corker has led efforts to modernize emergency food assistance programs in a way that will eliminate waste and inefficiencies to help more people in need.

Ertharin Cousin

Frank E. and Arthur W. Payne Distinguished Lecturer and Visiting Fellow
Center on Food Security and the Environment, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University

Distinguished Fellow, Global Food and Agriculture
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
@Ertharin1

Ertharin Cousin is a distinguished fellow, global food and agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. She previously served as executive director of the World Food Programme from 2012 until 2017. In 2009, Cousin was nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate as the US ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome. In this role, Cousin served as the US representative for all food, agriculture, and nutrition-related issues. Cousin helped identify and catalyze US government investment in food security and nutrition activities supported by the USAID Feed the Future program. A Chicago native, Cousin is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago; the University of Georgia Law School, and the University of Chicago Executive Management Finance for Non-Financial Executives program.

Ivo H. Daalder

President
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
@IvoHDaalder
 

Ivo H. Daalder is president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He served as the US ambassador to NATO from 2009-2013. Prior to his appointment as ambassador to NATO, 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. Before 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. He also served as director for European affairs on President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council staff from 1995 to 1997. Ambassador Daalder was educated at the universities of Kent, Oxford, and Georgetown, and received his PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
 

Mitchell Davis

Executive Vice President
James Beard Foundation
@kitchensense


Mitchell Davis is the executive vice president of the James Beard Foundation (JBF), a cookbook author, and a food journalist. With the Beard Foundation for almost 25 years, Davis has created and overseen many of the organization’s initiatives, including the annual JBF Food Summit on sustainability and public health and the JBF Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership fellowship. In 2013, Davis led the team to create the USA Pavilion at the World Expo Milano 2015 for the US Department of State. In addition to his work at JBF, he holds a chair on the academy of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants ranking program, is the author of five cookbooks, and holds a PhD in food studies from New York University.

Fabrice De Clerck

Science Director
EAT
@fadeclerck

Caitlin Dewey

Food Policy Writer, Wonkblog
The Washington Post

Kelsey Ducheneaux

Youth Programs Coordinator
Intertribal Agriculture Council

Kelsey Ducheneaux is the fourth-generation farmer on her family ranch on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation and works with the nonprofit organization, Project H3LP!, to give back to her community. Coupled with her passion for engaging the next generation of leaders, the training and mentorship she received from the Gates Millennium Scholarship Program led her to the Intertribal Agriculture Council. Under Ducheneaux’s guidance, youth programming has expanded to encompass scholarship preparation while delivering detailed curriculum supporting the sustainable development of agriculture systems to improve Indian Country. In just three years, Ducheneaux worked with over 500 youth from more than 150 tribal nations. They are now leading movements in their own communities while shaping agriculture and food policy on a national level.

Zippy Duvall

President
American Farm Bureau Federation
@ZippyDuvall

Zippy Duvall is a third-generation farmer from Georgia. He has served as president of the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) since January 2016. Prior to being elected AFBF president, Duvall served for nine years as president of the Georgia Farm Bureau. Duvall’s long leadership history in his home state includes service on the Georgia Farm Bureau Young Farmers Committee and Georgia Farm Bureau board of directors. Duvall was also recognized with several state appointments, including then-Georgia governor Sonny Perdue’s agricultural advisory committee and the Georgia Development Authority. Duvall’s service on the AFBF board of directors included roles on the Trade Advisory Committee, including several international trade missions, and on the Finance Committee. In 2017, Duvall was honored by the National 4-H Council as one of the founding luminaries, an exclusive group of accomplished and influential 4-H alumni.

Donna Etiebet

Head of Corporate Finance
Babban Gona
@deetiebet

Donna Etiebet is a dedicated finance professional with over a decade of experience in both the investment banking and asset management industries. She is well versed in generating successful investment ideas supported with qualitative analysis and quantitative databases, and dealing on complex transactions with no margin for error. Prior to joining Babban Gona, Etiebet worked for the UK Institutional team at State Street Global Advisors, the third largest asset manager globally. Prior to this role, she worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch for 5 years. In addition to her professional financial experiences, she pursued an international rowing career with the GB Rowing Team, qualifying the Women's Eight for the Rio Olympics and culminating in a gold World Championship medal in 2016. Etiebet holds an MA in biological anthropology from Cambridge University.

Rikin Gandhi

CEO
Digital Green

Dan Glickman

Former Secretary
US Department of Agriculture

Asha Gomez

Chef and Cookbook Author
@ashagomez

Asha Gomez is an award-winning chef and a published author. Gomez has been showcased in feature stories in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Conde-Nast Traveler, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Her recipes have appeared in Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Country Living, and Garden & Gun. In January 2012, Gomez launched Cardamom Hill Restaurant in Atlanta which became an instant success. The restaurant was named one of Bon Appetit’s 2012’s "50 Best New Restaurants" and was on the 2013 James Beard "Semi-Finalist List of 20 Best New Restaurants." In the summer of 2013, Gomez opened a new culinary event studio called “The Third Space”. Gomez is the author of the cookbook My Two Souths which was published in fall 2016. The book received rave reviews and won the Piglet Award for best cookbook. Gomez’s advocacy work includes serving as CARE Global Ambassador and working with the James Beard Advocacy Network.

Christine Gould

Founder & CEO
Thought For Food
@tffchallenge

Christine Gould is the founder and CEO of the Thought for Food Foundation (TFF), an organization that engages and empowers the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators tackling food and nutrition security. TFF catalyzes, supports, and funds new companies that are built by millennials around the world. Working in partnership with major corporations, accelerators, and donors, TFF has built a movement of over 8,000 youth in over 130 countries and has helped create 37 impact-oriented startups that address food production, distribution, consumption, and waste through science, technology and business model breakthroughs. The annual TFF Global Summit brings together interdisciplinary leaders from science, art, entrepreneurship, policy, and design to cocreate future solutions. Gould holds an MPA with a concentration in science and technology policy from Columbia University. She sits on the Boards of Young Professionals in Ag Development and the Association for Vertical Farming and was selected as a founding member of the Ashoka League of Intrapreneurs.

Caleb Harper

Director and Principal Investigator
OpenAg Initiative, MIT Media Lab
@medialab

Caleb Harper is the principal investigator and director of the Open Agriculture (OpenAg) Initiative at the MIT Media Lab. He leads a diverse group of engineers, architects, and scientists in the exploration and development of the future food systems. His research focuses on control environment design, actuated sensing, control automation, and data-driven resource, energy, and biologic optimization. Harper is a National Geographic Explorer and a member of the World Economic Forum New Vision for Agriculture Transformation Leaders Network. His work has been featured by TIME, WIRED, The Economist, and TED. Prior to joining the Media Lab, Harper worked as an architect designing and developing data centers and semi-conductor fabrication facilities. Additionally, he has consulted with international development agencies including USAID, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and the Delhi Development Authority on high-density urban development projects.

Tanja Havemann

Director and Founder
Clarmondial

Tanja Havemann is the director and founder of Clarmondial, an independent advisory company that focuses on practical, profitable, and creative solutions for social and environmental businesses and their funders. The company delivers tailored advice, including investment structuring, strategy, and business development support. Clarmondial has played leading roles in developing innovative new financing initiatives for sustainable natural resource management, such as the Food Securities Fund and the Agrobiodiversity Index. Havemann previously worked in an investments role at a leading green asset manager. She has degrees in environmental law and policy from the University of Kent, applied environmental economics from Imperial College London, and tropical environmental science from the University of Aberdeen. Havemann holds Danish and Swiss citizenship and was born and raised in Tanzania and Kenya.

David Hong

Global Policy Manager
One Acre Fund
@OneAcreFund

David Hong leads global policy strategy and engagement at One Acre Fund, a nonprofit social enterprise that supplies smallholder farmers with the tools and financing they need to grow their way out of hunger and poverty. Previously, Hong analyzed donor agricultural policies at the ONE Campaign and consulted on private sector agriculture investments at Oxfam America. He holds a master’s degree in international development and policy analysis from New York University and a bachelor’s degree in business administration and economics from the University of Delaware.
 

Sarah Hunter

Directory of Public Policy at X
The Moonshot Factory

Sarah Hunter heads up the public policy and government relations team for X (formerly Google X) based in Mountain View, California. X’s mission is to build and launch innovative new technology products to help make the world a radically better place. Some of X’s most well-known products include Waymo (self-driving cars), Project Wing (drones), and Project Loon (bringing internet access to remote places using stratospheric balloons). Hunter and her team work with governments and regulators around the world to build their knowledge of new technology and the role of policy and regulation in enabling it to grow. Prior to coming to California, Hunter ran Google's United Kingdom policy team for four years. She served as senior policy adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair in Downing Street for five years and built her policy expertise by working within the broadcasting and media sector for companies such as the BBC and Channel 4.
 

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 Programs team organizes over 200 events annually. This includes signature annual events such as the Chicago Forum on Global Cities, the Global Health and Development Symposium, and the Global Food Security Symposium. Prior to joining the Council, she held positions with Intel, the European Commission, FÁS, and the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. King 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 & Threats, and the Japan America Society of Chicago. She earned a BA in international relations and history from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an MA in development studies from the Institute of Social Studies at Erasmus University in The Hague, Netherlands.

Katharine Kreis

Director of Strategic Initiatives and International Development
PATH

Katharine Kreis is the director of strategic initiatives at PATH and is currently leading work in nutrition innovation. 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, and the Dominican Republic. Kreis 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.

Gawain Kripke

Policy Director
Oxfam America
@niawag2011

Gawain Kripke is the director of policy and research at Oxfam America and has more than 20 years of experience working in public policy and advocacy. He oversees Oxfam's policy and deep engagement on a range of issues relevant to ending poverty and promoting international development, including the effectiveness of foreign aid, climate change impacts, trade and agriculture, humanitarian response, refugees, and migration. Kripke has authored Oxfam papers on food security, food aid, and international trade. He is a frequent commentator on foreign aid, human rights, humanitarian issues, and agricultural policies in major news media, including The New York Times, CNN, NPR, BBC World News, and Marketplace. He has testified before Congressional committees on US trade policy, US food security policy, and US biofuels policy. Before joining Oxfam, he served as director of economic programs for the environmental organization Friends of the Earth. Kripke earned a BA in government from Harvard College.

Linda Kwamboka

Cofounder and Director
M-Farm

Linda Kwamboka is helping smallholder farmers move into commercial farming by leveraging available mobile technology in order to provide needed real-time information and incentivize collective action. Through M-Farm’s technology platform, farmers are linked to markets and access an ecosystem of knowledge exchange, aggregation, and opportunity spotting that shifts them into productive commercial farming. This creates a path out of poverty for these farmers and enables them to meet the growing demands for produce across the region, particularly in urban areas. Pioneered in Kenya, M-Farm is an award-winning platform. As an entrepreneur, Kwamboka has great interest in research and product development through Human Centered Design, as evident in her involvement with the Strathmore iLabAfrica research lab where she is involved in nurturing and mentoring ideas into commercialization. This lab works on concepts such as the Internet of Things in support of agriculture, de-risking, and feeding urban populations. Kwamboka holds a BA in business information technology from Strathmore University.

David Lane

President
The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands

David Lane is president of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands. Over the course of his career, he has been a leader in both nonprofit and governmental sectors, including serving as US representative to the United Nations Agencies in Rome from 2012 until 2016. From 2007 until 2011, Ambassador Lane served as president and CEO of the ONE Campaign, a global advocacy organization focused on extreme poverty, especially issues of global health, economic development, and effective governance. Prior to that, Lane founded and managed the east coast office of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he shaped and executed the foundation’s strategy and approach to advocacy in areas like global health, poverty alleviation, and education reform. Ambassador Lane holds a BA in political and social thought from the University of Virginia and an MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Ben Lovett

Founding Member,
Mumford & Sons

Cofounder,
Communion Music

Ben Lovett is a founding member of Mumford & Sons and has now enjoyed nearly a decade in one of the globe’s most successful bands. He has shared most of that time by forming, nurturing, and developing a renowned independent record label and live music promotions company, Communion Music, on both sides of the Atlantic. Lovett is both an entrepreneur and a musician, working as much in the background as he does from the stage. That ethos of communion and community are integral to much of what he does, and that extends to his ongoing association with social action platform Global Citizen. Their tireless work in fighting to bring an end to mass poverty through the power and movement of people is something we should all be supportive of.

Mercy Lung’aho

Head of Nutrition in Africa, International Center for Tropical Agriculture
CIAT
@CIAT_

Mercy Lung’aho is a research scientist for the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) with expertise in nutrition-sensitive agricultural programming. Her research includes a landmark study documenting evidence that eating beans biofortified with iron can reduce iron deficiency in women of reproductive age. Lung’aho’s current work is on a nutrition early warning system based on innovative machine learning algorithms that will alert decision-makers to nutrition threats ahead of a crisis. The project also focuses on providing options for nutrition interventions and resilience building in national and regional food systems. Lung’aho received her PhD in food science and international nutrition from Cornell University.

Ted McKinney

Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs
US Department of Agriculture
@USDA

Ted McKinney serves as the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) under secretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs. Under Secretary McKinney leads the development and implementation of the Department’s trade policy, oversees and facilitates foreign market access, and promotes opportunities for US agriculture through various trade programs and high-level government negotiations. In 2014, McKinney was appointed by then-Governor Mike Pence to serve as director of the Indiana state department of agriculture, a position he held until joining USDA in 2017. His career also included 19 years with Dow AgroSciences and 14 years with Elanco, a subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company, where he was director of global corporate affairs. His industry and civic involvement has included service on the National FFA convention local organizing committee, Indiana state fair commission, and Purdue college of agriculture dean’s advisory council, as well as on the boards of directors of the International Food Information Council, the US Meat Export Federation, and International Federation of Animal Health.

Trent McKnight

Founder
AgriCorps
@trent_mcknight

Trent McKnight is the founder of AgriCorps, a nonprofit organization that connects young American agriculture professionals to capacity-building efforts for school-based agricultural education in developing countries. A lifelong rancher and businessman, McKnight has served as national president of the Future Farmers of America, an agriculture advisor to the US Military in Iraq, and an agricultural economist to the United Nations in West Africa. McKnight also worked as an agriculture researcher for the Borlaug Institute of International Agriculture and as a chairman of the USDA Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Committee. In 2013, he founded AgriCorps. McKnight holds a BS and an MS in agricultural economics and comparative politics from Oklahoma State University and the London School of Economics.

Gouri Mirpuri

Cofounder
The Learning Farm

Gouri Mirpuri is passionate about social entrepreneurship, youth empowerment, and environmental sustainability. She has combined these interests in The Learning Farm, a unique residential farm outside Jakarta which teaches organic agriculture and entrepreneurial skills to vulnerable youth in Indonesia. Today, ten years later, this award-winning farm has graduated almost 1000 young agro-entrepreneurs who have returned to sow the “seeds of change” in their communities. Mirpuri’s experiences and challenges while setting up The Learning Farm led her to also co-found the Impact HUB in Singapore, the first co-working space for social entrepreneurs in South East Asia. The Impact HUB is currently the largest co-work community in the region. Mirpuri lives in Washington DC, although her heart and her life’s work remain firmly in Asia. She is a wife, mother of two, and an avid tennis player.

Paul Newnham

Coordinator
SDG2 Advocacy Hub
@paulnewnham

Paul Newnham is the coordinator for the Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2) Advocacy Hub, a secretariat incubated by the World Food Programme. The Hub strives to strengthen efforts towards ending hunger by 2030 by uniting the private sector, UN agencies, NGOs, and civil society together. Its most recent work includes collaborating closely with over 130 chefs from 38 countries through online outreach and a series of workshops to create a Chefs’ Manifesto. The manifesto outlines an action plan for tackling food system challenges chefs are most passionate to overcome. Newnham has worked for over 15 years with World Vision Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and the Global Headquarters, and has shaped his career around the belief that it is possible to end global poverty. He has worked in communities throughout Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas, to bring about positive, lasting, sustainable change.

Elizabeth Nsimadala

Regional President
Eastern Africa Farmers Federation

Elizabeth Nsimadala is the regional president of Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF) and board member of Pan Africa Farmers Organisation (PAFO). Nsimadala has received specialized training in agricultural marketing and logistics management for cooperatives, public administration and management, and fruit wine making. She is a successful practicing banana farmer and has trained over 250 farmer groups through the Uganda Cooperative Alliance, the Ministry of Education and Sports, and the Ministry of Trade Industry and Cooperatives. Nsimadala currently serves as secretary in her local cooperative Nyabubare Area Cooperative Enterprise which is one of the best performing cooperatives in Bushenyi district and one of the pioneers in producing banana wine in the country. Nsimadala recieved the Best Established Enterprise award from the Consortium for Enhancing University Responsiveness to Agribusiness Development (CURAD). Nsimadala holds an MS in project planning and management from Ndejje University Uganda.

Joseph Ogutu

Director, Strategy and Innovation
Safaricom
@SafaricomLtd

Joseph Ogutu joined Safaricom as chief corporate affairs officer in May 2005 and was appointed director, strategy and innovation division in October 2012. In this role, he works closely with the CEO in formulating strategic direction for the business focusing on developing Safaricom’s position as an industry leader in driving innovation in products and services. Ogutu has had a dynamic career in the telecommunications industry spanning more than 25 years of which the last 12 have been at the executive level. He was actively involved in the reform of the sector, including the drafting of the Postal and Telecommunication Policy Paper. The Paper led to the restructuring of the defunct Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation and subsequent establishment of CCK, Telkom Kenya, and Postal Corporation of Kenya. Ogutu holds a degree in economics from the University of Nairobi.

Femi Oke

International Journalist and Moderator
NABJ
@FemiOke

Femi Oke is an international journalist, broadcaster, and moderator. Since the 1980s, she has worked for BBC television and radio, Sky TV, all UK terrestrial television networks, CNN, and US public radio. Oke’s reporting has been recognized by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Communications Agency, and InterAction. Her unique moderating style is well-known at the United Nations, World Bank, European Union, and numerous NGOs where she regularly serves as a facilitator at high profile events.

Marc Oshima

Cofounder and Chief Marketing Officer
Aerofarms
@AeroFarms

Marc Oshima is the cofounder and chief marketing officer for AeroFarms, a leading clean-technology company that builds and operates responsible, state-of-the-art indoor vertical farms around the world, helping transform agriculture. A Certified B Corporation, AeroFarms has been recognized by Fast Company as one of the Most Innovative Companies in the World and by Inc. as one of the Top 25 Disruptive Companies. With an extensive marketing background in retail, brand management, and media, Oshima is passionate about increasing access to healthy food and has led the marketing for major food retailers. He is also board co-chair for Chef’s Collaborative, a 25-year old nonprofit focused on making our food systems more sustainable, and a member of the United Fresh Marketing Merchandising Council. Oshima holds a BA from Columbia College and a MBA from Columbia Business School.

Bobby J. Pittman

Managing Partner
Kupanda Capital
@bj_pittman

Bobby J. Pittman is the managing partner at Kupanda Capital, an investment platform established to create, capitalize, and scale pan-African companies. Pittman has helped found numerous companies, including Fraym.io, where he currently serves as chairman. He is a senior advisor to TPG Growth and the Rise Fund. Prior to his role at Kupanda Capital, Pittman served as vice president of infrastructure, private sector, and regional integration at the African Development Bank. While there, he managed one of the largest portfolios in Africa, including more than $25 billion in active projects across 52 African countries. Pittman previously held senior positions at several US government agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council, the Treasury Department, the State Department and the White House. From 2006 to 2009, Pittman served as special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs at the White House

Elizabeth Riordan

Divisional Vice President, Global Supply and Dairy Operations
Abbott Nutrition

@AbbottGlobal

Marie Rumsby

Senior Manager, Food Security, Hunger, and Nutrition
Global Citizen

Papa Amadou Sarr

Delegate General for Entrepreneurship, Office of the President
Republic of Senegal

Papa Amadou Sarr serves as delegate general for entrepreneurship for youth and women in the office of the President of the Republic of Senegal. In that capacity, he is in charge of a newly established fund of $50M/year entirely dedicated to promote entrepreneurship and job creation with a particular focus on youth and women. Prior to joining the office of the President, Sarr worked as director general for financial services and competitiveness as well as senior technical advisor at the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Planning. In this capacity, he served as alternate governor for the Republic of Senegal at the African Development Bank, the World Bank, and at the International Monetary Fund. Prior to joining the government of Senegal in 2015, Sarr worked in the US as senior program officer at the Africa Division of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Parmesh Shah

Global Lead, Rural Livelihoods and Agricultural Jobs
The World Bank
@WorldBank

Jazzmin Sharp

Student
Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences
@ChicagoAgHS

Chetna Sinha

Founder and Chairperson
Mann Deshi Foundation
@chetnavsinha

Gayle E. Smith

President and CEO
ONE Campaign
@GayleSmith
@ONECampaign

Jocelyn A. Songco

Principal
Soros Economic Development Fund, Open Society Foundations

Roger Thurow

Senior Fellow, Global Food and Agriculture Program
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. 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. In 2009, they were awarded Action Against Hunger’s Humanitarian Award. 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 of the power smallholder farmers in Africa at the TedxChange Seattle event, hosted by Melinda Gates. Thurow graduated from the University of Iowa.

Ginya Truitt Nakata

Director, Lands, Latin America
The Nature Conservancy

Ginya Truitt Nakata is the Latin America region director of lands for The Nature Conservancy. She leads the development and implementation of regional strategies that address systemic barriers to sustainable agricultural production and their impact on habitats critical to long-term growth and the planet's health. Truitt Nakata has more than 25 years of international development experience in agriculture and food security and is a New Vision for Agriculture Ambassador with the World Economic Forum, an honor extended to 20 senior representatives from around the world.

Paul Weisenfeld

Executive Vice President, International Development
RTI International
@PaulWeisenfeld

Tunde Wey

Cook and Writer

Tunde Wey is a Nigerian immigrant chef/writer working at the intersection of food and social politics. His work engages systems of exploitative power, particularly race, globalism, and imperialism, from the vantage point of the marginalized other. Wey’s food work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR. His own writing has been featured in the Boston Globe, Oxford American, and CityLab. Wey also writes a column for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Felix Kwame Yeboah

Assistant Professor, Interntional Development
Michigan State University

Felix Kwame Yeboah is an assistant professor of international development at Michigan State University. Yeboah has expertise in multiple areas of social policy, including agricultural and food system transformation, natural resource management, and youth livelihood issues in Africa. For the past decade, he has provided critical analysis to inform a range of social policies both in the United States and in Africa. Notably, his research has informed The Mastercard Foundation’s strategies for promoting youth employment in Africa’s agrifood system; the state of Michigan’s effort to reduce nonpoint source pollution in the Great Lakes, and strategic change initiatives advancing solid waste recycling and energy conservation at Michigan State University. More recently, his research was featured in the 2016 Africa’s Agriculture Status Report, a flagship report of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. Yeboah holds an MS and a PhD in environmental policy and international development from Michigan State University.