top of page

Confirmed Speakers

AG Headshot.jpeg

Dr. Andrew Griffiths, Nestle

Andy is Head of Value Chain Sustainability for Nestlé’s UK&I businesses, responsible for the development and delivery of the Environmental Sustainability strategy both within the operation and across the value chain.

 

He has worked for Nestlé UK&I for over 20 years, originally in operational and engineering roles. He is both a chartered environmentalist  and IEMA fellow, as well as a chartered engineer (IET). He is focussed on bringing together the engineering expertise, operational experience and environmental insights of the organisation alongside collaborative partnerships with academia and key delivery partners to develop and implement robust and effective sustainability programmes.

IMG_8762.jpg

Dr. Julian Little, Bayer

Julian has worked in plant science and crop production for over 30 years. With a PhD in Molecular Plant Pathology from the University of Wales, he worked initially as a plant biochemist in both the UK and France, before switching to communicating science in 2002 and is currently Head of Communications & Public Affairs at Bayer Crop Science in the UK.

 

Based in Cambridge, he deals with media, political and public enquiries on the subject of current and future food production methods, innovative plant breeding, together with more general issues surrounding pesticide use and sustainable agriculture. A fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, he is an active member of a number of industry bodies in the UK and is the current Chair of the Communications Group at EuropaBio in Brussels.

minni jain.jpg

Minni Jain, The Flow Partnership

Minni is the Operations Director of the Flow Partnership (TFP) (www.theflowpartnership.org)  a UK based NGO working to rejuvenate landscapes and counter the increasing threat of floods and droughts through community collaboration. In partnership with communities and using their innate, local wisdom, TFP helps them build natural infrastructure which serve to slow surface rain water runoff, allowing it to filter and store, helping minimize erosion, recharge aquifers, regulate localized weather patterns and create wildlife habitat. With the increasing threat of climate change and global heating, the Flow Partnership’s work is ever-more needed. Current projects are in India, the UK. and Slovakia and the setting up of an open source global Water School where these methods of rejuvenating landscapes will be freely available. Minni is also a Trustee of Earthinks UK, a Trustee of the Agroforestry Research Trust and on the board of the Berkana Institute (USA)

Karl Behrendt portrait.jpg

Prof. Karl Behrednt, Harper Adams University

Prof Karl Behrendt joined Harper Adams University in January 2018 and is Director of the Global Institute for Agri-Tech Economics. He has over 20 years industry experience in agribusiness management consulting, extension and research and holds a PhD from the University of New England (Australia). Prior to joining Harper Adams University Prof Behrendt worked at Charles Sturt University (Australia) and operated an agricultural consulting firm for over 17 years in south eastern Australia. His current research focuses on working with industry and other research institutions to provide economic intelligence and agri-tech solutions for UK and global agriculture and value chains. His core discipline is in the area of bioeconomic modelling of agricultural systems and decision support for farmers. Prof Behrendt is currently undertaking research into the economics of precision livestock farming, precision landscape management, robotics in agriculture and net zero farming, and improving grassland policies and payments for environmental services in China and Mongolia.

Profilepic_sreedevi.jpg

Sreedevi Devireddy, SRiX Tech Incubator, India

Sreedevi is the founding CEO of SR Innovation Exchange (http://srix.in/),  a Technology Business Incubator,  under the aegis of  DST (Department of Science and technology, Govt. of India)  at Warangal (India), with Agri-tech as one of the main focal areas. Sreedevi has steered SRiX to international level in less than 2 years.   She is  passionate about Women Entrepreneurship  at grass root level, she believes this has  greater Economic and social impact and has championed various initiatives, most  noteworthy being AIRSWEEE sponsored by U.S.MISSION TO INDIA. Sreedevi has received many awards for her contribution to Innovation &  Entrepreneurship, recently winning the highly prestigious  NATIONAL AWARD in Entrepreneurship  2019 from the government of India in the  ECOSYSTEM BUILDER category. She has impacted  400 Startups and more than 22,000 students through her mentoring activities including bootcamps and roadshows.

bunxtha2umzfbjtjjzfo.jpg

Dr. Sachin Shende, KisanHub, Cambridge

Sachin is the founder and CEO of Kisanhub, an Enterprise SaaS platform providing actionable insights across the supply chain for the agri-food industry. Kisan in Hindi means farmer. KisanHub was born of Sachin's desire to give farmers everywhere simple and meaningful access to the sort of sophisticated decision-support that’s available to managers in other sectors. He grew up on a farm, and combines the insights of a rural upbringing with recognised expertise in the development of data analytics and research platforms. After first degrees in agricultural engineering and water resources management, Sachin began his career building reservoir decision-support systems. Sachin holds a PhD in Computational Hydraulics, and prior to founding KisanHub in 2012, managed the development of research analytics platforms for Barclays Global Investors and BlackRock.

Leslie Berger.jpg

Leslie Berger, ADAS

Leslie is a Senior Sustainability Consultant with over 25 years of experience working with global agri-food supply chains focussing on a range of topics including sustainable and ethical sourcing, boosting agricultural productivity, reducing food waste, and building climate resilience.  Leslie engages with clients at both the strategic corporate level and at all stages within the supply chain including working directly with farmer groups. Her understanding of the challenges faced by food producers has been influenced by direct farm management experience gained through co-managing a family farm in East Anglia. Leslie has worked in both developed and developing country environments and has a keen interest in the challenges faced by smallholder farmers.  She is currently leading ADAS’s business development outreach work in India which has led to new partnerships with NGO’s banks and commercial businesses.  For the past five years Leslie has held a  board position with a non-profit organisation providing development assistance to farmers in Burkina Faso, West Africa. 

omcintyre.jpg

Oliver McEntyre, Barclays

Oliver grew up on a family farm in Lancashire, after 3 years at Myerscough College he spent 10 years managing pig units throughout the north west, then spent 6 years as an independent Farm Business Advisor. In 2006 he joined Barclays as Senior Agricultural Manager for Cumbria and Scotland before being appointed National Agricultural Specialist in 2012. In his current role as Barclays’ National Agricultural Strategy Director, Oliver oversees Barclays’ agricultural strategy and positioning from an industry perspective.

img61107.jpg

Prof. Bhavani Shankar, SOAS and University of Sheffield

Bhavani is an applied economist working on research areas at the intersection of agriculture, food, nutrition and health, in developing as well as developed countries. His current research interests include the analysis of economic drivers of over and under nutrition, food and nutrition policy evaluation and the role of agriculture and food systems in enabling better nutrition and health. His ongoing and recent externally funded research projects include LANSA (Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia) and POSHE (Palm Oil: Sustainability, Health and Economics), Sustainable and Health Food Systems (SHEFS) and MINI (Market Interventions for Nutritional Improvement). In the past, his research involvements have included analysis of animal disease in the Mekong region, floodplain resource management in Bangladesh and the evaluation of transgenic cotton performance in South Africa and India. He is currently an academic editor for PLOS One, and served as Managing Editor of Food Policy during 2011-2015.

bottom of page