J. Scott Carr, CEO, Yottamark
Lukas Casey, Principal Investment Officer, International Finance Corporation
John Chu, Managing Director, Institutional Research: Agri-Industry, AltaCorp Capital
Michael Collette, Product Manager, Tempo Canada
Devin Crago, VP, Research, Greenrock Asset Management
Michael Curry, Managing Partner, Investeco
Steve Cvetko, Director, Duxton Asset Management
Dominic D'Amours, Director, Sustainable Development,
Pineridge Group
Steve De Brabandere, Associate Director, BDO, University of Guelph
Angelos Dassios, Partner, Paine + Partners
Klaus Deininger, Lead Economist, Development Economics Group, The World Bank
James de Pater, CEO, Hendrick Agrifoods
Amol Deshpande, Partner, Kleiner Perkins
Jean-Jacques Dethier, Manager, Research Services,
Development Economics, The World Bank
Tom Eisenhauer, President, Bonnefield Financial
Doug Emsley, Co-Founder and President, Assiniboia Capital
Mike Fata, CEO, Manitoba Harvest
Edward Gildea, CEO, Converted Organics
Jeremy Grushcow, Partner, Norton Rose OR
Judson Hill, Managing Director, NGP Global Adaptation
Partners
Garth Hodges, Global Head of Mergers and Acquisitions,
Bayer CropScience
David Jeromin, Managing Partner, Golden Mean Capital
Bruce Kahn, Director, Senior Investment Analyst,
Deutsche Asset Management
Hamdy Khalil, Global Director, Woodbridge Foam Corporation
Gawain Kripke, Policy Director, Oxfam
Mary Law, Investment Officer, Wake Forest University Endowment
Joshua Levin, Senior Program Officer, Finance and Commodities, WWF
Warren Libby, Former President, Syngenta Canada, President, Evergreen Bio-Ceuticals
Paul Lightfoot, CEO, BrightFarms
Fred Luckey, EVP Sustainability & Innovation,
Bunge North America
Ronald Meeusen, Managing Director, Cultivian Ventures
Stephen Miller, Director, Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, University of Guelph
Keith Mussar, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs & Co-Chair Food Committee, Import/Export Canada
Ralf Oberbannscheidt, Lead Portfolio Manager, Chief Executive Officer, Global Thematic Partners
Michael O'Flynn, Managing Director, UFG Asset
Management
John O'Neill, Director, Investment Trade Policy, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
Mikhail Orlov, President, The Ambika Group
Biff Ourso, CFA Director, Natural Resources, TIAA-CREF
Ernest Papadoyianis, President, Organic Nutrition
Nicholas Parker, Chairman, Cleantech Group
Susan Payne, Executive Chairman, EmVest
Derek Peterson, CEO, Grow Op Ltd.
Marie-Hélène Rochon, Patent Agent, Norton Rose
Larry Ruud, President & CEO, One Earth Farms
Steve Savage, Ag-Tech Consultant and Sustainability Writer, Applied Mythology
Jeff Schmalz, President, Soy 20/20
Jigar Shah, CEO, Carbon War Room
Sunil Sharma, Global Practice Lead, Venture Capital and Private Equity, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
Leonardo Simon, Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Waterloo University
Graham Sinclair, Principal, SinCo, AfricaSIF
Erin Skimson, Director, BDO, University of Guelph
Dave Smardon, President, Bioenterprise Corporation
Jim Taylor, Partner, Avrio Ventures
Johann Tergesen, President and COO, Burcon NutraScience
Seth Terry, Co-Founder, Oberon FMR
Maximo Torero, Director, Markets, Trade, and Institutions
Division, IFPRI
Klaus von Gierke, Head of Hamburg, Norton Rose
Mark White, Head of Real Assets, Albourne Partners
Andrew Williamson, Director, Physic Ventures
Robert Winslow, Agriculture Analyst, Wellington West
Steve Yuzpe, CFO, Sprott Resources
J. Scott Carr
CEO, Yottamark
Scott Carr drives strategy and leads the world-class team that brings you HarvestMark®, the fresh food and traceability solution from YottaMark, Inc. For more than two decades, Scott has delivered content and product identification solutions to a range of business and consumer markets. In 1996, he launched one of the first web-based businesses, with a focus on tracking images for photographers across the Internet. Two years later, his team delivered a global solution to deter counterfeiting of the world's banknotes. Scott has translated this expertise in product identification to the food industry to guide creation of the HarvestMark fresh food traceability platform. Scott holds more than 25 U.S. patents on digital watermarking and its applications. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Oregon State University and holds an Executive MBA from the Stanford/AeA program.
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Lukas Casey
Principal Investment Officer, International Finance Corporation
Lukas Casey is a Principal Investment Officer and Sector Lead for IFC's investments in Primary Agribusiness and Forest Products in the Global Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services Department at International Finance Corporation, or IFC, the private sector investment arm of the World Bank Group. IFC makes equity investments in and long term loans to privately owned businesses in emerging markets, and has a portfolio of approximately US$4.0 billion in Agribusiness investments in emerging markets. Lukas has worked in IFC’s investment operations for 14 years, including seven years in IFC’s Moscow office and the last seven years in Washington, DC. Lukas has led and closed transactions in a wide variety of sectors totaling over US$400 million in Russia, China, Serbia, Bosnia, Lebanon, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Belarus. During FY11, IFC invested approximately $2 billion across the agribusiness supply chain—from farm to retail—to help boost production, increase liquidity, improve logistics and distribution, and expand access to credit for small farmers.
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John Chu
Managing Director, Institutional Research: Agri-Industry, AltaCorp Capital
Prior to joining AltaCorp, Mr Chu was Senior Vice President in Agriculture and Industrials Research for 8 years at Mackie Research Capital (previously Research Capital). Prior thereto, he spent 3 years in equity research at Scotia Capital, and prior to that at HSBC Securities. Mr. Chu holds a B.A. (Honours) in Economics from Queens University, an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, and holds the CFA designation.
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Michael Collette
Product Manager, Tempo Canada
Michael Collette is a 20-year veteran of the flavour industry. He is currently the Functional Beverages Manager at Tempo Canada in Toronto. Michael joined Tempo in 2003 to implement a functional food and beverage capability and has put together a wide and innovative group of supplier companies. Michael is also an expert product formulator, he has worked with IIB on the flavor system for 0-Calorie Canadian Exposure Flavored Water, which were acknowledged by Hidell-Eyster to be among the best tasting in the category. Prior to Tempo, Michael worked for AFI Flavors and subsequently Meterom (now Kerry Mastertaste) as a product developer and formulator for over 15 years.
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Devin Crago
MBA, CFA, Vice President, Greenrock Asset Management
Devin focuses on the firm's research, deal sourcing and investment due diligence activities. Prior to joining Greenrock, Devin worked in New York in the equity research department of a major global investment bank where he was responsible for all aspects of investment research, financial modeling and client communications. Devin has 10 years of investment industry experience in both New York and Toronto and has conducted investment research on a range of sectors including cleantech, business services and natural resources. Devin holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and is a CFA charterholder.
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Michael Curry
Managing Partner, Investeco
Michael's focus at Investeco is identifying investment targets, conducting research and due diligence, and helping drive company growth strategies once an investment is made. Michael became focused on the environmental economy in 2001 when he began researching environmental companies for the E2 Venture Fund. He served for five years as Vice Chair on the board of Organic Meadow and currently sits on the board of Rowe Farms and the STOP Community food centre. Previously, Michael was co-owner/operator of a successful building materials distribution company and spent seven years in the reforestation industry.
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Steve Cvetko
Director, Duxton Asset Management
Steve joined Duxton in May 2009. Prior to joining Duxton, Steve was Director, Head of Execution at DeAM Asia's Complex Asset Investments Team, where he was responsible for agricultural-based real estate and business investments. During his time at DB, he completed the investment in Merriment Rural Investments, originated and executed the Wyalong Rural Investments deal and was an initial Board Member. Steve also investigated investments in Russia, Romania, Bulgaria and other regions of the world. Steve also has over 20 years of experience in corporate finance, working at the corporate services advisory departments of Rabobank, ABN AMRO, Potter Warburg and Ernst & Young, where Steve gained broad deal origination, structuring and financing experience, particularly in the food and agribusiness space. Steve has worked with some of the sector's leading companies and key executives and has over the years forged deep industry relationships with many of them. Prior to joining Duxton, Steve was Head of M&A for Rabobank, Australia, where he worked for 7 years and built an M&A business in the Food & Agribusiness sector, focusing on Australia and New Zealand. In this role, Steve worked with food companies, farmer owned organizations and leading farmers gaining deep international agribusiness investment experience. Prior to working at Rabobank, Steve was the Head of Project Origination & Execution Group at ABN AMRO, where he led a team providing origination and execution support and ideas generation for the M&A Sector Teams. Steve project managed the execution team advising Singapore Airlines on it's A$500m bid for 50% of Ansett, which was owned by News Corporation in 1999. He was also a key team member of the teams that privatized Australia's Federal Airport system, advised Cheung Kong Infrastructure on the $2bn acquisition of Powercor and the sale of Kurri Kurri Aluminum Smelter. Steve holds B.Com in Accounting, Finance & Systems (merit) from UNSW, is an associate at the Institute of Chartered Accountant of Australia and Fellow of Financial Services Institute of Australia. Steve is a licensed Real Estate Agent and Stock & Station Agent in New South Wales, Australia.
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Dominic D'Amours
Director, Sustainable Development, Pineridge Group
Dominic joined Liberté in January, 2008, as Sustainable Development Coordinator and in March 2010 was named Director of Sustainable Development for Pineridge Group. Since early 2009 he has been leading sustainability initiatives at Oakrun Farm Bakery and Gourmet Baker, including Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), energy efficiency initiatives and packaging reduction. In December 2010, he has also undertaken the development of a sustainability strategy for Lavo, a leading manufacturer of eco-friendly household cleaning products, using LCA diagnostic to identify key impact reduction opportunities. Before joining Liberté and Pineridge Dominic worked for six years as a sustainable development consultant. Dominic also acquired Life Cycle Assessment knowledge and experience while pursuing graduate studies at CIRAIG, the biggest LCA research center in Canada. Dominic holds a Master of Applied Sciences degree in Chemical Engineering - Environment from the École Polytechique of the Université de Montréal and a B.A.Sc. in Chemical Engineering and a B.Sc. in Biochemistry - Biotechnology from University of Ottawa.
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Angelos Dassios
Partner, Paine + Partners
Mr. Dassios is a graduate of Dartmouth College (A.B., Applied Mathematics, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa). He began his career in the investment banking division of Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York. In 1998, Mr. Dassios joined the principal investment area of Goldman Sachs where he assisted with the management of the GS Capital Partners group of equity funds. In 2002, Mr. Dassios joined the predecessor firm, Fox Paine & Company, and had responsibility for the firm's Fund II investments in Seminis, Inc. and United National Group, Ltd. After leaving in 2004 to pursue outside interests, Mr. Dassios returned to the predecessor firm in 2006 as a Director and was made a Partner of Paine & Partners in 2010.
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Klaus Deininger
Lead Economist, Development Economics Group, The World Bank
Klaus Deininger is a Lead Economist at the World Bank. His research focuses on income and asset inequality and its relationship to poverty reduction and growth; access to land, land markets and land reform and their impact on household welfare and agricultural productivity; land tenure and its impact on investment, including environmental sustainability for policy analysis and evaluation, mainly in the Africa, Central America, and East Asia Regions. He is a German national with a PhD in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota, an MA in Agricultural Economics from the University of Berlin.
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James de Pater
CEO, Hendrick Agrifoods
Hendrick AgriFoods Inc. is in the business of oilseed production, processing, research and export; with a particular focus on supply export of food-grade soybeans to Japan. Since 1996, Hendrick AgriFoods inc. has worked with the best soybean growers of Eastern Ontario to provide customers in Japan, East Asia and Europe with excellent quality food-grade, Identity Preserved, NON-genetically modified (Non-GMO) soybeans. Indeed, these customers would say that Eastern Ontario is the source of some of the best food-grade soybeans available in world. Hendrick AgriFoods is strongly committed to supplying the global marketplace with non-GMO food-grade soybeans characterized by unique traits and superior quality. We have initiated a Food as Medicine ideology, adding health and quality traits in our Soybean Variety Program for health benefits, while meeting the agronomic needs of growers. To continue to realize this success, Hendrick AgriFoods must ensure that future varieties continue to meet the dual requirements for both agronomic and soy-food performance. To meet this challenge, Hendrick AgriFoods collaborates with Hendrick Seeds Inc. and its research and variety development program with a focus on agronomics and specific soy-food characteristics. As Hendrick Seeds continues to produce high-quality breeder seeds, it is shifting seed characteristics health and nutrition traits such as anti-oxidants and nutraceuticals. We believe that "Food as Medicine" is the new trend and that future export growth is not just simply about increasing volume, but about adding value.
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Amol Deshpande
Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Mr. Deshpande focuses on opportunities in green technology with specific emphasis on fuels, chemicals, water, waste and environmental technologies. While at KPCB Amol has been involved with the firm's first water investment and also incubated Harvest Power, a venture focused on next generation organics recycling. Prior to KPCB, Amol spent three years as a director and associate at Black River and Cargill Ventures, both investment oriented business units of the private agribusiness, Cargill, Inc. While at Cargill, he focused on Greentech investment throughout the energy, water and agricultural supply chain. Amol was directly involved with investments and initiatives in multiple Greentech verticals including solar, next generation fuels, sustainable agriculture, industrial biotech, waste/environmental sciences and carbon markets. Prior to Cargill, Amol was an entrepreneur having founded an agricultural biotechnology company focused on novel germplasm in high value vegetable crops as well as companies in the water sector and educational services sector. Amol has a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign and an MBA from Cornell University where he was a Park Fellow.
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Jean-Jacques Dethier
Research Manager, Development Economics Group, The World Bank
Jean-Jacques Dethier is a Research Manager at the World Bank where, among other tasks, he is in charge of the research budget. He has worked at the Bank since 1985, mostly in Operations, in the Africa, Middle East/North Africa and Europe & Central Asia Regions. He was Country Economist for Hungary and Croatia. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University where he teaches a graduate course on development, and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Development Research (ZEF) of the University of Bonn, in Germany. He also worked as a consultant for FAO, IFAD, USAID, ILO, the Arab Monetary Fund and private consulting firms. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley, a law degree from the University of Liège, Belgium (1975) and an ABD Ph.D. from the Free University in Berlin, Germany.
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Tom Eisenhauer
President, Bonnefield Financial
Tom Eisenhauer is an experienced business advisor and negotiator, a financial executive and investment manager with both "buy-side" and "sell-side" experience and an economist. Tom has more than 22 years of finance experience in a broad range of private equity investing, investment banking and merchant banking activities including buyouts, restructurings, merger and acquisitions, equity underwritings, private placements of debt and equity, as well as numerous valuation and strategic advisory transactions. He is an experienced board director and has been a member of numerous private and public company boards. Prior to joining Bonnefield, Tom was the managing partner of Latitude Partners, which he founded in 1999. Latitude managed the Longitude Fund LP, a private equity fund that specializes in buyouts of private and public Canadian technology companies. Previously, Tom was Managing Director of TD Securities and the founder and head of TD's technology investment banking operations. He was also a managing director of Lancaster Financial, Canada's leading independent merger and acquisition advisory firm, which was acquired by TD Securities in 1995.
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Doug Emsley
Co-Founder, Assiniboia Capital
Doug Emsley is Co-Founder and President of Assiniboia Capital and Palliser Farmland Management Corp., a related company which supplies farmland management services. Doug has a wide array of business and professional experience in the Province of Saskatchewan. He is the President of Emsley & Associates (2002) Inc., which operates an executive business centre in downtown Regina, Chairman of Security Resource Group Inc. (an IT security consulting firm), and Sabre West Oil & Gas Ltd. (an oil & gas company). A successful entrepreneur, he previously built Vision Security & Investigations Inc. into the largest security firm in Western Canada, before selling the company to Securitas Canada Limited. Mr. Emsley has an MBA from York University in Toronto.
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Mike Fata
CEO, Manitoba Harvest
Mike started Manitoba Harvest with his friends Martin and Alex because hemp foods did wonders for him, and he wanted to share them with the world. Honestly, these nutty little nutrient-packed seeds helped save his life. In 1995, he was unhealthy and unhappy. At over 300lbs, Mike was unable to live the active, outdoor lifestyle he desperately wanted. With omegas, digestible proteins, vitamins, minerals and fiber, hemp replenished much of what his body was missing. Before long, he had enough natural energy to climb a mountain…and a message to spread once he got there. Ten years ago he and his partners created a new industry, growing hemp seeds on Manitoba farms (and, in the process, aiding the re-legalization of hemp growing). Their hemp oil, milk and butter are premium fuel for the body and the world’s engine is purring: Manitoba Harvest has been on Profit 100’s fastest-growing companies list three times, putting hemp on the health-food map.
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Edward Gildea
CEO, Converted Organics
With more than 20 years of success working for public and private, Fortune 250 and startup companies, including Quality Metric Incorporated, Grolier Incorporated and Kellogg Company, Mr. Gildea has been involved at the highest executive level in strategic planning, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, finance, corporate governance, negotiations, and domestic and international securities activities. Further areas of global expertise include public disclosure, intellectual property, and new business development. Assignments have been varied and the consistent success of the teams directed by Mr. Gildea has proven the effectiveness of his skill to shareholders, board members, senior managers and other stakeholders. Mr. Gildea holds an AB from College of the Holy Cross and a JD from Suffolk University Law School.
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Jeremy Grushcow
Partner, Norton Rose OR
Jeremy Grushcow’s practice focuses on life science, cleantech and other technology-intensive transactions. He has represented venture capital and private equity firms, underwriters, operating companies and founders in connection with public and private offerings, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and other strategic transactions, licensing and outsourcing agreements, operating and service agreements and ongoing disclosure advice. Mr. Grushcow is the founder and co-editor of The Cross-Border Biotech Blog. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Grushcow practised in the area of intellectual property transactions and in capital markets at two US-based international law firms.
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Judson Hill
Managing Director, NGP Global Adaptation Partners
Mr. Hill joined NGP in 2010 and serves as a Managing Director of the NGP funds. He is an industry leader in the water and environmental services sector. He has over 30 years of experience in both water and environmental service company operations as well as over a decade of private equity experience in the water industry. He leads NGP's efforts in sourcing, execution and monitoring of opportunities in the water and environmental services sectors. Prior to joining NGP, Mr. Hill was a Managing Partner with Summit Global Management, Inc. where he was responsible for all private equity investments in the water sector. From 1999 to 2008, he served as a Managing Director of Aqua International Partners and then The Halifax Group, both affiliates of the Texas Pacific Group. Mr. Hill's early career was with Atlantic Richfield and Westinghouse Electric Corporation where he held operating and executive roles in the environmental and water sectors. Mr. Hill received a Bachelor of Science in Biology / Chemistry in 1977 from Edinboro State University and a Bachelor and Masters of Science in Environmental Engineering in 1979 from the University of Pittsburgh. He serves as a Trustee of the Water Keeper Alliance.
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Garth Hodges
Global Head of M&A, Bayer CropScience
Garth Hodges is Global Head of Bayer CropScience's Business Development Department responsible for M&A, licensing, investments and divestments. Previously he led the global Oilseeds and Wheat Seeds & Traits business for the BioScience division, based in Calgary Canada since 2002. In this context he led the global teams responsible for Canola, Oil Seed Rape and Wheat research, development and business. Garth was born and raised in the South Africa. He received a Masters of Science degree in Agriculture and spent 12 years in various disciplines of Agriculture from field research and development, technical support, marketing and regional manager for crop protection. Garth and his family left South Africa in 1998 for a work assignment in Frankfurt, Germany and took responsibility for licensing and developing biotechnology traits. He then moved with the company to Lyon, France in 2000.
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David Jeromin
Managing Partner, Golden Mean Capital
David Jeromin is Co-Founder of Golden Mean Capital and is responsible for the firm’s business development and structuring of investments in Africa. David is a seasoned financial executive with a wide range of experience – from arranging middle market financial transactions to business and economic development initiatives in frontier markets. His specific interests are development projects involving African Small to Medium Enterprises with particular emphasis in fragmented or disparate markets. David has experience in the study and application of Social Return on Investment (SROI) analytics and believes the use of SROI as well as traditional valuation measures allow individuals and institutions to measure the full impact of their investments. Prior to helping create Golden Mean Capital, David was a Vice President with the investment bank Oppenheimer & Company from 2004-2007. David is a graduate of the University of San Francisco and currently sits on the Board of Directors of Caranda Fine Foods, an African specialty foods company.
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Bruce Kahn
Director, Senior Investment Analyst, Deutsche Bank
Bruce Kahn, Director and Senior Investment Analyst at Deutsche Asset Management, advises portfolio managers and product developers on the thematic trends of climate change in both traditional and alternative investments. Mr. Kahn joined Deutsche Bank in 2008 with over 20 years of experience in environmental research and investments. He is a trustee of the Jesse Smith Noyes Foundation and holds a PhD in Environmental Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
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Hamdy Khalil
Global Director, Woodbridge Foam Corporation
Dr. Hamdy Khalil pioneered the introduction and commercialization of renewable materials into the polyurethane chemistry used in the interior automotive parts manufacturing which is now the benchmark for the industry. Prior to his present position at Woodbridge Foam Corporation - a major manufacturer of flexible moulded polyurethane foam for the global automotive industry- Hamdy held positions at Labatt's in the pharmaceutical Division, for PolySar Corporation as analytical laboratory supervisor and as Senior Technical Manager for BFGoodrich. Hamdy sits on the scientific advisory committee of FPInnovations and on the NRC steering committee for Bio-products development. His first passion is the mentoring and the customized development of young scientists and technical personnel. Dr. Khalil holds a BSc with majors in chemistry and physics from the University of Alexandria in Egypt, MSc in Nutritional Biochemistry from Cairo University Egypt and a PhD from Windsor University.
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Gawain Kripke
Policy Director, Oxfam
Gawain Kripke is the senior policy adviser on international trade policy with Oxfam America, based in Washington, D.C. With his diverse experience as an advocate, spokesperson, and author, Kripke heads the policy work of the organization's Make Trade Fair campaign, which aims to change the rules of international trade so that trade becomes a powerful force for reducing poverty across the globe. Prior to joining Oxfam, Kripke worked as director of economic programs at Friends of the Earth, an international environmental non-governmental organization, and as a freelance journalist and researcher. Kripke earned a bachelor's degree in government from Harvard College.
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Mary Law
Investment Officer, Wake Forest University Endowment
Mary Law is an Investment Analyst with multiple responsibilities relating to the performance of the University's endowment. These include tracking the returns of the endowment and conducting various portfolio analytics. In addition to her overall portfolio responsibilities, she monitors the performance of all of the endowment's individual investment managers and maintains a dialog with them. Mary contributes to the quantitative and qualitative due diligence on potential new managers and strategies and recommends additions and deletions to the endowment portfolio. She serves as the liaison between the Investment Office and various internal and external constituencies. Prior to joining the Office of Investments, Mary was a fixed income credit analyst. At TIAA-CREF, she served as a Director in their Corporate Fixed Income and International Public and Private Bond divisions. She was also a Managing Director at David L. Babson (now Babson Capital Management) where she had credit and portfolio responsibilities in bank loans, high yield and investment grade bonds. Her prior experience at CIGNA Investment Management included corporate and agricultural loan workouts in addition to structuring and documenting domestic and international private placements. Mary is a Chartered Financial Analyst. She holds two degrees in Agricultural Economics, including a B.S with Honors from the University of Wyoming and a Masters Degree from Cornell University.
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Joshua Levin
Senior Program Officer, Finance and Commodities, WWF
Joshua Levin is a Senior Program Officer at the World Wildlife Fund, specializing in finance and agricultural commodities. His work is in finance for international sustainable agriculture, and he is passionate about the potential for ecological agriculture as a transformational development approach. Joshua has worked in the past with Root Capital, the Rainforest Alliance, EcoAgriculture Partners, and Conservation International. He holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business, where he was a Catherine B. Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship, and a BA from Harvard University. He lives with his wife in Brooklyn, NY.
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Warren Libby
President, Evergreen Bio-Ceuticals
Warren was raised on a dairy farm in southwestern Ontario and has been involved in agriculture his entire life, mainly within the Crop Protection industry. Warren worked over 27 years with Syngenta and its predecessor companies (Novartis and Ciba-Geigy) both in Canada and Europe. During that time he served as president of both Syngenta Canada and Novartis Crop Protection Canada. In 2001 Warren left the security of multi-national life to acquire a 50% ownership in Engage Agro, and helped build Engage into Canada's leading distributor of pesticides for speciality markets across the country. As a true entrepreneur in the agribusiness sector, Warren has been directly involved in the creation of several other companies including Engage Animal Health Corporation, Evergreen Bio-Ceuticals Inc., and Wellington Agribusiness Development Inc. Most recently Warren launched The Savvy Farmer Inc., Canada's only national web-based information service that provides farmers and pest control professionals with information to make more cost-effective farm chemical choices for every pest and every crop grown in Canada. Throughout his career Warren has been an active promoter and defender of the crop protection industry as (twice) Chairman of CropLife Canada, and is currently a Board member of Bioenterprise Inc., a non-profit organization which specializes in helping agribusiness entrepreneurs at an early stage in their development cycle.
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Paul Lightfoot
CEO, BrightFarms
Paul Lightfoot is the Chief Executive Officer of BrightFarms, which designs, finances, builds and operates greenhouse farms at grocery retailers, eliminating time, distance and costs from their produce supply chain. For nearly ten years, Paul was the CEO of an enterprise software company that improved the supply chains of major retailer and their suppliers. Previously, Paul was the founder and CEO of Foodline, a venture-backed software company that provided customer and reservations information technology to restaurants. Before that, Paul was a transactional attorney at the Wall Street law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. Paul was recognized by Chain Store Age magazine as a “Rising Star in Retail” in their annual 40 Under 40 awards. Paul has a B.A. from Lehigh University and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law.
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Fred Luckey
EVP Sustainability & Innovation, Bunge North America
Fred W. Luckey was named Executive Vice President of Bunge North America responsible for sustainability and innovation in October 2010. Prior to this Mr. Luckey was Executive Vice President responsible for Bunge’s foods segment, industrial management and procurement. Since joining Bunge in 1982 he has held numerous trading and management positions in Bunge’s oilseed processing and grain operations in several locations throughout the United States. Prior to joining Bunge, Mr. Luckey held various operations and commercial positions with Goldkist from 1976-1982. Mr. Luckey also has previous experience in the retail sector, most notably with Sears Roebuck & Co. Mr. Luckey received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Cameron University in 1970.
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Ronald Meeusen
Managing Director, Cultavian Ventures
Ron has 30 years of experience in bringing new technologies and products to market. He has led research and development for major corporations in agricultural chemicals, field crop and vegetable genetics and breeding, animal health, novel foods and industrial materials. His successful projects include planning and conducting the world's first field trial of a genetically engineered crop trait in 1986, development and launch of one of the first insect and herbicide resistant corn hybrids in 1996, introduction of a trans-fat free canola oil, and development of dozens of new varieties of field and vegetable crops on three continents. Ron has been a frequent speaker at conferences, a consultant to Federal policy on biotechnology regulatory issues, and active in industry trade groups on key issues such as European acceptance of new food technologies. Prior to forming Cultivian Ron spent two years as an executive-on-loan writing an economic development plan for the State of Indiana's food and agricultural sectors. During the previous six years as Global Leader of Biotechnology at Dow AgroSciences, Ron led the expansion of its biotechnology research and development program.
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Stephen Miller
Director, Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, University of Guelph
Stephen is the Director of the Centre for the Genetic Improvement of Livestock at the University of Guelph, where he has been a faculty member in livestock genetics since 1999. He has been involved in developing tools for genetic improvement involving many species including beef and dairy cattle, sheep and turkeys. More recently, Dr. Miller’s research has focussed on genomic tools for selection. Dr. Miller’s research team has developed a marker for beef tenderness that is being used commercially and the team has been involved in the validation of markers prior to commercial use. Stephen’s research focus is on bringing genomic selection tools to practical application in industry. Stephen received his Ph.D. from the University of Guelph in 1997.
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Keith Mussar
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs & Co-Chair Food Committee, Import/Export Canada
Keith is a consumer product and food safety specialist with over 30 years of experience in food manufacturing, marketing, supply chain management and regulatory affairs. Prior to joining I.E.Canada, Keith held corporate management positions with Kraft-General Foods, Labatt Brewing Company, the Weston Foods Group and Cadbury Schweppes. In his role with I.E.Canada, Keith works closely with Health Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Agriculture Canada, Environment Canada and the U.S. FDA and USDA to advance the interests of the food import and export sectors. In 2010 Keith was appointed by Health Canada to co-chair the Health Canada Food Regulatory Advisory Committee. Since 2007 he has served as the food industry’s advisor to the Health Canada Environmental Assessment Working Group and as the industry’s representative on the National Chemicals Management Plan Stakeholder Advisory Council. He represented the Canadian food sector on the Standards Council of Canada multi-stakeholder groups that developed the Canadian national standard for the labelling of genetically engineered foods, the production and labelling of organic food and food safety. Keith often serves as an intermediary between government regulators and food importers to help resolve import and enforcement issues with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency or Canada Border Services Agency. Recognized nationally as a consensus builder and adult educator, Keith has led numerous workshops on food safety and nutrition, emergency preparedness, avian and pandemic influenza preparedness and foot and mouth disease. He is co-author of the Supply Chain Food Product Recall Manual and the Importers Food Safety Workbook and has trained over 3,000 Canadian food professionals on food safety best practices and offers food recall training courses annually. A graduate of the University of Waterloo, Keith holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and is frequently consulted as the food industry expert on biotechnology.
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Ralf Oberbannscheidt
Managing Director, Head of Agribusiness, Co-Manager of International Thematic Equity, Global Thematic Partners
Ralf manages the Global Agribusiness Equity product for Global Thematic Partners. In this role, he is in charge of portfolio strategy and supervising a team of research analysts that he has assembled over the past several years. Ralf and Oliver founded the Global Agribusiness strategy at Deutsche Asset Management in 2006. After working for 10 years in the financial industry in Germany, Ralf moved to New York in early 2006. The focus of his work, previously at Deutsche Asset Management, has been on launching, managing and developing the Global Agribusiness strategy, a standalone product that derived from the established Global Thematic fund. His most recent five years of investment experience include extensive fieldwork analyzing every angle of the agribusiness value chain, beginning with farm visits in almost every relevant growing region of the world. Given the dominant size of GTP's agribusiness strategy, Ralf's investment goals include shaping the global agribusiness world in a responsible and sustainable manner by drawing upon his carefully cultivated network of agribusiness experts via frequent dialogue. Before joining Deutsche Asset Management in New York, Ralf achieved his academic credentials in Trier, Germany, Stirling, Scotland and Monterey, California with a focus on international finance and management as well as emerging markets. Previous responsibilities include senior portfolio manager for global equities at Deutsche Bank's retail divison DWS in Frankfurt, Germany, as well as global sector coordinator and analyst for the telecom sector at the beginning of his investment career.
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Michael O'Flynn
Managing Director, UFG Asset Management
Michael O'Flynn is a Managing Director and Head of Business Development for UFG Asset Management. He is based in Boston, USA and is responsible for fundraising across all asset classes at UFG AM. He was most recently was employed as Director of Emerging Markets Equities at Deutsche Bank Securities in Boston and New York following the 2006 sale of UFG's investment bank to Deutsche Bank. Mr. O'Flynn rejoined UFG in April, 2009. He is an expert in Russian and Japanese financial markets. From 2003-2005 Michael O'Flynn was a UFG partner and successfully built the investment bank's consistently top-rated Russian sales and trading franchise in America. Prior to that Mr. O'Flynn worked for Deutsche Bank in Tokyo from 1999-2002 as an institutional Japanese equity salesman after the firm redeployed him from Moscow following the 1998 Russian financial crisis. Mr. O'Flynn holds the unique distinction of being ranked the #1 equity research salesman in back-to-back years on two continents in two completely different products - by AsiaMoney magazine in 2001 and 2002 for his efforts in Japan, and then by Thompson Financial/EuroMoney in 2004 and 2005 as Russia's top advisor. Mr. O'Flynn holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Economics from Dartmouth College and a Master of Business Administration degree in International Finance from the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School. He is conversant in Russian, Japanese, and Spanish. He splits time between Boston and Moscow.
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John O'Neill
Director, Investment Trade Policy, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
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Mikhail Orlov
President, The Ambika Group
Mikhail Orlov is Founder & President of Ambika. He graduated from St-Gall School of Economics and holds a master degree in economics. In 1992 he became a Technical Officer in the General Director's Office of the UN World Health, where he actively participated in the transition process of the former USSR towards market economy from a point of view of health care. From 1994 he worked for Credit Suisse at its Headquarters in Zurich and its Representative Office in Moscow developing a large network of correspondent banking relationships throughout Russia. In 1995 he became Executive Director of INVESCO Moscow and turned around several companies in Russia and Urkaine. From 1998 to 2002 he was active as Managing Director of the Carlyle Group and head of their Moscow office. In 2002 he founded Bailington Investments Ltd, a small company, which acts as an advisor to investors willing to make direct investments in Russia or in the states of the Former USSR. In 2005 he founded Black Earth Farming Limited, operating more than 320,000 hectares in the Central Black Earth Region of Russia, and worked as its president until 2008. He successfully listed the company on the Stockholm stock exchange in December 2007. In 2009 he founded the Ambika Group, which manages investments in the agri-food sector of Russia and Africa. Ambika also provides farm management support and advisory services. He has been a Board member in several companies from 1992. His activities have always focused at creating a profound social and efficiency change in the companies, which he was turning around, as well as in the regions, where they are operating. Black Earth Farming Ltd as well as his current activities with the Ambika group have a deep impact socially in the regions of Russia and Africa, where he operates, bringing a significant technological and social turn around. In Russia he brought back to life large estates which had been abandoned for years. He is a member of the Club 2015 and of the International Advisory Board of the R. Wagner School of Public Administration at New York University. He was awarded by the Stolypin price in 2008 by the Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation for the most efficient investments into Russian agriculture.
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Biff Ourso
CFA Director, Natural Resources, TIAA-CREF
Biff Ourso is a Director with TIAA-CREF and a member of the Natural Resources team. He is based in North Carolina and his responsibilities include leading the row crop agricultural investment origination program and the management of the row crop agriculture portfolio. Mr. Ourso supported the development of TIAA-CREF’s agricultural investment platform since its inception. In previous assignments, Mr. Ourso conducted privately-placed debt underwriting and portfolio management. Mr. Ourso holds a BA, Economics from Davidson College where he was a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon, an international economics honor society, and he also is a CFA charter holder.
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Ernest Papadoyianis
President, Organic Nutrition, President, Aqua Biologics
Ernie is developing and applying next-generation aquaculture, bio-energy, and agriculture technologies to economically feed and power the world, while continuing to preserve our environment. His patent-pending systems integrate fish, organic produce and waste-to-energy production in order to decrease costs and provide multiple revenue streams.
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Nicholas Parker
Chairman, The Cleantech Group
Nicholas Parker is Chairman of the Cleantech Group - the market-leading research company that introduced the cleantech concept to the investment and business community in 2002, and Parker Venture Management, his private investment and advisory business. Previously Nicholas accumulated over 15 years experience starting and investing venture funds worldwide through limited partnerships, family offices, corporate funds and endowments. During this time, he pioneered the first "sustainability" driven private equity funds and participated in one of the first solar IPOs. In the 1990s, he also founded, built and sold an environmental finance firm. He's advised economic development agencies, major corporations and institutional investors, spoken at nearly all major industry events and been quoted by most of the leading media publications. Nicholas has authored or edited more than ten publications related to cleantech, finance and international business, starting with Investing in Emerging Economies in 1993. He's currently Chairman of Corporate Knights and the Blue Economy Initiative, as well as on several boards, including: Government of Singapore Cleantech Advisory Board, Canadian Centre of Excellence for Commercialization of Research and the Green Jobs Award. From 2003-08, he was Chairman of E+Co, a public purpose investment company for clean energy enterprises in developing countries. He earned a BA Hons. in Technology Studies (Carleton University, Ottawa), an MBA (City University, London), and is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). Nicholas has lived and worked in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America while currently residing in Toronto.
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Susan Payne
Executive Chairman, EmVest
Susan has worked in the emerging markets on both the sell and buy side for over 20 years. After having been called to the Bar in Canada in 1985, Susan joined JP Morgan in 1986, where she was Head of Emerging Markets Sales, Europe. In 1993, Susan joined Goldman Sachs International as an Executive Director and Head of Emerging Markets Debt Sales and Trading, Europe. In 1997, Susan founded Emergent Asset Management Limited, an award–winning, alternative investment firm based in the UK, where Susan managed EM portfolios, as well as focusing on developing the firm’s Real Assets division in Africa through Emergent's "Pro Alia Management" and EmVest Asset Management and Agri Corp., which currently manages a large agri fund involving growing, processing and distributing 34 commodities across 5 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2011, Susan sold her stake in Emergent and bought out EmVest, where she is now Executive Chairman. EmVest's head office is based in Pretoria, South Africa. In both 2007 and 2008, Susan was appointed by Financial News as one of the Top 100 Women in Finance in Europe. Susan was awarded a Shell UK Women of the Future Award in 2006. Susan is on the Board of MyC4, a microfinance business focused on ending poverty in Africa, and is a Patron and Board Member of the Africa-focused charity Medical Aid Films. She is also Head of the UK Chapter of 85 Broads, the largest professional women’s network in the world. Susan began her schooling in Vancouver, Canada and completed it in Rome, Italy. She holds three Honours degrees, including two in law from Oxford University and McGill University, Montreal, respectively. She also studied at St. Andrews University, Scotland, University of Perugia, Italy and University of Tel Aviv, Israel.
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Derek Peterson
Grow Op Ltd.
Derek began his career in finance with Crowell, Weedon & Co, the largest independent broker- dealer on the West Coast. In his 6 years there, Derek became a partner and Branch supervisor where he was responsible for sales of over $10 Million. Derek was offered an opportunity to build a southern Orange County presence for Wachovia Securities, where he became a 1st Vice President and Branch Manager for their Mission Viejo Location. He was instrumental in growing that office from the ground up, into the $15 million dollar office it is today. After his term at Wachovia, Derek accepted an opportunity for a Senior Vice President position with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, where he and his team oversaw combined assets of close to $100 Million. In addition, he has also been involved in several public and private equity financings, where he has personally funded several projects from Angel to Mezzanine levels. Derek is a CFP® Professional and holds his Series 7, General Securities Sales Supervisor Series 9 and 10, National Commodity Futures Series 3, Series 65 and California Insurance License. Derek holds a degree in Business Management from Pepperdine University.
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Marie-Hélène Rochon
Patent Agent, Norton Rose
Marie-Hélène Rochon’s practice focuses on intellectual property, with particular emphasis on analyzing the patentability of inventions, drafting and prosecuting patent applications, and preparing due diligence reports. She provides strategic advice to clients regarding patent portfolio management and conducts customized training sessions in which she discusses important patent portfolio management issues, such as strategic IP drafting and filing decisions, patent eligibility assessments, recent domestic and foreign jurisprudence, etc. Dr. Rochon also provides technical assistance in litigation matters and commercial transactions. Dr. Rochon’s key area of expertise is biotechnology. She has unique experience in protecting inventions relating to biologicals, biotechnology tools (diagnostic methods, screening assays, antibody-based, peptide-based and nucleotide-based reagents), personalized medicine, therapeutic approaches (such as cellular-based therapy), food science and natural products. During her undergraduate studies she trained in the use of various molecular biology research techniques. At the master’s level she specialized in molecular biology, microbial genetics and polymer biochemistry. Dr. Rochon’s doctoral research focused on tissue engineering.
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Larry Ruud
President & CEO, One Earth Farms
Larry Ruud has been actively involved in farming for more than 20 years with positions in the ownership, management and operations of a farm. Mr. Ruud is a current Director of Viterra, the largest grain company in Canada, and a member of both Viterra's Audit Committee and Safety, Health and Environment Committee. He is also a member of the University of Alberta President's Think Tank. Before joining One Earth Farms, Mr. Ruud was a partner with Meyers Norris Penny, where he led their Agriculture Management Consulting Team in Alberta and was also Director of Practice Development. Mr. Ruud brings 15 years of experience as an active management consultant for farmers in areas such as commodity price risk management, capital investment decisions, growth management, process improvement, management transition, and ownership transition, and in developing joint farming agreements (mergers, joint ventures and partnerships). He is a regular speaker at industry events on the future of farming and on areas of management improvement, as well as a past Director of a regional Credit Union. Mr. Ruud has a MSc in Agriculture Economics from the University of Alberta.
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Steve Savage
Ag-Tech Consultant and Sustainability Writer, Applied Mythology
Steve Savage is a blogger and speaker who covers topics related to agriculture and the technologies that enable sustainable farming. He has also been an independent consultant since 1996. His clients have included companies of various sizes, venture capital groups, universities, and grower groups. He has extensive experience in biological control, chemical pest control, biotechnology, biofuels and life cycle analysis. Steve maintains a blog called Applied Mythology, but also posts on a variety of other sites to reach different audiences. He has a B.S. from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the University of California, Davis. Prior to consulting, Steve worked for Colorado State University, DuPont, and Mycogen. He lives in Northern San Diego County, California.
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Jeff Schmalz
President, Soy 20/20
Jeff Schmalz is currently the president of Soy 20/20, which develops new bio-science opportunities for Canadian soybeans. Prior to joining Soy 20/20, Jeff held a variety of executive positions in the consumer packaged goods industry, most notably with Burnbrae Farms, Nabisco Limited and General Mills. He has considerable experience in managing consumer brands, creating and marketing new products and in the development and commercialization of new business ventures. Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University.
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Jigar Shah
CEO, Carbon War Room
A renowned visionary, Jigar Shah is committed to renewable energy and sustainable solutions that enable prosperity beyond the carbon economy. As CEO of the Carbon War Room, Jigar is dedicated to indentifying business-as-usual practices and replacing them with low-carbon solutions. Prior to the Carbon War Room, Jigar founded SunEdison in 2003. Under his leadership, SunEdison revolutionized the solar industry by introducing a business model to sell solar as a service. The transformation to solar power service agreements is responsible for turning solar services into a multi-billion dollar industry. Jigar is also an expert on energy project finance, changing energy policy, working with entrenched stakeholders, and convincing individuals to embrace energy technology. He works closely with entrepreneurs, policymakers, and investors around the world to develop, incubate, and implement sustainable solutions. Jigar holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, and an MBA from the University of Maryland. Jigar sits on the boards of the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development, SB NOW, and Greenpeace USA.
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Sunil Sharma
Global Practice Lead, Venture Capital and Private Equity, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
Sunil Sharma is a Foreign Service Diplomat with Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade currently serving as the Global Practice Lead of Venture Capital and Private Equity based in the MaRS Innovation Centre in Toronto's Discovery District. Sunil is currently on a special assignment with Canada's Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) as the Director of International Relations where his mandate is to build strategic relationships with venture capital and private equity funds and institutional investors across the world. Sunil regularly serves as a speaker at many Canadian and international conferences on topics pertaining to early-stage venture capital attraction, private equity investment, innovation capacity-building and global trends in investment and innovation. Since 2008 Sunil has been a Director of the Quebec City Conference - an invitation-only gathering of over 500 of the world's leading venture capital, private equity and institutional investors which takes place each year in Quebec City, Canada and which attracts the who's who of international private equity, institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds. Sunil's last diplomatic assignment was as Consul and Trade Commissioner (Head of Consulate) in San Diego, California. The Canadian Consulate in San Diego, which Sunil was responsible for establishing, is a diplomatic mission with a focus on pursuing trade, investment and technology partnerships, as well as general and political relations between Canada and Southern California. Previously, Sunil was on assignment with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) and served as Canada's representative to the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) General Assemblies in Geneva and was elected Vice-Chair of a Key Technical Committee. Prior to his work at CIPO, Sunil served as a Senior Investment Analyst for Technology Partnerships Canada where he completed several investment deals involving emerging Canadian high technology companies. Sunil possesses a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics from the University of Victoria and a Master's of Industrial Relations Degree from the University of Toronto.
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Leonardo Simon
Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Waterloo University
Prof. Simon is a lead investigator in Ontario’s BioCar project which is taking agricultural products, like straw, and processing those as polymer sources to develop plastics that can go into car parts manufacturing. University of Guelph researchers will develop the raw agricultural materials and study crop genetics. Professor Simon will chemically modifying the fibres to obtain new functionality and then transforming these modified fibres into composite resins and polymers at the nano-scale. University of Windsor will incorporate these nanocomposites into automotive parts.
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Graham Sinclair
Principal, SinCo, AfricaSIF
Graham Sinclair is a sustainable investment strategist, ESG investment architect and global project leader. His engagements model investment architecture integrating environmental, social and governance factors into investment strategy, processes and indexes. SinCo is the leading sustainable investment advisory boutique that designs and develops ESG architecture for institutional investors, international organizations and asset owners at the frontiers of sustainable investment. Since 2006 SinCo has delivered design and strategy for clients ranging from trillion-dollar investment managers to international organizations like the IFC, UN, and WBCSD. Before joining KLD in Boston, he worked in pensions consulting and investment banking through 2002. Graham chairs the Prudential Assets Working Group of the investment industry group ASISA and chairs the Africa Sustainable Investment Forum project [AfricaSIF]. Graham has graduate degrees in business and law and lectures on sustainable investment at leading business schools in North America, Europe and Africa. He resides in Vermont, USA and Cape, South Africa.
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Erin Skimson
Director, BDO, University of Guelph
Erin Skimson is the Director of the BDO. Erin oversees the BDO team, and all functions of the technology transfer managers and the Industry Liaison Officer. She has a strong background in management, marketing, and technology and business development having served for over 10 years in various management roles at Stryker Canada LP and Serono prior to joining U of G. She holds a B.Sc. in Health Education from Dalhousie University and an MBA from McMaster University. Erin is an alumna of the Guelph/Wellington Community Leadership program and has a strong interest in both community and international work. Her focus as BDO director is on building partnerships to advance innovation at the University of Guelph.
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Dave Smardon
President, Bioenterprise Corporation
Dave Smardon is a seasoned executive with a background in establishing, growing, and financing technology-based companies. He has the insight and outlook to confidently say agri-technology is a "New Wave" of investment opportunity. A hugely successful entrepreneur himself, Dave campaigns on behalf of the interests of Canadian entrepreneurs, and strives to help build a venture capital industry in Canada that is both sustainable and active. Dave also acts as an advisor to a number of government funding programs, offers his knowledge as a volunteer for several associations, and sits actively as a Board Member of more than a half-dozen companies. Investing in his own ideas proved triumphant, when Dave founded three technology businesses: Learning Connections, Commcorp Technologies Inc., the Nibiru group of companies, including: Nibiru Tactical Corporation, Nibiru Investments, Nibiru Capital Management Limited and Nibiru Corporate Finance Inc. These entities continue to be active today. Throughout his career, Dave has been appointed to a variety of mid and senior level positions within industry leading companies, including: Texas Instruments Inc., Unisys Corporation, Meridian Technologies and Apple Computer Inc. It was during this time that Mr. Smardon developed very strong ties into the venture capital, investment banking and angel communities, in both the USA and Canada. These ties remain strong today.
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Jim Taylor
Partner, Avrio Ventures
Jim has been involved with venture capital for the last 10 years. Prior to Avrio, Jim established Farm Credit Canada (FCC) Ventures where he was responsible for developing the venture capital program, strategy, investment thesis, operating procedures, guidelines and processes. In addition, he was an active investor with a particular focus in growth stage companies in the Industrial Products sector. Before FCC Ventures, Jim was responsible for the Bank of Montreal Capital Corporation's activities in Western Canada. Following his experience at Bank of Montreal Capital Corporation, he worked for Westcoast Energy to help establish a structured finance group. Jim's years of experience in venture, mezzanine and subordinated debt markets are combined with valuable operating experience at a small manufacturing company in Calgary. Previous investments include Associated Proteins, Bento Nouveau, BIOX Corporation (Investment position acquired by Birch Hill Partners), Commercial Solutions Inc. (TSX: CSA), and Houweling's Nurseries. Jim has Bachelor of Art's (Economics) degree from the University of Alberta and an MBA from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. He spends time as a volunteer youth group leader and assists in community welfare projects.
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Johann Tergesen
President & COO, Burcon NutraScience
Mr. Tergesen was one of the founding shareholders of Burcon Capital Corp., which acquired B.M.W. Canola Inc. in October of 1999 and subsequently changed its name to Burcon NutraScience Corporation. Prior to his role as President and Chief Operating Officer of Burcon, Mr. Tergesen was Vice President and Treasurer of BurCon Properties Limited, a real estate development and ownership company with assets in excess of $3 billion. Mr. Tergesen has been with the Burcon group of companies since December of 1995. Prior to that, he was a manager in the corporate finance group of the Vancouver office of Coopers & Lybrand, Chartered Accountants. Mr. Tergesen holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Winnipeg, an M.B.A. from McGill University, and is a member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.
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Seth Terry
Co-Founder, Oberon FMR
Seth is a co-founder and VP of Operations at Oberon FMR, Inc., a Colorado-based biotech firm commercializing a novel microbial protein ingredient produced while simultaneously treating wastewater at food and beverage manufacturers. Seth is also the co-developer of the technology underlying Oberon's patented production process. Seth uses his experience in the operation and optimization of biological wastewater treatment processes to qualify opportunities with potential industrial partners, including brewers, wet corn millers, potato processors, and sugar refiners. Seth has worked on both water and wastewater projects as an engineering consultant, holds an undergraduate degree from Princeton University, a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering from CSM, and an MBA from Regis University.
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Maximo Torero
Director, Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division, IFPRI
Maximo Torero is the Division Director of the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute, leader of the Global Research Program on Institutions and Infrastructure for Market Development and Director for Latin America. He has fifteen years of experience in applied research and in operational activities. In this capacity as director and research program leader, he directs the activities of an IFPRI unit that conducts research, with special emphasis on M&E of infrastructure and rural development interventions in urban and peri-urban areas through the use of randomized experimental design. Prior to joining IFPRI, he was a senior researcher and member of the executive committee at Group of Analysis for Development (GRADE). He received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles, Department of Economics and held a postdoctoral fellow position at the UCLA Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR). He is also a professor on leave at the Universidad del Pacífico, and Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at University of Bonn, Germany.
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Klaus von Gierke
Head of Hamburg, Norton Rose
Dr. Klaus von Gierke is a corporate lawyer based in Hamburg and in Frankfurt and head of the Hamburg office. He has extensive experience in all aspects relating to mergers and acquisitions, cross border transactions, corporate restructuring, joint ventures, private equity and venture capital investments and general commercial and corporate issues. His clients are from a range of industries including information, communications and technology (ICT), manufacturing, distribution and the public sector. Klaus gained his doctorate in comparative law at the University of Freiburg and his LL.M. degree at Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans. He was called to the Hamburg Bar in 1984. Klaus is also a German qualified certified specialist for corporate and commercial law. A native German speaker, Klaus is fluent in English and French.
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Mark White
Head of Real Assets, Albourne Partners
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Andrew Williamson
Director, Physic Ventures
Since joining Physic Ventures early in 2007, Dr. Williamson has focused on working with companies that are developing technologies, products and services to enable consumers to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. Among the portfolio company investments managed by Physic Ventures, Andrew is on the boards of Chromatin, EnergyHub, Gazelle, Halosource, Impinj and Novomer. Prior to joining Physic Ventures, Andrew spent 10 years leading materials science research and development projects at the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. At NREL, Andrew developed computational models for predicting the opto-electronic properties of next generation photovoltaic materials. At LLNL, Andrew was the project leader for computational nanomaterials research. His group's research activities included nanomaterials, hydrogen storage, thermoelectric materials and battery technology. Andrew also helped LLNL develop strategies for identifying and commercializing new technologies. He represented LLNL as an Executive Management Fellow in the University of California Industry-University Cooperative Research Program to establish industrial alliance programs for new University of California research centers in nanotechnology, micro-fluidics, foods for health, and stem cell research. Andrew has published over 50 peer reviewed academic articles and 2 patents. He holds a BA and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Cambridge and a MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
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Robert Winslow
Agriculture Analyst, Wellington West
Before joining Wellington West Capital Markets, Robert Winslow had served as an equity analyst at Orion Securities and before that he was a strategy consultant in the Toronto and Brussels offices of Bain & Co. Robert was also employed at Caterpillar Inc. where he was a senior engineer. He earned his MS degree in engineering from Texas A&M University and his MBA from Cornell University.
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Steve Yuzpe
CFO, Sprott Resources
Mr. Yuzpe has over 10 years of financial administration management experience with public and private corporations. Over his career, Mr. Yuzpe has developed specific expertise in financial and internal reporting, strategic development and business planning, corporate governance, investor relations, regulatory compliance, treasury, financings and restructurings. Mr. Yuzpe holds a Bachelor of Science, Engineering (Mechanical) degree from the Queen's University along with the Professional Engineering designation (P. Eng.), an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business in London Ontario and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter holder. For the past eight years, Mr. Yuzpe has been involved with Street Kids International, a charity focused on youth at risk, as the Treasurer, member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors. He is also on the board of Inroads to Agriculture Institute, an organization whose mission is to help Aboriginal people secure full time employment in the agricultural industry through training and employment support.
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