Robert (Bob) Reiter, PhD, oversees the R&D pipeline for the Crop Science Division of Bayer, leading thousands of scientists in the creation of world-class sustainable agricultural solutions with the goal of helping farmers grow enough safe and affordable food while protecting the planet.

Previously, Bob was the Global Vice President of Research & Development Integration Strategy at Monsanto. He has 30 years of experience in discovering, developing, and delivering innovative R&D solutions in crop science. Bob is based in Monheim, Germany.

Start-Up Nation Central is a non-profit dedicated to strengthening Israel’s innovation ecosystem and connecting the world's business, government, and NGO leaders to the people and technologies in Israel that can help them solve their most pressing problems.

Between 2009 and 2015, Professor Kandel served as the Head of the National Economic Council in the Prime Minister's Office and as Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister, and played a central role in all major decisions on economic policy.

Professor Kandel is the Emil Spyer Professor of Economics and Finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He holds a BA and an MA from the Hebrew University, and an MBA and a PhD from the University of Chicago. His primary area of academic expertise is financial markets and intermediaries, and his research has been published in world-leading finance and economics journals. Professor Kandel’s research was instrumental in the 1997 redesign of the Nasdaq trading rules.

In 2008, after working at Google France, Antoine Denoix co-founded fifty-five, a global data marketing agency. Five years ago, he joined AXA France ExCom, as Chief Marketing, Digital, Partnerships and Customer Officer. He published three books, including Big Data, Smart Data, Stupid Data, last year. No doubt -- parametric insurance is the best space to mix data, technology and protection!

Mitchell Presser is the head of Freshfields’ US M&A practice and focuses on global business transactions, including M&A and leveraged buyouts, for international corporations and financial institutions.
 
He gained his skills and knowledge through wide experience on both sides of transactions, as adviser and as principal. From 2006 to 2013, Mitchell was a founding partner of Paine and Partners LLC, a private equity firm managing a $1.2 billion fund focused on food and agribusiness investments.

Previously, Mitchell was a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where he concentrated on M&As, private equity, leveraged buyouts, corporate governance, and securities law matters.

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Mitchell received his JD from Yale Law School and a BS in accounting from New York University.

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“Distinguishes himself with expertise in private equity,
especially food and agricultural investing.”  The Legal 500

FruitSpec CEO Raviv Kula is an experienced and passionate business and marketing/sales executive. He considers himself a "value creator" who strives for success. People and market oriented, Raviv possesses excellent interpersonal skills, which have served him well as a manager in small and large organizations.

He has held senior positions at Comverse and start-ups Silent Communication and LiveLens. 

Gerard Chia is a Partner at Singapore-based VisVires New Protein (VVNP) where his efforts are focused on investments and as head of business development.  
Since 2014, VVNP has been investing in disruptive solutions for a healthier, safer, more sustainable food system. 

Prior to VVNP, Gerard was head of special projects and worked as the right-hand to managing director of Aquilus Pte Ltd, the Singapore-based investment office of a globally active industrial family investing across multiple asset classes. Previously, he worked for Saratoga Capital, an Indonesia-focused private equity fund. 

Isabelle Decitre set up ID Capital in 2012 in Singapore. In 2014, she started investing in agrifood tech start-ups whose technology can help disrupt and progress sustainability. Realizing the untapped potential of Asia Pacific (APAC), she launched the Future Food Asia platform in mid-2016 and decided to focus on this high-growth region. The platform is accelerated by the Future Food Asia Award, a regional start-up competition culminating in the annual Future Food Asia Conference.

In January 2019, ID Capital was appointed a co-investment partner in agrifood tech start-ups by SEEDS Capital and is furthering its investment activity focused on APAC.

Binghui Dong is Head of Business Development, China Practice, Shibolet & Co., the leading law firm in Israel, and CEO of JumpScale by Shibolet, a business development agency helping Israeli businesses scale up in China.

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Starting her career in media, Binghui was a director on China Central Television (CCTV) and is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. Following her move to Israel in 2004, Binghui has been working on forging relations between East and West. With her strong passion and deep insights in sustainability, she has done several successful projects merging Israeli creativity and mindset with Chinese organic farm and nature reserves. 

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Binghui has worked with businesses in a wide spectrum of industries, proving her flexibility and ability to quickly capture the essence of a business and successfully translate it into cross-cultural success. Her insight and experience as a marketer and business executive in both countries makes her the ideal cross-culture bridge for China-Israel business.

Matilda Ho is a serial entrepreneur and investor driving to create more sustainable food systems. She founded and manages Bits x Bites, a food tech VC investing in start-ups that are tackling food system challenges in China.

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With a mission to shape the future of good food, Bits x Bites has invested in companies advancing nanoscale contaminant detection, gene editing for high-performing crops, as well as a company advancing non-GMO meat production directly from animal cells — without an actual animal.

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In addition, Matilda has founded Yimishiji, one of China’s first online farmers markets to bring organic and local produce to families. 

Arama Kukutai is a co-founder and partner at Finistere Ventures, a pioneer in the agriculture and food technology sectors, that was founded in 2005.

He has been a company founder and entrepreneur in the agribusiness sector for more than 25 years. He served as Executive Chairman of PKW Farms, a successful agribusiness and diversified investment entity involved in dairy farming and seafood activities in the Asia-Pacific region. Arama also led the New Zealand government’s Trade & Investment Agency in North America, following which he emigrated to the United States. He led the creation of Finistere’s global network in agrifood technology, which includes a presence in Tel Aviv, San Diego, Silicon Valley, and Dublin, Ireland.

Arama serves on the boards as a director or observer of current portfolio companies AgGenetics, Invert Robotics, Biolumic, Growers Edge Financial (chair), CropX (chair), Plenty, Taranis, and Zeakal.

He is actively involved in the development of the agrifood investing ecosystem, establishing the Finistere Pitchbook annual VC report, is a co-convenor of Farm2050, and is a frequent media commentator and presenter at leading industry events.

Finistere is a founding member of the Spark Agrifood Incubator in Israel, partnered with Sprout Accelerator in New Zealand, and co-founded the Radicle Growth Accelerator Fund. The company has built a global platform of investing in the leading agrifood companies and partnering with corporate leaders, including Nutrien, Bayer, PepsiCo, and International Farming Corporation.

Michael Lavin founded Germin8 Ventures, which is a venture capital fund that is seeking to improve the global food system and is innovative in its own right, providing both investment and strategic resources to the exceptional founders of transformative food and agtech companies around the world.  Michael oversees Germin8’s investing and operations, as well as actively participates on the boards of invested companies.

Michael is also a mentor and member at several accelerators and incubators, including the TERRA program at RocketSpace, the Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator, 1871, The Good Food Accelerator, Family Farmed, and The Hatchery. Michael’s experience includes extensive investment banking and consulting for clients ranging from the middle market to Fortune 500, as well as internal corporate development advisory for Mesirow Financial, a leading financial services firm with $85 billion of assets under management.

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Michael's passion for food and agriculture is authentic and deep rooted having grown up in the industry, working throughout the value chain, and completing coursework in agribusiness and agriculture sciences in addition to undergraduate and graduate degrees in finance.

Michael is a proud Chicago native, but regularly commutes to the San Francisco Bay Area, Tel Aviv, and other hubs where food meets tech. He received his master's and bachelor's in finance from the University of Illinois.

Joost Matthijssen is an Investment Director at Nutreco NuFrontiers, the strategic innovation and investment department of Nutreco, a leading global animal nutrition company.

The aim of NuFrontiers is to accelerate technological change to enable "feeding the future" and to identify, develop, and invest in next-generation sustainable products, models, and services throughout the feed and food protein value chain.

NuFrontiers invests in start-ups and scale-ups as well as partnerships and joint-ventures with innovative companies. Themes in scope are animal nutrition, animal health, digital farming solutions, and sustainable farming systems (all across both livestock farming and aquaculture) as well as alternative proteins for food.

Joost was raised on a dairy farm in The Netherlands and holds degrees in animal sciences and business administration. Prior to Nutreco, he worked for The Boston Consulting Group.

Bruno Meireles de Sousa is an expert in global ecosystem build-up and in accelerating global business growth with a unique technology-commercial-finantial knowledge. He is an entrepreneur, having founded start-ups in augmented reality and data analytics, and is a start-up advisor and mentor in business strategy, marketing, go-to-market and funding strategy for worldwide incubation and acceleration programs. 

With more than 20 years’ experience as a successful global corporate business leader delivering significant results and business change in B2B, B2C, D2C, and B2G across multiple cultures, multiple sectors (technology, lighting, mobility, consumer electronics, agriculture, food, energy, commodities, data, institutional, venture capital and startups), and based out of multiple locations, Bruno is currently a venture partner across several verticals, including agtech, foodtech, and fintech.

He is a PhD candidate in srategic management with a research focus on digital economy, holds an MSc in industrial engineering and an MBA in business management. He is fluent in four languages and is currently based between Berlin, Germany, and Lisbon, Portugal.

Reihem Roy is a senior member of the investment team at Omnivore, an agritech-focused venture capital fund with approximately $150 million under management. He heads Omnivore’s office in Chennai, India.

Previously, Reihem was with Villgro, a social impact fund and incubator. At Villgro, he co-founded the health care vertical and was also responsible for building a portfolio of social enterprises investments across agriculture, health care, and energy.

Reihem began his career as an analyst at the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), where he worked on agriculture and farmer-centric projects in West and Central Africa, financed by multilateral debt. 

He earned his MSc in environmental economics from the University of East Anglia and his BA in economics from the University of Madras.

Ted Tan is Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Singapore, overseeing industry clusters. He plays an important role in growing local enterprises, particularly in building their capabilities and connecting them to business networks and opportunities. A major part of his portfolio is establishing strategic partnerships, both locally and internationally, to help start-ups and enterprises grow into globally competitive companies.

Prior to his current appointment, Ted was Deputy Chief Executive of SPRING and International Enterprise Singapore. He served as chairman and board member of several companies, including the International Trade Institute of Singapore and CrimsonLogic, SPRING, and DesignSingapore Council. He is currently the Chairman of SEEDS Capital and IPI; Steering Board Member of Advanced Remanufacturing Technology Centre; Board Member of Singapore Management University Academy and SAL Ventures Ltd; Member of the Committee for Private Education of Skills Future Singapore.

Before joining the public service, Ted spent 18 years in the private sector and held senior positions, including president and CEO of a US financial services consultancy firm, managing director of a UK telecom equipment company, senior VP of a Singapore public-listed firm, and Director of Sales at General Electric.

He has an MBA and a BASc (Hons) in electrical engineering. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program.

Albena Todorova is responsible for the agrifood tech portfolio at Sumitomo Corporation Europe. Her mandate covers EMEA and CIS countries.

She is interested in the future of farming and food waste management. 

Bernardo Arnaud is an international entrepreneur with educational background in chemistry, marketing, mining, and electronics. His career led him to work in the automotive, aviation, pharma, financial, new materials, biomedical, and telecom industries.

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Having turned his focus to agribusiness, medtech and fintech a few years ago, he's been advising start-ups and consolidated companies in product development, international markets expansion, and investments. In the agritech segment, he created companies to push innovative and natural business models in crop monitoring and management (StarkSat), a biological agro-inputs distribution (NovaTero BioAg), biological seed dressing factory (Inocular Biotecnologia), and a seed treatment equipment company (Meteora GmbH) that uses electrons, not chemicals, to protect seeds.

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Bernardo has advised a number of Israeli companies and partnered with some of them in LATAM, Africa, and Europe, with the most recent success being Groundwork BioAg, where he and his team led the registration and distribution of the first ever arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi-based product in the Brazilian market, Rootella BR.

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His involvement with start-ups, agritech, and telecom has made him a regular speaker at leading conferences in Brazil, India, Dubai, Poland, Ukraine, Austria, and the UK. He has been dubbed "the businessman who is revolutionizing agro" in leading Brazilian agriculture publications. Bernardo regularly writes in EU-Startups.com and other specialized press portals. He is based in Vienna, Austria, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Open Innovation & Strategic Partnerships for Bayer Crop Science is a global function supporting Crop Science R&D, with technology scouting, evaluation and exploiting different partnership models. 

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Johan has more than 30 years' experience in ag R&D, managing R&D projects, and strategic partnerships at several companies: Plant Genetic Systems, Hoechst Schering AgrEvo, Aventis CropScience, and Bayer Crop Science.

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He received his PhD in industrial microbiology from the University of Ghent in Belgium.

Leora Havin, PhD, is a senior patent attorney in the Biotech Department at Ehrlich & Fenster, Patent and Trademark Attorneys.

Born and educated in England, Leora obtained her BSc (Hons) in pharmacology (Manchester University) and MSc in molecular biology (University College, London). She was awarded her PhD in developmental biology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1998, where she was then engaged in postdoctoral studies until joining Ehrlich & Fenster in 2004.

She has since represented a wide range of clients, including start-ups and established companies in Israel and abroad, as well as the major Israeli universities. On their behalf, she strategizes, drafts, and prosecutes patent applications in the fields of agrotech and foodtech, and as a result has been closely involved with cutting-edge discoveries throughout the agricultural world. These include microbiome-oriented technologies, genome-edited crops and transgenic plants, along with more traditional breeding methods.

In addition to her agrotech practice, Leora regularly drafts and prosecutes applications in the areas of cell biology, bioinformatics, immunology, biochemistry, and nanotechnology.

Prof. Dan Levanon's research interests include applied and agricultural microbiology, environmental biotechnology, recycling organic wastes, bioremediation of polluted soil and water, cultivation of edible fungi, exotic and medicinal mushrooms.

He served as Israel's Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for 12 years. He was Chairman of MIGAL, Scientific Director of Israel's Volcani Institute, an adjunct professor at the College of Agriculture, Pennsylvania State University, a visiting professor at Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands), and professor of Biotechnology and Chairman of the Board of Tel Hai College (Israel).

Richard is a London-based freelancer for AgFunderNews.

Over the past five years, his reports and thoughts on business and politics have been published with the New York Times, Bloomberg, Politico Europe, The Economist, the Daily Telegraph, and Deutsche Welle.

Stefan Tresch is responsible for the identification of novel technologies across the field of bioscience at BASF.

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Growing up on a small farm cultivating asparagus, cherries and apples, he has always been close to agriculture. After studying biology, he began his career at BASF in crop protection research. With more than 12 years of experience, Stefan has a broad knowledge of crop protection and seed and trait research.

He initiated a range of strategic research collaboration projects with leading academic institutes and startups around the world. Furthermore, he was engaged in investment decisions of BASF Venture Capital.

He is driven by his passion for sustainable agriculture and very interested in the innovation power and entrepreneurship of the agricultural community in Israel.

Nitza Kardish is widely regarded as a trailblazer in Israel’s agtech investment community. In 2012, under her initiative as CEO Trendlines Incubators Israel, Trendlines started AgriVest to bring together industry, business, government, and academia to discuss the trends, issues, and inventive solutions for the future of agriculture and agrifood tech.

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Nitza has 20 years of experience working in senior management positions at life science companies. She served as VP Business Development at TechnionSeed, the technological incubator founded by the Technion R&D Foundation 2, Ltd., where she was responsible for the life sciences and cleantech fields.

Nitza earned her PhD (life sciences) and MSc from Tel Aviv University (both with distinction) and studied law at Tel Aviv University. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Plant Genetics at the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Dana Kedar is the community manager at the GrowingIL, a community that aims to develop the Israeli agtech ecosystem and reshape Israeli agriculture to meet emerging global food needs through the implementation of groundbreaking technologies.

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GrowingIL’s activity involves connecting the different parties in the Israeli agtech ecosystem with global players. It creates collaborations and events, promoting knowledge and seeking opportunities that answer unmet needs of the agtech ecosystem.

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Dana brings years of marketing expertise at all levels, including branding, PR, content management, website management, and social media. She is experienced in client relations and event production. Prior to her current role at Growing IL, Dana was a marketing communications and project manager at PearlCom.

A certified attorney, Dana has a BA in business administration and an LLB from IDC Herzliya.

Doron Meller leads the GrowingIL community that aims to develop the Israeli agtech ecosystem as well as reshape Israeli agriculture to meet emerging global food needs by implementing groundbreaking technologies.

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GrowingIL’s activity involves connecting the different parties in the Israeli agtech ecosystem with global players. It creates collaborations and events, promoting knowledge and seeking opportunities that answer unmet needs of the agtech ecosystem.

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Previously, Doron was a VP of the Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Group at BDO Ziv Haft Consulting. As part of his position, Doron performed counseling procedures to Israeli blue-chip companies in the field of sustainability and CSR. Doron started his career in the media sector as an editor, researcher, and producer with several positions on television and radio.

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He was born and raised on a kibbutz in the Western Negev, working the land and maintaining the agriculture equipment.Doron holds an MA in management (cum laude) from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. 

Steve Rhodes brings decades of business, finance, and banking experience to his position at Trendlines.

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He founded The Trendlines Group with Todd Dollinger in 2007 and shares the positions of Chairman and CEO of Trendlines with Todd. Together, they lead the Group’s strategy.

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He serves as the Chairman of Trendlines Incubators Israel and as Investment Committee Chair of Trendlines Medical Singapore. Steve is a director and chairman of a number of Trendlines’ portfolio companies.

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He received his MBA from the University of Chicago and a BA from Harvard. He is a CPA in the state of Illinois.

Gideon Soesman is co-founder and managing partner of GreenSoil Investments. With offices in Canada, the Netherlands, and Israel, GreenSoil Investments funds companies with transformative technologies that change how we use the world’s resources. Its portfolio companies enable smart and efficient use of energy, water, and land in the agriculture, food, and real estate sectors. GreenSoil was founded in 2011 by Alan Greenberg and Gideon Soesman and has ~$100 million under management. GreenSoil's Ra'anana-based agro and food technologies fund is Israel's leading fund in the sector, with close to $40 million under management and with a portfolio of six exciting companies.

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Before co-founding GreenSoil, Gideon founded and managed GMS Capital, a boutique investment bank. Prior to that, he was responsible for all global M&A activities for a major division of Royal Philips Electronics. While senior director of corporate M&As, Gideon managed deals valued at over $1.5 billion. At Philips, Gideon also served as director of corporate strategy & Venturing, with overall responsibility for all deal flow management, due diligence, deal negotiations, and portfolio management in Israel.

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Prior to joining Philips, Gideon held senior positions at Shaldor and Ergo, leading strategic management-consulting firms in Israel, and served as a project manager at MATI, the Center for Entrepreneurship Development.

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Gideon received an MA in business administration from Boston University/Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and holds a BA in economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He immigrated to Israel from the Netherlands in 1990, is married, and has three adorable children.

Tamar Weiss leads the AgriFood Tech sector at Start-Up Nation Central, an Israel-based nonprofit organization that serves as a gateway to Israeli innovation, developing strategic partnerships between leading global players and the Israeli innovation ecosystem.

As part of her work, Tamar leverages knowledge and analysis of the Israeli agri- foodtech ecosystem to foster its growth and help it fulfill its potential towards offering meaningful and relevant solutions to pressing global challenges.

Previously, Tamar managed the Cybersecurity and Fintech sectors at Start-Up Nation Central.

Tamar holds a BA (cum laude) in philosophy, political science and economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and served as an officer (captain, reserves) in the Israel Defense Forces 8200 Unit of the Intelligence Corps.

Eyal Emmanuel, PhD, is the Senior Chief Science Officer at Evogene, responsible for the scientific aspects of Evogene’s Computational Predictive Biology (CPB) platform. 

Eyal has over 10 years of experience in heading multinational and multidisciplinary R&D teams at Evogene.

Eyal also co-founded EcoBreed, a breeding company developing superior grain varieties using artificial intelligence, where he serve as the CEO. 

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Prior to its return to Evogene, Eyal also served as the CTO for Agrinnovation, an investment partnership founded by Yissum and as a Senior VP of Scouting, Ideation & Technology at Yissum, where he was responsible for translating research results into commercial ready technologies within the Robert H. Smith Faculty Agriculture, Food & the Environment at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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Eyal received his PhD and MSc from the Weizmann Institute of Science and a BSc in agriculture from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He also holds an MBA from the College of Management in Israel with specialization in biomedical management.

Limor Ganot is the managing partner of Gefen Capital, a US-Israeli investment fund targeting high potential Israeli start-ups.

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She has led acquisitions, IPOs, private placements, and turnaround situations in different companies, and has created and implemented growth strategies for mature and start-up companies.

Limor is a member of the Global Advisory Board of Diners Club International and is also a board member of Diners Club Israel. Previously, she held different positions at the Alon Group and served as co-CEO of Alon Blue Square.

Orly Savion is a director of business development at Yeda R&D, the technology transfer arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science.

 
Orly leverages a strong background in life sciences, biotechnology and food engineering to lead a strong portfolio of agro-food technologies developed by Weizmann Institute scientists. Her efforts in commercializing these technologies by transfer to industry include the establishment of spin-off companies in which she participates as an observer. Orly also functions as a mentor and is involved in several activities in the agro-food ecosystem.

She holds a PhD in life sciences from the Weizmann Institute, and a BSc and MSc in biotechnology and food engineering from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.