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Selected Speakers

Day 1 (24 June 2020) |  Digital transformation and food economy

Sarah Hallerberg │ Professor of Mathematics and Informatics, HAW Hamburg, Germany

Sarah Hallerberg is a Professor for Applied Mathematics and Computational Science at Hamburg University of Applied Science, Germany. She is a PI of several research projects on developing and applying machine learning methods in the context of renewable energies, (bio-) acoustics, chemistry and automatization. Her current research interests include developing algorithms for data analysis and machine learning, network-inference, perturbation growth in dynamical systems and the formation and prediction of extreme events. She graduated with a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Wuppertal (due to her supervisor at the MPIPKS Dresden holding the right to award doctorates from the University of Wuppertal at that time). She studied Physics at Chemnitz University of Technology and graduated with a Diploma thesis on Dynamical Zeta-Functions.

Bernhard Brümmer ǀ Professor of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, University of Göttingen, Germany

Bernhard Brümmer is a Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at the University of Göttingen, Germany. He has published widely in top disciplinary journals, including the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Economics, and the European Review of Agricultural Economics. In addition, he has written for a broader audience in the general economics field, e.g., in the Journal of Development Economics. He is an active member of both IAAE and EAAE, where he has served on the program committee for the triennial conferences several times. His current research focuses on efficiency and productivity analysis of farms and firms in agricultural and food value chains, international agricultural trade, and price formation in agricultural output and input markets. He is also involved in research initiatives in various parts of Asia and Africa.

Kateryna Schroeder │ Agricultural Economist, World Bank, USA

Kateryna Schroeder is an Agricultural Economist at the World Bank Food and Agriculture Global Practice in Washington, DC, USA. In her work she focuses on agricultural and trade policy in Europe and Central Asia region. In addition, she leads a preparation of the flagship report on the role of digital technologies in addressing market failures along the global agri-food value chains, and the role of public policy in facilitating this process. Prior to joining the World Bank, Kateryna Schroeder worked as a research scientist at the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, and a frequent consultant with the UN FAO and USAID on the issues related to trade policy, food security and nutrition. She holds a PhD in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Missouri, USA. 

Wenbin Wu │ Chief Scientist and Division Director, CAAS, China

Wenbin Wu is a Research Professor at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), China. He is the Chief Scientist and Director of the Smart Agriculture Research Department of CAAS. Wenbin Wu specializes in digital agriculture and agricultural land systems. He has made great contributions to agricultural land system sciences by integrating remote sensing, UAV, GIS, and other digital technologies and seeks to improve: accurate sensing and observing of agricultural land system changes; better monitoring and understanding of these changes and its consequences on food production, and smart management of agricultural land use to increase agricultural productivity, while improving sustainability. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles in ISI rated journals and several book chapters, as well as organized several special issues. Wenbin Wu also received a number of scientific awards issued by the central government and the scientific community for the contribution in his research field.

Gopinath Munisamy │ Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Georgia, USA

Gopinath (Gopi) Munisamy is Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Georgia (UGA), Athens, USA, where he conducts research and teaching in International Trade and Agricultural Policy. He has published about 100 articles on agricultural trade and policy in professional journals, books, and policy briefs and other reports. Prior to joining UGA, he was the Director of the Market and Trade Economics Division of USDA’s Economic Research Service (2012-2019) and a Professor at Oregon State University (1997-2012). Gopinath Munisamy received a PhD in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota.

Day 2 (25 June 2020) | Digital solutions for agribusiness

Björne Drechsler | CEO, EkoNiva-Technika Holding, Russian Federation

Björne Drechsler (FH for business economics, Berlin) is CEO at EkoNiva-Technika Holding, Russian Federation. Prior to joining EkoNiva, he was CEO of GEA Farm Technologies Russia. He is a member of the Advisory Board of experts on “Digitalisation and Innovation” of the cooperation project German – Russian Agricultural Policy Dialogue (APD) of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Germany. He has an outstanding expertise in questions regarding technical innovations in agriculture and is considered to be an expert for market trends in agricultural engineering, as well as for the development of this sector in Russia. Björne Drechsler advises APD from a business perspective, e.g. in setting the political framework for enhancing innovations and agricultural digitalization.

Bohdan Kryvitskyi │ Chief Innovation Officer, IMC S.A., Ukraine

Bohdan Kryvitskyi is a Chief Innovation Officer at IMC S.A., a vertically-integrated agroholding with operations in Ukraine. He has been working at IMC since 2017 and is responsible for the research, testing and implementation of precision farming technologies in production and development of the company's innovative culture. Bohdan Kryvitskyi has over six years of experience in the field of innovations in agriculture. He graduated from the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, specialty "Ecology and Environment".

Ludwig Striewe | Member of the Management Board, ATR Landhandel, Germany

Ludwig Striewe is member of the Management Board of ATR Landhandel, Germany, a private company with business in grain origination and trade. ATR is run by over 800 employees and operates in Germany, Denmark and Poland. He is responsible for the grain division, the inland and port silos, logistics, marketing, HR and the business in Poland. Before joining ATR in December 2013, he served as Global Head of Research and Government Relations of the Alfred C. Toepfer International GmbH. Before joining Toepfer in 2002, he worked in the German Advisory Group on Economic Reforms in Ukraine as an Agricultural Economist on behalf of the Deutsche Bank and the KfW (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau). Ludwig Striewe holds a Master’s Degree in Agricultural Economics of the University of Kiel, Germany, and an International Master’s Degree of the University of Wageningen, Netherlands.

Matija Zulj │ CEO and Founder, Agrivi, Croatia

Matija Zulj is CEO and Founder at Agrivi, Croatia, a global ag-tech company that provides one of the leading global farm management software platforms for agricultural producers as well as for other stakeholders within the agricultural value chain, e.g. input manufacturers, food processing companies, agricultural banks, etc. in 150 countries worldwide. Prior to foundation of Agrivi in 2013, Matija Zulj developed profound expertise in IT area and farming. He holds a M.Sc. in Computer Science and an MBA from the University of Zagreb. Also, he studied Disruptive Strategy at Harvard Business School.

Day 3 (26 June 2020) | Enabling sustainable digital transformation

Ingo Pies | Professor of Economic Ethics, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany

Ingo Pies is Professor of Economic Ethics at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. He has published widely in top disciplinary journals, including Business Ethics Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, Business and Society, Voluntas, Business Strategy and the Environment and Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Unternehmensethik. Ingo Pies has (co-)authored 16 books and 60 peer-reviewed journal articles. He has developed the research program of “ordonomics”, which is interested in the interplay of ideas and institutions in generating moral progress. His current interest is focused on “public discourse failures” and the “moral paradox of modernity”, caused by a mismatch between moral sentiments and modern ways of implementing moral progress via counter-intuitive but highly functional incentive structures.

Jens-Peter Loy | Professor and Director in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Kiel University, Germany

Jens-Peter Loy is Professor and Director in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany. He has published in high ranked journals, including the European Review of Agricultural Economics, Journal of Agricultural Economics, Economics Letters, Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization, China Economic Review, and European Journal of Marketing. He is current President of the German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA) and serves on several editorial boards. His current research focuses on futures markets, grain marketing and food retail pricing.

Vladimir Crnojević | Director, BioSense Institute, Serbia

Professor Vladimir Crnojević is Director of the BioSense Institute, Serbia, which focuses on R&D in ICT for agrifood sector at various levels: From micro and nanotechnology sensors, through Internet of Things, agrirobotics, remote sensing, to big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence. He is a Full Professor in Computer Sciences at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, and Associate Professor Extraordinary at the Department of Mathematical Science, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Vladimir Crnojević studied Electrical Engineering (EE) and obtained his PhD in Image Processing in 2004. He acted as Director of EE Department at the University of Novi Sad from 2012-2015, and in 2015 founded the BioSense Institute – the regional leader in EU (FP7 and H2020) projects, including flagship projects such as ANTARES, IoF2020 – Internet of Food and Farm 2020 and SmartAgriHubs.

Maximo Torero │ Chief Economist and Assistant Director General, FAO, Italy

Maximo Torero is Chief Economist and Assistant Director General for Economic and Social Development at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, Italy. Prior to joining FAO, he was the World Bank Group Executive Director for Argentina, Bolivia, Chile Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay and before the Bank he led the Division of the Markets, Trade, and Institutions at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). His major research work lies mostly in analyzing poverty, inequality, importance of geography and assets (private or public) in explaining poverty, and in policies oriented towards poverty alleviation. Maximo Torero holds a Ph.D. and a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA.

Engel Hessel │ Commissioner for Digitalization, BMEL, Germany

Engel Hessel is Commissioner for Digitalization at the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) and Director at Thünen Institute of Agricultural Technology, Germany. She is also Professor for Digital Agriculture at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany. Engel Hessel studied Animal Science at the Kiel University and worked at the Universities of Kiel and Göttingen, Germany. 

Linda Kleemann | Coordinator, GFA Consulting Group, Germany

Linda Kleemann coordinates the digital innovation cluster at GFA Consulting Group, Germany. As part of this task, she coaches projects on digital strategy and analyses trends at the interface of development cooperation and digitalization and develops criteria for the application of digital technologies and the relevance of trends for development cooperation projects. Linda Kleemann has also done numerous data projects, involving data collection, treatment, analysis and visualization and the setting up of information systems. As an economist with a PhD in agricultural economics, her background is in empirical research, in particular impact evaluations, in the agricultural sector in Africa. Before joining GFA, she worked at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Germany, where she still regularly contributes her research.

Valeria Pesce │ Ambassador, GODAN, and Information Management Specialist, FAO, Italy

Valeria Pesce is an Ambassador for the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition initiative (GODAN) and works as Information Management Specialist at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Italy. Previously, she was project manager and convener at the Secretariat of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation (GFAR), where she coordinated work packages and activities in international projects aiming at improving agricultural data standardization and facilitated the creation of a global collective action on empowering farmers through more equitable data flows.

Stig Tanzmann | Policy Advisor for Agriculture, Brot für die Welt, Germany

Stig Tanzmann has been working as policy advisor for Brot für die Welt (Bread for the World), Germany, since 2010. He investigates the effects of different agricultural policies on farmers, especially the impact of agricultural policies implemented by the Global North on the Global South countries. Among other important areas of his work are agroecology, bioeconomy, genetic engineering, global impacts of meat production, influence of the private sector and philanthropic foundations on development cooperation and international issues of seed and biodiversity. Stig Tanzmann is an agricultural researcher and trained farmer.

Kids Session

Iren Schulz | Communication Scientist, University of Erfurt and Erfurt University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Iren Schulz is a Communication Scientist, Media Educator and Lecturer at the University of Erfurt and the Erfurt University of Applied Sciences, Germany. She has extensive project and research experience in the field of child and youth media research. In addition, Iren Schulz can draw on long-standing expertise as a leader of workshops, advanced training courses and educational media projects with children, young people as well as parents, pedagogues and multipliers. Her work focuses primarily on the resources and risks of digital media as well as promoting of media competence in families, schools and during leisure time.