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.
Juan Andrés Baqué is an Argentine economist with a strong passion for agribusiness, deeply rooted in his family background. Andrés began his journey at Alea and Cía. Starting as a Grains and Oilseeds Trader, he steadily progressed, assuming the role of CFO after four years and excelling in that capacity for an additional three years. Currently and since October 2019, Andrés is thriving in his role as a Vegetable Oils Trader at LIPSA, a distinguished European company with a long-standing history in vegetable oil refining since 1973.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Kelly Racette joined The Nature Conservancy in 2019 to provide technical and strategic leadership to the Conservancy’s collaborations with companies in the agriculture and food sectors. Kelly received her doctorate in agronomy and plant breeding and an M.S. in agro ecology from the University of Florida. Prior to transitioning to agriculture, Kelly studied environmental science and policy at Duke University.
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.
Vinvcent Walsh is a leading circular and regenerative food and agriculture expert in the UK. In the last five years he has founded RegenfarmCo a regenerative agriculture company which works with farmers and landowners to replace monoculture with more circular growing processes; Mycoloops, a start-up which upcycles food and other waste to create high-grade organic compost; and Herblabism, a plant-based food brand developed specifically for the foodservice sector.