SPEAKERS More to come...
Arindom Datta Rabobank
Asia Head of Sustainability Banking and Head of Rural and Development Banking/Advisory
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Currently Arindom is leading Rabobank’s sustainability agenda on knowledge, risk management and business development across Asia. He also manages the Rural banking and advisory portfolio in India and for Rabobank Foundation oversees projects in agriculture cooperatives and “access to finance”. Arindom has over 24 years of experience in Rural Finance, Cooperative Banking, Microfinance and Agribusiness banking previously with NABARD, IDBI Bank and CARE.
Beau Damen Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Natural Resources Officer – Climate Change and Bioenergy
Over the past 14 years Beau has worked as a natural resource management specialist focused on promoting equitable, climate resilient and low emissions development in the region.Beau has experience delivering regional and national policy and field–level technical assistance programs on climate change adaptation and mitigation and renewable energy development in over 15 countries in South, Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Southern Africa. Most recently Beau has been leading the implementation of FAO work programs in Asia on resilient, low emission agriculture and initiatives to scale-up investment in the agriculture and land-use sectors in support of the UNFCCC Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. Beau has also worked as a senior policy analyst for the Australian Government's Department of Resources and Energy in Canberra, Australia, and as a Senior Climate Change specialist for the International Centre for Environmental Management in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Chris Stevens Kellogg Company
Agribusiness and Agronomy Head
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Chris is responsible for the full spectrum of Agribusiness and Sustainability functions, including supply chain management from varietal development, through farmer engagement, post-harvest handling and storage, logistics and processing, full accountability for Sustainable agriculture and Responsible Sourcing through smallholder farmer livelihood improvements and developing climate resilience. He has over 25 years extensive experience in delivering competitive advantages in the sustainable supply of key materials and activities across the Asia Pacific and Sub Sahara Africa region.
Christy Owen Pact
Chief of Party for the USAID Green Invest Asia and Thailand Country Director
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Christy manages an integrated team to mobilize the power of the private sector and international markets to reduce commodity-driven deforestation and high-emissions agriculture practices across Southeast Asia. She has spent the past 18 years designing and implementing environmental management, biodiversity conservation, and climate change projects in the Philippines, Venezuela, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, and the lower Mekong region. She also serves as the Thailand Country Director for Pact, a global NGO.
Khondkar Millat Central Bank of Bangladesh
Deputy General Manager
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Mr. Millat is Deputy General Manager of the Central Bank of Bangladesh. With over 24 years of experiences in Central Bank, he specializes in sustainable finance, green banking, environmental and social risk management. He is deeply involved in sustainable finance, green banking, and environmental and social risk management initiatives of Bangladesh Bank to guide Banks and Financial Institutions.
Mikell O’Mealy Abt Associates
USAID CEADIR Activity manager
Mikell O’Mealy manages the USAID-funded CEADIR Activity, which is working to accelerate private finance and investment to supportthe implementation of national climate change commitments in Asia. She is a Senior Associate in Climate Change with Abt Associates, where she leads global and country-specific climate change projects. Prior to joining Abt, she served as USAID’s Eastern Caribbean Climate Change Advisor with focus on strengthening the resilience of small island nations. She also served in USAID’s Regional Development Mission for Asia and in USAID’s Russia Mission, designing and managing climate change, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable development initiatives to strengthen the capacities of local, national and regional partners.
Natcha Tulyasuwan Crown Agents USA
USAID CEADIR Sustainable Landscapes Advisor
Through CEADIR Activity, Natcha leads the technical analyses on national climate change commitments, business opportunities in conjunction with key commodities value chain, and as public- private sector communication and coordination to accelerate private finance for sustainable commodity production in Asia. Previously, she worked on sustainable landscape business models, greenhouse gas inventory, emission trading, and capacity-building for lowering emissions from agriculture and forestry sector in Asia with US Forest Service, USAID Low Emissions Asian Development (LEAD) Program, USAID Lowering Emissions in Asia’s Forests (LEAF) Program, Centre for International Research on Environment and Development (CIRAD), and FAO.
Rachel Zedeck Control Union
Director of Sustainable Programs
Rachel Zedeck is a farmer, economist and internationally recognized impact entrepreneur with 20 years of global experience. Her long-term vision is to empower business, investors, consumers, government and non-profit organizations with unique knowledge to make critical decisions, minimize risk and leverage opportunities in Climate Smart Agribusiness. She passionately advocates for the advancement of smallholder farmers, commercial agribusiness, and women entrepreneurs in balance with environmental sustainability. She is actively designing new strategies to de-risk and repackage capital to promote verifiable carbon impact / ESG models in frontier and emerging markets with an emphasis on scaling best practices in rice and agroforestry.
Godefroy Grosjean International Center for Tropical Agriculture
Climate Policy Expert leading the Asia Climate Policy Hub
Dr. Godefroy Grosjean's research interests include Climate Smart/Resilient Agriculture, carbon markets and incentive mechanisms for mitigation and adaptation, climate finance, policy analysis and evaluation of barriers to upscaling/implementation of climate policy, and cost-benefit analysis. Before joining CIAT, Godefroy worked at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Other work experiences include GIZ, UNDP, UK-DECC and PwC. He is currently visiting researcher at PIK and at the Mercator Research Institute of Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC). His doctoral thesis at the Technical University (TU) in Berlin focused on carbon markets and the reform of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), also investigating policy designs to cover the agriculture sector under carbon pricing mechanisms. Godefroy holds a master in economics from Maastricht University and Master of Public Administration from the London School of Economics and the Hertie School of Governance. Godefroy has published on a range of climate policy topics in different peer-reviewed journals and has been reviewer for various international journals.
Marwan Ladki Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Sustainable Agriculture Expert
Mr. Marwan Ladki is Expert in Sustainable Agriculture at FAO, supporting its Major Area of Work on Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA). He holds a Civil Engineering degree in Water and Environment, a Master's degree in Water Sciences, and a PhD in Business Management applied to irrigation management (AgroParisTech). Mr. Ladki has ten years of experience in facilitating policy dialogues and supporting investment programs on agriculture, climate change, irrigation and water management, mainly in Africa. He has worked previously as Technical Advisor to the Executive Secretary of the Global Water Partnership in West Africa, Water Specialist at the World Bank, and Expert in Climate Change and Food Security at UNOPS / Hub Rural (Platform for Rural Development and Food Security in West and Central Africa).
Aulia Damayanti Global Coordination Unit Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network
Young-Environmental Activist
Aulia Damayanti is a young-environmental activist. She's an active member for youth organization in Indonesia. She has been active in the youth movement and volunteering in some programs related on agriculture and climate change. Now, she is a part of Global Coordination Unit Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network (CSAYN), a volunteer-based activity linked about 30 countries and she is a focal point for Regional South East Asia. Previously, Aulia graduated from Faculty of Human Ecology, Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia.
Sue Kyoung Lee APEC Climate Center
Research Fellow/Program Officer
Sue Kyoung (Jessie) Lee is a Research Fellow/Program Officer, working at the APEC Climate Center, located in Busan, Republic of Korea. During the ten years she has spent working at the KU Institute of Environment and Ecology, Korea Forest Service, and FAO, she has been extensive experience in agriculture, forestry and other land use policy development and implementation. Driven by personal curiosity and utilizing her technical background (Ph.D. in Ecological Engineering for Environmental Restoration) and work experiences, she is working for initiating and planning practical research and international projects in the field of agriculture, forest, water and urban development using climate information service that facilitate climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Prasun Kumar Das Asia-Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association
Secretary General
With over 26 years of experiences in rural and agricultural finance in Asia, Prasun is currently the Secretary-General of Asia-Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (APRACA) based in Bangkok. As head of the representative body of central banks, development financial institutions in the Asia-Pacific region, he has been instrumental in engaging with national governments, regional organizations (APEC, SAARC, ASEAN) and international agencies to influence policy and elucidate the narrative of financial inclusion, agricultural and MSME finance and in the Asia-Pacific region.
Imelda Bacudo Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Senior Advisor and Deputy Head of the Forest and Climate Change Project
Imelda Bacudo currently works as Senior Advisor and Deputy Head of the Forest and Climate Change Project under the ASEAN-German Programme on Response to Climate Change (GAP-CC) programme implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. She has over 15 years' experience in the areas of biodiversity conservation, sustainable development, and conservation finance in the Philippines, Latin America, Uganda and Southeast Asia, working with NGOs, national governments, and international development corporation agencies. She leads the team on climate smart agriculture value chains, successfully engaging ASEAN and the ten ASEAN member states and development partners to contribute to strengthened regional policies and international governance frameworks for greater policy support and wider access to climate finance. She acquired her Master’s Degree in Environmental Science from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Science under a Fulbright Scholarship.
Bjoern Ole Sander The International Rice Research Institute
Scientist in Climate Change Research Group
Ole is a scientist in IRRI’s climate change research group with a focus on greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation technologies. He joined IRRI in January 2010. As climate change specialist, Ole analyzes the GHG balance of different cropping systems in Vietnam and the Philippines. He evaluates different mitigation options through water, fertilizer, and crop residue management. Ole also identifies suitable conditions to support dissemination of mitigation technologies particularly the water saving method alternate wetting and drying (AWD), which offers huge potential in reducing methane emissions. Ole works with different stakeholders in Vietnam, Bangladesh and the Philippines to foster implementation of this climate-smart farming practice.
Aline Mosnier International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
Research Scholar
Dr. Aline Mosnier is a Research Scholar with IIASA’s Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program. Dr. Mosnier holds a master’s degree in development economics from CERDI-Universite d’Auvergne and a PhD degree in agricultural economics from the Life Sciences University of Vienna. Since 2008, she has contributed to the development of GLOBIOM, a global economic land use model. She first worked on the improvement of international trade representation in the model and the implementation of trade calibration. After working on the impact of regional biofuels policies on global GHG emissions, she has led the adaptation of the GLOBIOM model to regional case studies, especially in the tropics. She is coordinating several projects on future deforestation and related emissions in the Congo Basin, Brazil and Indonesia. More recently, Dr. Mosnier has started to work on improving smallholders’ representation in GLOBIOM and on the implementation of climate smart agriculture.​
Peter Läderach International Center for Tropical Agriculture
Theme Leader for Climate Change
Dr. Peter Läderach holds an Msc in Geography and a PhD in Tropical Agriculture. Peter is currently the theme leader for Climate Change at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). Peter led for CIAT over the last 10-years the expansion of the Decision and Policy Analysis (DAPA) Research Area to Central America, East-Africa and Southeast Asia, where he has established interdisciplinary research groups by forming partnerships, raising funds, implementing research projects and publishing intensively. Peter’s passion is conducting research that leads to visible impacts on the ground, that is why his research supports private sector, NGO’s, governments and multinational agencies to take evidence based decisions and deliver impact on the ground.
Steven Prager International Center for Tropical Agriculture
Senior Scientist
Dr. Steven Prager is a senior scientist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), based in Cali, Columbia. At CIAT, Dr. Prager co-leads the Climate, Agriculture and Foresight Modeling Team. More broadly within the CGIAR, he is the co-leader of the Global Futures and Strategic Foresight research activity associated with the Policy, Institutions and Markets Research Program. Dr. Prager is an accomplished scholar in the fields of geographic information science, human-environment interactions, and sustainability science. His research is highly interdisciplinary, drawing from themes in economics and sustainability, hierarchy theory, complexity theory, topology, and network analysis. He has published in leading journals including: Ecology and Society, Transactions in GIS, Ecological Monographs, International Journal of Geographic Information Science, GeoInformatica, PLoS ONE, and Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. At CIAT, Dr. Prager is working to increase use of strategic foresight approaches as a key element in organizational learning. His work in strategic foresight has been oriented at improving decision-making regarding future orientation of agricultural research for development at both the program and organizational level within CIAT and, likewise, at the organizational level with key boundary partners such as the Inter-American Development Bank, USAID, and the Latin American Foundation for Irrigated Rice (FLAR). Additionally, Dr. Prager has been working closely with the modeling team, the CCAFS Latin America program, and the CCAFS AgroClimas project to develop and promote the use of context-appropriate and user-relevant climate services.
Rathana Peou Copernicus Institute of Utrecht University
Policy Researcher and CCAFS Southeast Asia Scenarios Coordinator
Dr. Rathana Peou works at Utrecht University with the Copernicus Institute as Policy Researcher and the CCAFS Southeast Asia Scenarios Coordinator since 2017 prior to it she was attached to Oxford University at the Environmental Change Institute (ECI). She joined in 2012 the CCAFS scenarios team, first as the Scenarios Coordinator for South Asia and is now based in Cambodia since 2015 where she provides technical supports on Climate Smart Agriculture and builds capacity on foresight based policy making process in Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change.She holds a PhD in Political Science majoring in Philosophy. Dr. Rathana's research interests lies in the "4 inviolate principles": food security, water security, energy security and social "health" security. Dr. Rathana has been researching on climate induced migration in Bangladesh and as well the weight of remittance on local development and “ maladaptation”. Her current research lies on the futures of Food Security, Agriculture and Climate Change in the ASEAN countries and how multi-stakeholders socio-economic scenarios could open policy dialogue and guide Climate Smart Investments. Prior to joining the CCAFS team she worked for 3 years in Bangladesh where she was the deputy director of the Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) and an associate professor ULAB. Before 2009, Rathana worked as an international consultant and humanitarian workers in Sudan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. She has worked with and consulted for agencies such as DFID, USAID, ECHO, DIPECHO, AFD, EU, ADB and different INGOs and NGOs developing guideline of reporting and program evaluation in humanitarian crisis countries.
Jens Radschinski United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Head of UNFCCC’s Regional Collaboration Centre (RCC) for Asia Pacific
Mr. Jens Radschinski has taken on the role of the Head of UNFCCC’s Regional Collaboration Centre (RCC) for Asia Pacific, situated in Bangkok in the beginning of this year. Prior to his current stint in Thailand, Jens was working with the UNFCCC Secretariat in Germany for over five years. At RCC Bangkok, he supports project participants and Designated National Authorities (DNAs) on the implementation of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, and also leads all other activities the Centre is undertaking in the region, namely in the fields of green finance (climate and SDG aligned), carbon markets, MRV, NDC support and Global Climate Action (under the Marrakesh Partnership). ​
Before joining UNFCCC, Jens has had extensive professional experience in the Asia-Pacific where he was active as a CDM project manager in the region, and has thus seen the CDM process from the project perspective as well. It was during this time that he built expertise in wastewater management, renewable energy (especially biogas and biomass in agro-industry), and waste management.
Jens holds a degree in Geology/Hydrogeology from the Free University of Berlin, Germany. He has previously worked as a scientific assistant and project coordinator for the Brandenburg Technical University of Cottbus, supporting a Thai-German technical co-operation project of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research in Thailand for several years.
Miranti Ariani Indonesian Agriculture Environment Research Institute
Researcher
I am currently working as a researcher at Indonesian Agriculture Environment Research Institute (IAERI) under Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development (IAARD) Ministry of Agriculture since 2006 and I am joined with the GHG group research. Our main responsible is conducting research on GHG emission and absorption mainly from agriculture. We have conducted the research since 1992, which we have generated several local emission factor for Indonesia, especially for rice cultivation. I am start to working on GHG national inventories since 2011. I was graduated in master degree in 2014 from Bogor Agricultural University. Joining MoA Climate Change Team as a member in 2012 until present, when I also involved in the development of National and Regional Action Plan to mitigate GHG emission until today. Involved in Indonesia First BUR in 2014-2015, INDC and NDC in 2015-2016 and the latest is in TNC in 2016-2017. As a government agent, I have worked with multiple stakeholders.
Toshihiro Hasegawa National Agricultural and Food Research Organization
Group Leader of the Agricultural Meteorology Group
Dr. Hasegawa is a group leader of the Agricultural Meteorology Group of Tohoku Agricultural Research Center, National Agricultural and Food Research Organization (NARO), Morioka, Iwate, Japan. After graduating from Kyoto University, his career started as an Assistant professor at Kyushu Tokai University, then as an Assistant/Associate Professor at Hokkaido University. Since 2003, he has been leading the rice free-air COsd enrichment (FACE) project in Japan.
Dr. Hasegawa is a crop physiologist specialized in environmental response of rice. His current research mainly focuses on rice yield and quality under global change, using the FACE experimental facilities and crop modeling. He is also a co-leader of the AgMIP (Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project) rice team.
Felicitas Roehrig International Center for Tropical Agriculture
Climate Policy Analyst
Felicitas Roehrig is a Climate Policy Analyst at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), based in Hanoi Vietnam. As part of the CIAT Asia Climate Policy Hub (CPH), Felicitas coordinates CIAT’s development of Climate Smart Agriculture Country Profiles in Asia and provides economic and policy analysis for the CPH. She holds a MSc in Agricultural Economics from the University of Hohenheim in Germany, and a MSc in Latin American Politics from the University of London, UK. Previous to joining CIAT, Felicitas was a post-graduate fellow at the Centre for Rural Development (SLE) in Berlin and has worked, among others, on research projects in Kenya, Bhutan and Brazil.
Peter Ettema Ministry for Primary Industries in New Zealand
Manager of an International Environmental Policy Team
Peter currently manages an international environmental policy team at the Ministry for Primary Industries in New Zealand. He has a Bachelor of Agricultural Science and a Masters in Environmental Management and has spent almost his entire career in the agricultural sector in New Zealand and overseas. This includes working at the farm level through to central Government and has represented New Zealand at the UN climate negotiations and other international fora. In his previous role as manager of New Zealand’s agricultural greenhouse gas inventory, he has taken part in a number of international inventory-related workshops run by New Zealand and the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases.
Paul Nicholson Rice Research and Sustainability, Olam International
Vice President
​Paul Nicholson is leading price forecasting, risk management and farm research on rice and sustainability at Olam International. Prior to this, he has worked throughout the commodity industry, seeing the financial, international policy, and corporate procurement activities related to global commodity markets. His earlier experiences were with Kraft Foods Global Commodity Research, Texas State Pension Review Board, and International Monetary Fund.
John Mcginley Mekong Strategic Partners
Managing Partner and Founder
John is a founder and Managing Partner at Mekong Strategic Partners, an investment and advisory firm focused on Cambodia and the countries across the Mekong Region. Resident in Cambodia since 2003, John has a deep knowledge of the local and international business & finance communities across the Mekong region and a proven track record of successfully building high performing businesses across the Mekong Region. Prior to co-founding Mekong Strategic Partners, John served as the Head of Strategy for ANZ (Australia & New Zealand) Bank for the Greater Mekong Region, with country responsibility for Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
Ivo Mulder United Nations Environment Programme
Finance and Private Sector Coordinator
Ivo coordinates the UN Environment’s economic and finance initiatives on sustainable land use related to UN-REDD and Global Environment Facility. With over 10 years of experiences working in the UN, academia, private consulting firms, and NGOs, he specializes in building the business cases for private sector companies to deal with climate, water and ecosystem. Previously at UNEP Finance Initiative, Ivo founded and directed the Natural Capital Declaration, which aims to mainstream natural capital integration in bonds, loans, equities and other financial products and services. He also directed an innovative project on sovereign credit risk (called E-RISC), initiated the UNEP FI REDD+ and Sustainable Land Use programme.
Edgardo Luzano Land Bank of the Philippines
Head of Program Management
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Edgardo manages the development and management of agri-credit programs including climate-resilient agriculture for small farmers and fishers, cooperatives, farmer organizations, NGOs, countryside financial institutions, SMEs, large corporations and local government units. He also takes the lead in negotiating funds from local partner agencies for agri-credit, CFI and MFI programs. He has more than 20 years relevant experience in the design, development and management of agri-credit programs and capacity-building interventions for cooperatives.
Tony Siantonas World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Manager of Climate-Smart Agriculture
Tony is a sustainability professional with 12 years’ experience delivering climate change solutions for business and governments around the world. As Regional Program Manager, Tony is responsible for driving WBCSD’s Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) interventions across five ‘road test’ regions, including ASEAN, addressing productivity, resilience and mitigation, particularly for smallholder rice farmers. Prior to joining WBCSD, Tony managed major agricultural development programs supporting 12m smallholder farmers for the Ethiopian Government’s Agricultural Transformation Agency, addressing CSA innovations for cereal value chains, ICT extension platforms, post-harvest food loss and enhanced public-private collaboration. Before this he established sustainability services for Deloitte consulting in the UK, focused on decarbonising corporate value chains.
Chu Van Chuong International Cooperation Department & Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
Senior Program Officer, Deputy Director General
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August 2014 – to date: International Cooperation Deparment, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
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November 2009 - July 2014: Counsellor (Agriculture), Permanent Mission of Vietnam to United Nations, World Trade Organization and other international organizations;
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May 2001 – November 2009: Official then Senior Official of International Cooperation Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
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November 1989 – April 2001: Researcher, Senior Researcher