Kees Aarts

Nature lover by birth, Technologist by training. Kees holds a MSc title in Aerospace Engineering (Delft University, The Netherlands) and working experience in strategy consultancy. Before joining McKinsey, Kees was an entrepreneur in high-tech R&D and software trainings. His passions for biology and technology sparked the idea of Protix Biosystems while scuba diving.

Social media

Martin Topper

Arable farm Zonneheerd focuses on the cultivation of arable crops and the cultivation of vegetables. Including a specialization in forgotten vegetables such as purple, yellow, rainbow carrots, parsnip, parsley parsley and various beetroot colors. Zonneheerdt sells and processes these vegetables from Weleer under its own label. “Color with more Taste”. Furthermore, co-founder of the Youth, Health and Food steering committee Flevoland. Now continued as chairman of the Flevofood association. In addition, a major commitment to display the image of vegetables as an experience for children and adults. They make them think and experience what they are eating now and how it came about. Specialties: consulting, marketing, buyer, product developer and education.

Social media

Jennifer Bash

Featured in many newspapers and books, among which “How we made it in Africa”Jennifer Bash has become one of the most inspiring business women in Tanzania. Before moving to the US to study, she had already started a small poultry business in her home country. When she got back to Tanzania, inspired by her experience in the US, she decided to found a company called Alaska Tanzania. Her main goal was reducing imported brands and increasing the presence of Tanzanian-made foodstuffs on the shops shelves. Leveraging on her knowledge of the eggs market, which she used as main entry point, Alaska Tanzania has currently expanded its offer to a greater number of products largely used by local customers, among which maize flour, rice and sunflower oil.

Social media

Koos van der Meij

Innovator and ICT master. Blockchain Evangelist. Powerful at the intersection of innovation strategy and ICT. Specialties: Strategic Business Development, creating innovative new business, Blockchain, sustainable solutions, supply community expert. 

Social media

Joris-Jan Kraak

I was lucky enough to bump into Picnic on the day that I finished my studies in Econometrics in Rotterdam six years ago. At Picnic, I have been able to build a purchasing and stock-tracking system from scratch, currently supported by a full-grown product team as a product owner. My fondness for technology, the environment, and puzzles are of great help for creating a wasteless supply chain that delivers excellent customer service. Less helpful fondnesses include playing soccer, vinyl records, and board games.

Social media

Rachel Sibande

Over 13 years experience managing development projects in Technology, Big Data, Agriculture, Elections Monitoring Democracy, Governance, Business Development and Entrepreneurship. Managed project deployments in Malawi, Zambia, DRC, Tanzania Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Uganda and South Africa. Established Malawi’s first Innovation hub and incubator; mHub. An incubator for innovators and emerging entrepreneurs. A Google Scholar. Next Einstein Ambassador. YALI alumni.

Social media

Kyriacos Koupparis

10+ years experience catalyzing change to build better communities in emerging markets through science, technology, innovation and corporate partnerships. I am an expert in science and technology policy and innovation programs that advance global prosperity and sustainability. I have in-country experience in 15+ countries across Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and Asia.

Social media

Parmesh Shah

Parmesh Shah is the Global Lead for Data Driven Digital Agriculture at the World Bank. He provides leadership to Bank’s work in these areas and supports the development of global knowledge and learning in these areas to offer solutions to clients and other development partners. His current areas of interest are economic and social organizations and networks of the poor, making markets and public services work for the poor, social entrepreneurship, digital and data-based innovations in agriculture and rural development, Agriculture and technology enabled start-ups, venture and patient capital for innovation, promotion of on-farm , off-farm and digital jobs and public-private and people partnerships for rural poverty reduction. He is currently involved in developing a global program on scaling up data driven digital agriculture involving data platforms and establishing  ecosystems for innovation, entrepreneurship and incubation. He holds a D Phil in Development Studies from Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and B Tech degree in Agricultural Engineering from Pantnagar in India.  

Social media

Marieke de Ruyter de Wildt

Marieke started her career at the United Nations. For the next 10 years, she lived in all continents and worked in more than 45 countries, from Scotland to Vietnam. She returned to Wageningen University, leading a research team to analyse the impact of agrifood investments, working with the likes of Rabobank, Syngenta, PGGM and Ahold Delhaize. In 2014, she started as director of AgriPlace, a software company developing an application to digitize agrifood certification.

Then blockchain matured. Although blockchain was hyped in the financial industry, Marieke quickly concluded it addressed key challenges in agrifood: data ownership and data integrity. Convinced that blockchain will accelerate digitization in agrifood, she founded her current company The New Fork in 2017.

The New Fork helps companies integrate blockchain into their existing infrastructure. The New Fork offers masterclasses, events like StrikeTwosummit.com, expert placements and builds and audits blockchain solutions.

Social media

HUGO BYRNES

Product Integrity covers product legal compliance, food safety/non-food safety and sustainable products. The latter includes social compliance, animal welfare and environmental sustainability – all related to our products.

Social media

Andre Turkienicz

Andre is the Co-Founder and CEO of AgTrace, spin-off company from Solinftec. AgTrace traceability system ensures transparency, information reliability and reduces response time to issues within the food value chain. Previously Andre was the leader of business development of IBM Research Lab for Agribusiness. He coordinated project developments in multiple areas, from production, tradings, financial institutions and retail. Before joining the IBM Andre worked at Google, besides having founded two tech companies. Hold MBA from Michigan University and Bachelor in Communication from PUC-RS

Social media

Floris van Lieshout

At Deloitte Digital Risk Solutions our teams of dedicated blockchain, AI and machine learning professionals, help our clients build enterprise grade solutions.

With our strategic and technical knowledge and skills we build and deliver real business value for our clients.

Social media

Tommie van der Bosch

Tommie van der Bosch leads Deloitte’s Blockchain Team in the Netherlands. Through innovative methods, he helps other parties to discover the real impact and full potential of Blockchain on their industry. Tommie has extensive experience in the financial advisory services sector, helping organisations bridge the gap between Strategy & Execution. He strongly believes that innovation and emerging technologies are essential in this process of transformation.

Social media

Stefan Petrutiu

Project manager and entrepreneur. Building impact ecosystems and using blockchain for creating inclusive business models. Focused on designing outgrower programs and innovative, tech-driven sustainability interventions in smallholder value chains. Coffee and cocoa sector focus. Leading impact evaluation, living income and true price studies.

Social media

Krijn van Santen

Social media

Graham Sydney

Social media

BRIAN KING

Brian King leads the Platform for Big Data in Agriculture, a global program of the CGIAR consortium centered on digital transformation of food systems worldwide. He has led programs leveraging successive waves of transformational digital technologies including establishing early internet networks and policies, building sustainable rural internet, licensing of mobile operators, governance of submarine cables and cross-border backbone networks, and building more inclusive mobile financial services, most of this in developing economies. He is a former agriculture extensionist and a California rice farmer.

Social media

Carol Tarr

Carol was born in Chicago, Illinois and attended Wesleyan University and Harvard University. Carol lectures in Sociology, Organizational Management and Entrepreneurship at universities in the Netherlands and is the Founder and CEO of Atomic Spices, a boutique spice company based in Amsterdam that creates blends from cold-smoked spices. Carol has a special interest in sustainable low-waste business models and developing transparency in the spice supply chain.

Social media

Foteini Zampati

Social media

Laura de Grave

Laura de Grave is a culinary journalist, cookbook author & Dutch TV host. As a freelancer she writes for various culinary magazines and media among which Allerhande and bol.com (as a cookbook expert). She wrote several books, including the Amsterdam cookbook and Dutch cookbook (both in English and Dutch). As a presenter she is currently making the video series ‘Lekker Lokaal’ (about local Dutch food) for TV channel 24Kitchen and the website of the Algemeen Dagblad.

For her Dutch cookbook and her TV-series she crossed on an electric motor through the Netherlands in search for local products and dishes. www.foodwriter.nl/en/

Social media

David Muwonge

Muwonge David from Uganda is a coffee farmer and the Deputy Executive Director of the National Union of coffee Agribusinesses and farm enterprises Limited (NUCAFE) which is the Apex coffee farmer organization in Uganda currently with a membership of 213 cooperatives and associations representing 200,000 coffee farming families. He has worked in the coffee Industry for 17 years and gained vast experience along the coffee value chain. He is currently working as the leader on the Project entitled: “Supporting ICTs for agribusinesses development in Uganda” implemented in partnership with CTA. He oversees NUCAFE’s day to day and medium term finance, administration and compliance aspects.

Social media

Hamlus Owoyesiga

Hamlus Owoyesiga, is the ICT Head and Drone Operator at IGTF-Uganda. He has worked with smallholder farmers Agribusinesses for over 7 years implementing Data4Ag, ICT4Ag and UAV4Ag (Drones) projects supported by CTA-ACP-EU aiming at achieving SDGs goals through Digitizing Agriculture.

Social media

Dr. Lan van Wassenaer

Lan received her PhD in business economics from Wageningen University in 2008. Before that she studied agricultural and environmental economics at Wageningen University and environmental biology at Nanjing University in China. Since 2008, Lan works as a scientific researcher at Wageningen Economic Research (formerly known as LEI or Agricultural Economics Research Institute). Lan conducts both quantitative and quality research in the domain of agrifood. Lan is fascinated by the way institutions and information influence each other in an increasingly digitalised world. Since 2017, she has been leading the research program ‘Blockchain for agrifood’ from Wageningen and the PPS project ‘Blockchain: Automated Compliance in Agrifood Chains’.

Social media

Paul Damen

Social media

Shaunalee Katafono

Social media