TECHNICAL COMMITEE

FARM CREDIBLY

Over 15 years of enterprise level industry experience in business communications, and operational management, with a strong focus on software engineering. I design web services and website architectures based on open standards. Varun is current the Managing Director at Develop Digitally, improving products and services for our customers. He enjoys translating business requirements into detailed architectural designs and supporting all operational and business defined projects. The best part is working with business analysts, developers and development managers to ensure that all solutions are deployed within agreed timelines and are supported after implementation. This requires effective communication with the customer, third parties and the project teams.

KM ZERO

Beatriz is driven by a passion for creating a delicious and resilient food future for all. She works with companies, organizations, and investors to push forward breakthrough solutions. She is a known industry leader with frequent publications and speaking engagements.

At KM ZERO Food Innovation Hub, the mission is to assist startups, corporations, institutions and people operating in the food system, to become futureproof through investment, partnerships, strategy, and the Fooduristic multimedia platform.

Areas of expertise: business development, world-class industry network, partnership strategies. Speaker.

Specialties: food systems transformation, innovation, alternative protein, future of retail, digitalization, resilient production, consumer trends.

CGIAR

Gideon Kruseman leads the foresight, ex-ante impact assessment and targeting team at CIMMYT, and for MAIZE and WHEAT. It can take 10 to 25 years between the start of agricultural research to full deployment in farmers’ fields, so concentrating on today’s issues may provide solutions to yesterday’s problems. Kruseman seeks to overcome this challenge by focusing on climate change, new and emerging pests and diseases, dietary change, rural transformation, and disruptive technologies. Ex-ante impact assessment looks at pipeline technologies and at research investments. Gideon holds a doctorate in development economics from Wageningen University and has worked for CGIAR, academia, national agricultural research systems and a nongovernmental organization. He is an expert at complex modeling, especially using GAMS and R. He leads the community of practice on socio-economic data in the CGIAR platform for big data in agriculture. He also chairs the Institutional Ethics in Research Committee. “The comfort zone is a beautiful place but nothing ever grows there”

UC DAVIS

Shapiro was born in America in 1947 to Lithuanian and Russia parents. In 1989 he and his wife, Nancy, set up Seeds of Change, an organic seed producer and supplier. The company was sold to Mars Inc. in 1997, and Shapiro took on the role of Senior Scientist in plant science and agroforestry/agroecology for M&M, Mars.`{`1`}` He went on to become Research Manager for plant science in 2000 and Global Director of Plant Science and External Research in 2005. He is Adjunct Professor in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Davis, and leads the Multi-Disciplinary Research Unit, a collaborative effort between Mars, UC Davis and The University of Nottingham. He also serves on the external advisory board of UC Davis’ Agricultural Sustainability Institute. He has been a university professor, Fulbright Scholar, Ford Foundation Fellow, and has won the National Endowment for the Humanities Award. In 2007 he was awarded the Organic Leadership Award by the Organic Trade Association, and in 2009 he was honored with UC Davis’ College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Award of Distinction. Recently he has been working with Google X and other groups on a project to end human stunting through better nutrition worldwide, starting in Africa.

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT MUNCHEN

Driven by my desire to continuously learn and my curiosity in deep tech, I am currently finishing my PhD at the Technical University of Munich and about to start a senior research position at New York University. My field of study is the potential of blockchain technology to disrupt established digital platform models. Besides my empirical and statistics-driven work, I also love to build things and create impact. Not only have I already found a startup during my studies, for which I was rewarded as one of Munich’s Leading Entrepreneurs by the LMU EC and selected into the founder’s class 2015 of founders.org, but I also led 180DC Munich eV which is part of world’s largest consultancy for non-profits & social enterprises. Moreover, I also have hands-on experience as an agile coach and with coding in python and solidity. The latter I just recently used to develop a decentralized application that is currently running on the polygon chain (layer2 chain of Ethereum). Equipped with this knowledge and experience, I am thrilled to support you to take it up with the biggest challenges of our food system and create a lasting impact for a sustainable future.

WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY & RESEARCH

Senior Scientist and Theme Ambassador on ‘Digital Innovation for Sustainable Food Systems’ at Wageningen Economic Research. Sjaak studied Crop Science and Information Technology at Wageningen University (MSc/PhD).

His current research topics are the application of Internet of Things and Big Data with special attention to socio-economic aspects such as data sharing, business modelling, governance and the digital innovation process. He is scientific coordinator of (inter)national projects such as the Internet of Food and Farm 2020, SmartAgriHubs and DATA4FOOD2030. He was president of the European Federation of ICT in Agriculture (EFITA), author of numerous scientific papers and a regular speaker at international conferences.

Sjaak is a visionary and likes to be challenged by complex socio-technical problems that require a science-based approach.

UN - FAO

Freelance Digital Innovation Architect. Able to see and apply Digital Innovation from both the technology and the business perspective. My current special inquiries are on Blockchain and Big Data in Agriculture. Expert in innovation proof of concepts for Development and Agriculture, evolving into pilots and prototypes. Transparent with intuition for collaboration, specifically on the combination of the UN and the private sector. Hands on with Agile Kanban, certified SCRUM Master. Specialties: Blockchain (Hyperledger and Ethereum), Data Science, Data Analytics, Machine Learning, Data Governance, Business Process Design, Stakeholder Analysis, Enterprise Architecture, GIS, Remote Sensing, Google Earth Engine, Enterprise Architecture, Drones (UAV), RapidMiner, SDMX, UML, Java, JavaScript and Python.

GIZ

Fostering digitalisation in the GIZ Programme for Sustainable Agricultural Supply Chains & Standards. Areas of work include traceability, sustainability monitoring and metrics and other related digital applications that increase supply chain transparency, foster sustainable production and benefit farmers. Key interests are the creation of enabling digital environments, facilitating cooperation, alignment and interoperability. Dealt with a broad array of topics including vocational training, smallholder access to finance, sustainability standards, carbon footprinting, pesticides, python coding, coffee, digital platforms, community health, data standard development, or metrics alignment.