Ms. Kirfel-Rühle is the Interim Head of Division 122 Agriculture, rural development at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Berlin. She is responsible for BMZ’s work concerning agriculture, trade, deforestation free value chains and commodities such as cocoa and soya. Ms. Kirfel-Rühle has worked with within the BMZ on several areas concerning fair trade and voluntary standard systems, including in developing an online resource for benchmarking various standards. Ms. Kirfel-Rühle holds a diploma in economics and business administration.

Zhimin Wu, from the People’s Republic of China, has an extensive background in the forestry sector, with 38 years’ experience in national and international forestry roles. Prior to his appointment at FAO, Mr Wu served as Director-General of the Wetland Management Department of China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) since 2019, while also Director-General of the Ramsar Administrative Authority of China.

Among other roles at national level, Mr. Wu also served as Director General for International Cooperation, Director General for Wildlife Conservation, NFGA of China. At the global level, he has also served as Vice Chairperson of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), and  Deputy Director General and Board Member of International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR).

Zhimin Wu holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Ecology from the Chinese Academy of Forestry, a Master of Forestry from the Australian National University, and a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature from Zhengzhou University.  

Tiina Vähänen is the Deputy Director of the Forestry Division. In her previous role, she has led FAO work on REDD+ and national forest monitoring. She has worked on international forest and natural resources policy issues at FAO since 2001 and led the organization of the 14th World Forestry Congress in 2015. She has coordinated FAO’s contributions to the global climate change debates, notably UNFCCC, and managed FAO forestry contributions to other international agreements and the Collaborative Partnership on Forests. Ms Vähänen has M.Sc. on Forestry and Agriculture.

Pascal Liu is a Senior Economist and leads the unit on responsible global value chains at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He holds an MSc in Economic Development from the London School of Economics and an MSc in Agricultural Economics from the Institut National Agronomique de Paris-Grignon. He has worked on international trade issues for FAO since 1998. His main areas of expertise are responsible business conduct and investment in agriculture, agricultural value chains, sustainability standards in trade and multi-stakeholder partnerships. His work includes promoting the development of responsible value chains, providing guidance on sustainable production and trade and facilitating related multi-stakeholder discussions. He has led studies on the trends and impacts of foreign agricultural investment in developing countries and organized international consultations on this topic. In addition, he has led the development of multi-stakeholder partnerships for sustainable trade since 2009. Before joining FAO, he worked on agricultural development projects with farmer groups in North Africa and Southern France from 1990 to 1996.

Since November 2020, Francesco Tramontin leads the newly created Group Public Policy Center and EU institutional relations teams for the Ferrero Group, the Italian family-owned company , amongst the leaders in the sweet packaged food market, producer of many brand icons that are loved generation after generation, including Nutella, Ferrero Rocher, Tic Tac and Kinder. His focus is promoting the company external engagement strategy on sustainability, responsible marketing and health and nutrition. Francesco worked previously for the Global Snack company Mondelez International in Brussels (2014-2020), where he was responsible for Global Public Affairs and in the company’s European headquarters in Zurich (2012-2013) and global HQ in Chicago (2008-2012), where he was respectively responsible for the European business’s sustainability journey, and the coordination of the company’s positions on sustainability issues and relationships with NGOs and external partners. Francesco first joined Mondelēz International (then Kraft Foods) in 2005 in its Brussels public affairs office, where he focused on environmental, trade and agricultural policy, as he had in his previous positions with Cargill and Eridania Beghin-Say.

Olivier Tichit is the Director of Sustainability of Musim Mas Group, based in Medan (Indonesia). Olivier oversees the implementation and execution of Musim Mas Sustainability plan. His role includes reviewing the Group sustainability policy and strategy, as well as working with the Group’s key customers and stakeholders to identify synergies for enhancing palm oil sustainability.   Musim Mas is an active member of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), where Olivier serves as alternate member of the Board of Governors, and as co-chair of the Standing Committee for Standards, and as member of the Finance Committee and of the Standing Committee for Assurance.   Prior to Musim Mas, Olivier was the Group Head of Sustainability of SIPEF, a Belgian plantations company present in Cote d'Ivoire, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.  

Before joining SIPEF, Olivier was the Indonesia Country Manager for a major commodities merchant group, Ecom Agroindustrial, and spearheaded sustainable certifications for coffee smallholders.

Roselyn Fosuah Adjeia Distinguished Humphrey Fellow of the Unites States’ State Department, is a Forest and Climate Policy and Governance specialist with 17 years working experience within the Government of Ghana. Her expertise spans years of local community engagement, development of benefit sharing plans and the set-up of inclusive governance structures for forest management.

In the last 5 years, she has been Ghana’s REDD+ Coordinator and Director for Climate Change at the Forestry Commission and prior to, was the lead Social and Environmental Safeguards expert during the REDD+ Readiness process for Ghana. She has managed a diverse portfolio of forest landscape programs with funding support from the FCPF, GCF, UNDP and FAO, addressing agriculture led deforestation and forest degradation to increase sustainable production particularly for important national commodities such as Cocoa and Shea whilst aggressively restoring forest cover and empowering local communities.

She sits on the UN-REDD and Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) Board and is a globally known voice for Forests and REDD+. She has been instrumental in the Government-to-Government Forest and Agriculture Commodity Trade Dialogue (FACT) and other international processes. She is a member of the Forest & Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) Secretariat which Ghana Co-chairs with the United States of America. Her many years of work on sustainable Forest Management and climate action have contributed to Ghana’s achievements in REDD+ results-based payments and also defining how Forest Carbon Markets should be mutually beneficial to both the demand and supply side.

Roselyn holds a Master’s Degree in Carbon Management from The University of Edinburgh, Scotland and a Bachelor’s Degree in Natural Resources Management from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. She is currently pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Ghana, Legon, in Migration and Climate Change.

Hannah Koep-Andrieu is the Head of Due Diligence in the OECD’s Centre for Responsible Business Conduct. She oversees the work on due diligence across the minerals, agriculture and garment & footwear supply chains and the practice on alignment of industry and multi-stakeholder initiatives with OECD due diligence standards. She previously led the Centre’s work on due diligence in mineral supply chains and joined the OECD in 2014 with a background in private sector consulting. Hannah has extensive field experience and worked on risk and impact assessments in the extractives sector, with a focus on stakeholder engagement, artisanal mining, security and human rights issues particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Rod Taylor is the Global Director of Forests and Nature Conservation at the World Resource Institute (WRI), with oversight of Global Forest Watch, Nature Resources Governance and policy initiatives and work on responsible supply chains. Before joining WRI, Rod worked as the Forests Director at WWF International, and before that led WWF’s forest work in the Asia Pacific region. Earlier in his career, Rod worked as a forest policy adviser in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Rod began his career as a lawyer in Australia and has a Masters Degree in Environmental Law from the Australian National University.

Matija is an impact entrepreneur committed to solving the global food problem. He is recognized as one of Europe’s Top Tech Innovators (Sifted by Financial Times) and a thought leader in the fields of food tech, AgTech and building sustainable food systems.

He is a founder and a CEO at AGRIVI, a specialized AgTech company that delivers powerful farm management software, with the vision to change the way food is produced and positively impact over a billion lives. Today, AGRIVI helps Fortune 500 companies across the globe to produce nutritious, healthy, and sustainably grown food by digitalizing their crop production and agriculture supply chains.

Matija is a regular keynote speaker at major global conferences, corporate events, EU parliament, UN FAO events, TEDx events, and universities.

He is a great advocate for sustainable food systems, the future of food, novel food business models, AgTech, food tech, digitalization of the agri-food industry, AI in agriculture, start-up eco-systems, entrepreneurship, and motivation through his thought leadership activities.

As a part of social responsibility activities, Matija serves as EIC Ambassador, OECD-FAO Advisory Group Member for Responsible Ag Supply Chains and UN Global Compact Board Member Croatia. Also, he is contributing to the community as EIT Food Policy Council Member, Advisory Board Member at European Carbon Farmers, a Mentor at Women in Food and Agriculture where he supports young female talents in achieving their personal growth, and a Faculty Council Member for the International Digital Agriculture Study at University of Osijek.