RETAIL, FINANCE AND THE FUTURE OF FOOD

Gerda Verburg
Dutch Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food quality

On 22 February 2007 Ms Gerda Verburg (1957) was appointed Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality in the Dutch government. In 2009 she chaired the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. Prior to being minister she was a member of parliament for the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA) from 1998 to 2007.

Before her entry in the political arena she was an entrepreneur running a business in  communications and projects. She started her career in Dutch Christian Trade Union (CNV) of which she became board member in 1990.   

Sanjeev Ashtana
President & Chief Executive, Agri & Food Supply Chain at Reliance Retail

Sanjeev Ashtana is President and Chief Executive of the Agri and Food Supply Chain at Reliance Retail. Mr. Sanjeev Asthana has been given the mandate to start from scratch an agri supply chain business for Reliance Retail which will connect the ‘farm to fork’ and provide impetus to rural economy of India.

Prior to Joining Reliance, Mr. Asthana was Director on the Board of Cargill India and headed their key business of Grains & Oilseeds. Cargill under his leadership set up the industry benchmark to do business in the most ethical manner. Mr. Asthana is a regular speaker at various national and International seminars on Commodity trade, Risk management, Food Supply Chain, Retail and Agriculture.

Paul Kelly
ASDA's External Affairs and Social Responsibility Director (UK)

Paul joined ASDA in August 2007 as External Affairs and Social Responsibility Director and is in charge of media and government relations, sustainability, corporate responsibility and regulatory policy. Paul also helps to shape ASDA and Walmart policy on a wide variety of issues including health, agriculture and sustainability.

Prior to joining ASDA he held a number of senior positions with Compass Group PLC and Granada Group PLC.

Paul Kelly is a board member of the British Retail Consortium and the School Food Trust. He is on the obesity and alcohol leadership groups for the Coalition for Better Health, and was a member of the Department of Health / FSA Nutrition Strategy Steering Group.

Daniela Mariuzzo
CSR-manager Rabobank Brazil

Daniela Mariuzzo is the Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Rabobank International Brazil, responsible for the development and implementation of CSR policies for the Food and Agri sectors. In 2008 she coordinated the launch of the CSR Best Practices Manual for Brazilian farmers.

As CSR manager at Rabobank Brazil she supported the Asian Rabobank offices to kick off the CSR process. Daniela takes part in the Round Table on Responsible Soy and has large experience in farm inspections on international quality protocols, such as GlobalGAP. She is graduated as a Food Engineer (Campinas University, Unicamp). In addition she studied environmental issues in Barcelona and Hamburg, by which she gained her PhD.

Gerhard Prätorius
Head of Coordination CSR and Sustainability at Volkswagen Group

Gerhard Prätorius is the Head of Coordination CSR and Sustainability at the Volkswagen Group. In the company for many years, he also has been Managing Director of several regional development agencies, working on technology transfers especially in the fields of new transportation systems and environmental technologies.

He began his career as a senior researcher in this field at the Institute for Ecology and Business Management at the European Business School, Oestrich-Winkel (Germany). Dr. Prätorius graduated in Economics, Political Science, and German Language and is also lecturer at the Technical University Carolo-Wilhelmina of Braunschweig.

Jason Clay
Senior Vice President Market Transformations of the World Wildlife Fund

In addition to his position as WWF’s Senior Vice President of Market Transformation, Dr. Jason Clay (USA) manages the WWF Network’s private sector advisory board and led the development of WWF’s private sector engagement strategy. He is a leader within WWF and the NGO community more broadly on identifying global trends and issues as well as supply chain management.

Jason Clay has co-convened multi-stakeholder roundtables to identify and reduce the social and environmental impacts of such products as salmon, soy, sugarcane, and cotton and helped draft the RSPO principles and criteria for sustainable palm oil. Over the course of his career he has run a family farm, taught at Harvard and Yale, worked in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and received his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1979 in anthropology and international agriculture.

Video of related presentation: Jason Clay: How big brands can help save biodiversity

Kees van der Graaf
Chairman

Kees van der Graaf currently is an Executive-in-Residence at the IMD Business Scholl in Lausanne, previously held the positions of President Europe and President Food within the Board of Unilever, until 2008. During this time, has was also member of the liaison committee of the CIAA, the Confederation of Food Industries in Europe. The 32 years of his Unilever career were spent at several top managerial positions.

He is now passing his experience to business students and young professionals focusing on leadership requirements. Apart from his professional activities, Mr. van der Graaf founded and presides the FSHD Foundation on muscular dystrophy.