EVA KOFFEMAN

LAWRENCE HADDAD

Executive Director of  GAIN and Chair of the Food Systems Summit’s Action Track 1. Economist Lawrence Haddad shares his reflections and insights about actionable outcomes of the Food Systems Summit. What do they imply for our immediate actions as food professionals?

VIVIAN OPONDOH

Vivian Opondoh is an Agritech entrepreneur with a background in Engineering, Software Development, Software Entrepreneurship, and Data Science. Her journey in Tech has been fast-paced and this has been intentional on her part.

CHARLES MICHEL

Colombian-French food educator, experience designer and community catalyst, Charles Michel (featured on Netflix’s The Final Table) refreshes our senses by taking us on a journey that will open our eyes to the root causes and future of (un)healthy and sustainable food choices.

WILMA VAN ESCH

Ms Wilma van Esch is the head of the Food Security and Nutrition division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands since August 2021.

GUIDO LANDHEER

Guido Landheer has been Director of European, International and Agro-Economic Policy at the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality since 2019. Internationally, he functions as the Deputy Director General Agro.

MICHEL SCHOLTE

Having specialised in social research, agent-based modelling and living wages during his Masters, ​Michel Scholte has since gone on to become Executive Director and cofounder of True Price, Director and cofounder at the Impact Institute, as well as an elected Minister of the New Economy.

MYRTILLE DANSE

Netherlands Food Partnership Executive Director Myrtille Danse is an internationally recognised expert on inclusive business, public private partnerships and global impact strategies on food and nutrition security.

ABDALLAH EKOW MANUAR SMITH

Abdallah Smith, is a Ghanaian renewable energy and sustainability sector professional with 7 years working experience in Ghana and the USA. Of those 7 years, 4 years have been spent in his current capacity as Junior Director at MindNET Technologies overseeing projects such as a $80 million infrastructure scale waste-to-energy project to the distribution of solar home systems to off-grid communities.

KWAME KONDOR

Kwame Kondor is a spoken word artist who feeds off his passion for people and the planet.

MARIE-ANGE VAESSEN

Marie-Ange Vaessen is an experienced Marketing and Category Development Manager. With more than 10 years in the FMCG industry, Marie-Ange has been responsible for the strategy and activation of a range of prestigious food industry brands, including MARS and FrieslandCampina.

RACHEL KURAIN

Ms Wilma van Esch is the head of the Food Security and Nutrition division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands since August 2021.

MARIEKE DE RUYTER DE WILDT

Tanzanian-born Marieke is founder of The New Fork, a blockchain company based in Amsterdam. Marieke’s fascination for agrifood started while travelling Africa at the age of 17. Marieke began her career in computer science at Wageningen University and worked on farm data for over 20 years, covering more than 50 countries.

LYNN ZEBEDA & AMA VAN DANTZIG

Lynn Zebeda (l) and Ama van Dantzig (r), co-founders of our collaborating partner Dr. Monk will be our moderators. With their team they will guide us through a day of soulful conversations, ideation sessions, and brain-crackling insights.

JAMES OESI

Nothing quite like the joy of live music to fill up our senses! South-African double bassist James Oesi is a famous face in the classical and contemporary music world. He will grace the World Food Day event with his presence as one of our artistic guides for the day.