Luis Carlos Alonso started as a plant breeder at Koipesol Semillas in 1976 to become general manager in 1993. He joined Syngenta in 1999 and has been global Oilseed Expert and Business Development Lead till 2022; He has supported the introduction of HO sunflowers in most countries building IP supply chains along with different oil industries. Luis Carlos studied agronomy and biology in the University Columbia (Missouri, USA) and Sevilla (Spain, EU). Presently, he is leading his own consulting company, Bioalazor Innovaciones S.L.
Eelco Blum is co-founder and General Manager of Thrive™. Eelco’s expertise is fortified by his previous role as the General Manager of AlgaWise® and Thrive™ food oils at Solazyme/TerraVia, as well as a long-term tenure at Cargill, where he was responsible for setting up global supply chains for the Truvia® stevia brand. Before his co-founding venture with Thrive™, Eelco served on the corporate management team at Avantium N.V. as the Managing Director of the renewable chemistries business unit.
Hernan Carrasco began his journey in logistics and later in management for animal nutrition business at Gente de la Pampa S.A., a large Agro holding located in Catrilo, La Pampa, in Argentina. Since 2010, Hernan has been serving as Manager of ENRESA (Energia Renovable S.A.), the first provincial company dedicated to biodiesel production. Simultaneously, since 2015, he has been working as the Manager of Grain Origin and, since 2020, as the Business Manager for Vegetable Oil Trading in the same company.
Jean Luc Dubois is currently Principal Scientist in Trinseo/Altuglas International. He holds a PhD from the Pierre & Marie Curie University (Paris) and French Institute of Petroleum (1991) and an « HDR » from the Science and Technology University of Lille (2000). After starting his career in the Oil and gas industry, Jean Luc moved to the chemical industry and worked on several catalytic processes to make more sustainable products either using alternative feedstocks, biobased, recycled or using carbon dioxide. He has contributed to more than 150 scientific publications and 190 patent families.
Mary Grace Gasco is the Founder and CEO of SpaceCrop Technologies, an agritech that empowers farmers in smarter and sustainable farming. Mary Grace is a master’s graduate of Environmental Sciences and Policy at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. She took her bachelor’s in Geography at the University of the Philippines Diliman where Mary Grace’s interest in space science and technology applications started. Mary Grace has been doing partnership engagements with private, academic, and non-government organizations in the EU.
Gilles Gree is Sunflower Portfolio Development Manager for EAME at the Syngenta Seeds Innovation Center in Toulouse. He is graduated Engineer in Agronomy from the University of Nancy, France. Gilles joined Syngenta Seeds in 1994 and has occupied a variety of roles in relation to Product Development and Portfolio Management in Corn and Oilseed rape before Sunflower. He has led the market introduction of many Sunflower genetic innovations in the recent years and was particularly involved in the commercialization of High Oleic Sunflower varieties in Europe.
Klaus Grunert is Professor of Marketing at Aarhus University, and is the founder of the MAPP Research Center. Klaus is a consumer behavior researcher and has cooperated widely with researchers in other social sciences as well as in the technological and natural sciences. Having an h-index of 95, he is the author of 12 books, more than 290 academic papers in international refereed journals and numerous other publications. Klaus is a past president of the European Marketing Academy and was professor of the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management.
Lars Ipsen is the Key Account Manager for winter oilseed rape, HOLL Business in Nordics for Bayer Crop Science. Lars is graduated as an agronomist in the Academy of Agriculture Aarhus, Denmark. He worked for Monsanto (now Bayer Crop Science) since 2001 as Key Account Manager for seed and Roundup in Denmark, then he was Technical Lead for North West Europe. Lars was also Managing Director for Monsanto Nordics, and managed digital partnerships in Bayer Crop Science Nordics.
David Laborde is the Division Director for the FAO Agrifood Economics Division (ESA), which focuses on economic research and policy analysis for more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Agrifood systems. David previously worked at IFPRI in Washington, DC, as a Senior Research Fellow specializing in trade, globalization, and environmental issues. Dr. Laborde’ s been recognized with distinctions like the GTAP research fellow and the Alan A. Powell Award.
Sophie-Dorothe Lieke is a PhD candidate at the chair of Marketing for Food and Agricultural Products at the University of Göttingen, Germany. Her research focuses on consumer perceptions of the sustainability of various food products, using palm oil as her case study commodity. She explores how cultural influences shape consumers’ perceptions and behaviors towards this vegetable oil. By considering both palm oil-exporting and -importing countries, she investigates how consumers navigate and trade off the associated health and sustainability dimensions.
Emese van Maanen is the managing director of the ProTerra Foundation. She developed and led responsible raw material procurement, CSR and sustainability for large Europe-based agricultural cooperatives whilst simultaneously serving on the Boards of several standard organizations. Emese is an agricultural engineer with additional university degrees in agricultural- and animal sciences, water management, food safety and an advanced federal diploma as Foreign Trade Specialist. She also obtained a Doctorate of Business Administration degree.
Dmytro Neroda is Oilseeds Crop Head at Lidea Seeds Ukraine, the newly merger between Euralis Semences and Caussades Semences Group. Dmytro joined Lidea Seeds in 2020. He has been working in agriculture business during the past twenty-two years, mainly at Syngenta Seeds where he was expanding the High Oleic sunflower hybrids usage in CIS region. Dmytro is graduated in 1997 from the University of Agriculture of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.
Charles Nicholson is an agricultural economist at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, USA. Charles has more than 25 years of experience analyzing markets, policy, and supply chains for the dairy industry. He also coordinates the National Program on Dairy Markets and Policy, a collaboration of US universities. Charles has MS and PhD degrees from Cornell University in the USA.
David Tegeder is an agribusiness professional with more than 40 years’ experience in the soybean industry. For the last four years, Dave has served as a high oleic soy expert to the ag industry, primarily consulting for the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) and the Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council. Leveraging 20 years in refined oils, Dave was most recently the senior marketing manager for Pioneer® brand Plenish high oleic soy at Corteva™ Agriscience.
Fabrice Turon has over 20 years’ experience in the oils & fats. He began his career with Danone group. Later at Bertin, Fabrice managed the lipid products portfolio development. As oil trait lead for Syngenta Seeds Company, Fabrice investigated various quality oil projects and he assembled a strategic output traits portfolio for oilseeds. Since 2010, he is leading the Research activities at FAT & Associés, the specialized consultancy for the lipids, oils and fats industry.