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.
Koen Boone is coordinator Sustainable Value Chains at Wageningen University and Research and is Director Europe of The Sustainability Consortium. Koen has nearly 25 years of experience in developing sustainability assessment systems on product, company, farm, sector … He worked on the Food Processing guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative. Koen chairs the Dutch working group that is working on an Eco rating label for all food items sold in the Netherlands and is co-leading the development of an EU harmonized Eco rating label.
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.
Sergey Feofilov is currently Director General and Founder of UkrAgroConsult, the first Ukrainian consulting agency specialized in agricultural sector of the Black Sea region (marking its 30-year anniversary in 2024). Sergey has vast expertise in analysis of agricultural market of the Black Sea region and Eastern Europe. He has broad international contacts in trading, banking and investment spheres, and he is a recognized expert and speaker at the major international Agri conferences. Sergey is a Ph.D. in Economics by education.
Monique Gueunier started as a Researcher in phytopathology at Syngenta Seeds in 2001 to become a Research Engineer at INRAE from 2005 to 2009. Later at Agronutrition SA, Monique managed the experimental laboratory in controlled conditions in order to develop bio stimulants for Field Crops. She joined FAT & Associés in 2023, where she is working as a Research Analyst with a strong expertise in Agriculture and Agribusiness. Monique studied plant biology and pathology in the University Paul Sabatier (Toulouse, France) and ENSAT (Toulouse, France).
Matthias Hof is a chemist by education and has studied at the Gerhard-Mercator University, Duisburg, and McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. He holds a PhD in organic chemistry and has over 20 years’ experience in the lubricant industry having worked for Cognis, Ciba and BASF in the past. Since 2019, Matthias is the Global Business Manager Biolubes Ester at Emery Oleochemicals GmbH. He is responsible for the business of base stocks, components and intermediates for the lubricant industry based on oleochemical raw materials.
Stefan Kramis is the Global Procurement Director Edible Oils & Grains, Europe at PepsiCo based in Bern, Switzerland. He has spent his entire 18-years career with PepsiCo, having worked in different positions in the supply chain development and procurement of commodities for the European production sites. Stefan studied Business Administration in the University of Bern, Switzerland and the Business Development at the Business School of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
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.
Pedro Sousa is currently the Global Senior Director of Quality Systems at McDonald’s Global Supply Chain, overseeing non-protein categories across 120 markets supply chain. For the last 20 years, Pedro has served at McDo as Global Director Quality Systems for Agricultural Category and European Quality Lead for Produce Category. He led quality systems for categories impacting over 120 markets and 38000 restaurants, developed and harmonized global food safety and quality policies.
Ágoston Temesi is a full professor at the Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Budapest (Hungary). He is a food consumer behavior scientist, and an advisor to several Hungarian food companies. His research topics cover modeling food consumer behavior for various food products, especially sustainable, healthy and organic food products, as well as several food marketing and food product innovation related research questions.
David Tessaro is Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry, materials and Chemical Engineering of Politecnico di Milano since 2007, and belongs to the BioCatLab research group. His whole scientific career has been devoted to the use of enzymes for the synthesis of chiral molecules. More recently, he was involved in the biocatalytical valorization of food waste. He currently teaches General and Organic Chemistry at Humanitas University.
Peter Tollington has almost 30 years’ experience in the (Oleo)Chemical industry, covering both vegetable oil refining and the downstream derivatives. He studied Chemistry in the UK and started his career with Unilever’s detergent. In 1996, Peter moved to the Netherlands as R&D Manager at Unichema in Gouda. He joined Cargill in 2011, and is currently R&D and BD Manager in the Bio-Industrial group in Europe. In his spare time Peter is a keen amateur musician, playing horn in orchestras and bands in and around his home city of Rotterdam.
Fabrice Turon has over 30 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.
Lotte Woittiez is an Assistant Professor at the Plant Production Systems Group of Wageningen University and Research. Lotte has two MSc degrees (in Crop Science and in Plant Biotechnology) and she did her PhD on the agronomy of smallholder oil palm production in Indonesia. After her PhD, Lotte did research on soil fertility management in cocoa, and on climate change resilience in potato. She is teaching courses on sustainability analysis of farming systems, agroforestry, agronomy, and the production of bio resource crops.