Partnership Forum on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Speaker Bios
(in the order of the programme)

H.E Inge Nordang, Ambassador, Permanent Representative to the UN

Organisations in Rome, Norwegian Embassy in Rome
Prior to his position as Ambassador for Norway to the UN Rome-Based
agencies, Mr Nordang was the Norwegian Minster Counsellor in the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs. Mr Nordang has over 20 years’ experience working in the
United Nations and for the Norwegian government. He held several positions
in the Ministry of Agriculture. Mr Nordang holds a Master’s degree in
Agronomy from the Agricultural University of Norway and post graduate
education in pedagogics. He speaks Norwegian, English, Spanish and
Portuguese.

Daniel J. Gustafson, Deputy Director General, FAO

Mr. Daniel J. Gustafson is the current Deputy Director General for the
FAO, he was appointed to the position in 2012. Prior to this he worked
as the Director in the Office to Support Decentralization. He has
worked for over 30 years on agricultural and rural development in Latin
America, Africa and Asia as well as in the United States. He holds an
M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Wisconsin and a
Ph.D in Agricultural Extension from the University of Maryland. He
began his career in Brazil with the InterAmerican Institute for
Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), where he worked from 1977 to 1988.
This was followed by work at the University of Maryland as Program Director of the University’s
International Development Management Center. He joined FAO in 1994, first in Mozambique as
an advisor within the Ministry of Agriculture and then as head of FAO’s country offices in Kenya
from 1998 to 2002 and in India where he worked until returning the US in December 2007. From
2007 to 2012, he worked as the Director of the North American Liaison Office for the FAO.

Stefano Prato, CSM Secretariat

Stefano Prato (Italy) is the Managing Director of the Society for
International Development (SID), responsible for the overall direction
and programmatic leadership of the Society and the coordination of its
network of offices. He recently served as one of the Advisors to the UN
Secretary General’s High Level Panel of Eminent Personalities for the
Post-2015 Development Agenda and continues to advise several
institutions in the follow-up of the post-2015 process. He is an active
member of the Addis Ababa CSO Coordinating Group of the CSO FfD
Platform, the Africa Working Group on Post 2015, the Liaison Group of
the CSO Platform on Nutrition and the Editorial Board of the Right to Food Watch, among others.
His most recent areas of interest address the lack of inclusiveness and equity of Africa’s growth
patterns and explore the agenda for socio-economic transformation of the continent.

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He graduated in Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration “La
Sapienza” of Rome, Italy. During his University term, he was actively engaged with AIESEC, the
International Association of Students in Economics and Management, where he was elected in
several positions at both national and international level. In his spare time, he pursued a second
University degree in veterinary medicine and recently completed his PhD in Animal Health and
Livestock Management while also enjoying a limited practice of veterinary medicine.

Jaine Chisholm Caunt, Director General of the Grain and Feed Trade
Association (GAFTA) and Chair of the Private Sector Mechanism and
the International Agri-Food Network
Jaine Chisholm Caunt is the Director General of the Grain and Feed Trade
Association. Gafta is an international trade association representing
businesses who trade in agri-commodities and has over 1510 members in 89
countries. Jaine is also the current Chair of the International Agri-Food
Network (IAFN) which coordinates the work of the Private Sector Mechanism
(PSM) at the UN Committee on World Food Security. The Private Sector
Mechanism facilitates inputs of the private sector into the UN CFS and
organises events to further food security, improved nutrition, and sustainable
agriculture.

Dyborn C. Chibonga: CEO, NAFSAM

Mr. Dyborn Chibonga manages the National Smallholder Farmers’
Association of Malawi (NASFAM) as Chief Executive Officer. He has served
in this role since June 1999, managing the membership association of over
100,000 farmer members and a staff of about 390 in 19 locations across the
country. In his experience with NASFAM, Mr. Chibonga has led a dynamic
team in taking the project from an initiative to becoming a model rural
producer organization in Southern Africa. NASFAM entered into Fair trade
production of peanuts in 2005 and won the Yara Prize for an African Green
Revolution in 2009. Mr. Chibonga is a member of the Trade Policy National Working Group
(TPNWG) and part of the Malawi Government agriculture cluster for World Trade Organization
(WTO) and EU-ACP EPAs negotiations. He also sits on the Boards of Press Agriculture Ltd (PAL)
and the Natural Resources College (NRC). He also sits as Board Director of the African Institute
of Corporate Citizenship (AICC), member of the European Economic and Social Follow-Up
Committee (EESC), and member of the India-Africa (IABC) Business Council. Mr Chibonga has
represented the voice of smallholder farmers at the Climate Change negotiations of the UNFCCC
since COP 15 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has also articulated farmer interests at the World
Economic Forum on Africa in 2010 and 2011 and was also present at the high-level private
sessions on agriculture and food security during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in
Davos, Switzerland in January 2012. Mr. Chibonga holds a Masters Certificate in NGO
Management and M.Sc. in Landscape Ecology Design and Maintenance from Wye College
(University of London). He also has a B.Sc. (Credit) and Diploma (Credit) from Bunda College of
Agriculture (University of Malawi).

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Steve Godfrey, CIO, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)
Steve Godfrey is the Chief Investment Officer of the Global Alliance for
Improved Nutrition (GAIN). Steve joined GAIN as Chief Investment Officer in
2012 following five years as Managing Director of the Commonwealth
Business Council, where he was responsible for investment and policy work
with heads of government in more than 50 countries. He has worked as an
advisor to the UK Department for International Development, Canadian
Foreign Minister and President of the Queen’s Privy Council of Canada, and
has consulted to the United Nations, World Bank, European Union and
various international companies. Steve was appointed Head of the
Commonwealth office in South Africa from 1993 to1999, leading the
Commonwealth technical assistance program during the country’s transition to majority rule. He
later managed the private sector consultations of the Commission for Africa chaired by then UK
Prime Minister Tony Blair. Steve began his career working for development NGOs, including
Oxfam and War on Want in the UK and Inter Pares in Canada. He holds an MA in Philosophy
from the University of Edinburgh and is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts.

Loraine Derville, UN Partnership Development, Nutriset

Loraine Derville works as UN partnership development & Market analyst for
Nutriset. Nutriset is a French independent and medium-sized company, has
been 100% dedicated to the development and production of innovative and
accessible nutritional solutions to treat and prevent malnutrition, in
developing countries. She was the past five years in charge of the
international development of the PlumpyField; a network of like-minded
entrepreneurs based in regions affected by malnutrition. Our common goal is
to contribute to nutritional autonomy as well as economic and social development through local
production, using local agricultural resources and value chains. Former graduate of ISTOM, she
is an engineer in Agriculture and Development. She previously works in the Indian Ocean zone,
Ecuador, Argentina and India on related development topics.
Steve Ngunyi, Managing Partner, ICON
Steve Ngunyi is from Kenya and he is 32 years old. He has a fond passion
for creating and implementing social impact solutions in communities. His
business interest in agriculture is driven from his childhood in Kiserian,
known for the pastoral Maasai community. Livestock is an avenue he wants
to get more involved in, and he seeks to collaborate with strategic partners
in order to find innovative ways to attract a new audience of African youth
into this topic.

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Audrae Erickson, Vice President, External & Public Affairs, Mead
Johnson Nutrition
Audrae Erickson serves as Mead Johnson Nutrition’s Vice President,
External & Public Affairs. She oversees global government and industry
relations and engages with external stakeholders through partnership
efforts.
Ms. Erickson was formerly the President of the Corn Refiners
Association in Washington, D.C. representing the processors of corn-
based ingredients. Ms. Erickson also served as the Senior Director of
Congressional Relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation,
representing U.S. farmers and ranchers on international trade issues.
Prior to her private sector positions, Ms. Erickson served as the Director of Agricultural Affairs at
the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office and was an economist at the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Economic Research Service. Ms. Erickson earned a Master of Arts degree in
economics as a Rotary International scholar at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada,
and a Bachelor of Arts in economics/business and a Bachelor of Arts in French at Linfield
College in McMinnville, Oregon.

Geoffrey Mbugua Kamau, Chairman, Inaya Group Ltd

Eng. Mbugua Kamau is the chairman of Inaya Group Kenya. He has
31yrs of experience in the construction industry and project management
and has been part of some of the complex construction and engineering
jobs undertaken both locally and abroad.
He has extensive knowledge in Business development, Real Estate
Development, Finance and project management. Eng. Mbugua kamau
holds a Bachelor of Science (hons) degree, an MBA from Eastern and
Southern Africa Management Institute (ESAMI) and he is a Registered Engineer of the
Engineers Registration Board. He is a director in Inaya group Kenya, Pinnacle International
Projects Ltd, Jacaranda Holdings Ltd, Karume Holdings Ltd, Logistics Management Centre,
Liberty Homes Ltd, Mambrui Golf Resort Ltd among others.

James Cogan, Technology, Industry and Policy Analyst, Ethanol

Europe Renewables Limited
James is a business analyst and policy advisor with EERL (Ethanol
Europe Renewables Ltd). EERL is Europe's most active bioeconomy
investor and is dedicated to the vision of low carbon sustainable
biobased industrial development with a real impact on the prosperity of
rural economies. James qualified as an engineer in Ireland in 1989 and
took an MBA in 1993. He has spent long periods in industry across
Europe as an ICT systems builder in the telecommunications sector,
as a business owner in the eco-construction sector and as a innovation and industrial
development policy analyst and advisor in the chemicals and biobased sectors. He is driven by
the conviction that the environment and climate are under great threat from mankind's activities

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and that large scale action needs to be taken urgently to reverse the damaging trend. He is
believes that agriculture, food, biomaterials and energy are four dimensions of one socio-
economic system for safely and cleanly displacing fossil resources and for eliminating waste,
carbon and pollution.

Karla Canavan, Director, Bunge

Karla is Sustainable Finance Director at Bunge. She has been active in
Global sustainability markets since 2007. Her expertise includes asset
management, Environmental finance, renewable energy, supply chain
optimization. An emerging market expert, Karla is a seasoned trader
with over 20 years of experience in derivatives, currencies, agricultural
commodities and carbon among others. She began in the Banking
sector in Mexico as a derivatives trader at Banco Santander where she
also managed marketing. As a senior trader and risk manager for
Cargill, Karla coordinated logistics, pricing and marketing for local
crops. In her 15+ years with Bunge, Karla traded oilseeds, developed the oils product lines for
bulk and finished goods, optimized the value chain, did business development for Latin
America. She has been active in sustainability markets since 2007 developing the origination
strategy for Bunge and directly managing projects which include REDD, impact investment,
clean energy, structured finance, sustainable agriculture, energy efficiency, sustainable farming,
renewables, waste management and supply chain optimization among others.

Yvonne Hartz-Pitre, Director of Communications and Public

Affairs, International Fertilizer Association
Dr. Yvonne Harz-Pitre has joined the International Fertilizer Institute
(IFA) in September 2015 as Director of Communications and Public
Affairs. Prior to IFA, she held the position of Global Communications
Director at AgroFresh, a former division of Dow AgroSciences, which
developed fruit quality management technologies and plant protection
products. Her responsibilities encompassed international corporate
communications and public affairs, with a particular focus on the
implementation of reputation and issue management strategies in
relation to food safety, environment and nutrition. Before AgroFresh, Dr Harz-Pitre worked for
the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington D.C., followed by a
European Public Relations Manager position at Thales Group in Paris, France. She started her
career in corporate communications at Michelin. A native German, Dr. Harz-Pitre has earned
her PhD at the Sorbonne in Paris and has served several years as a member of the Board of
Directors of the Issue Management Council (IMC).

Ayak Chol Deng Alak, Consultant, Vestergaard Frandsen

Ms. Alak is a South Sudanese Public Health expert who has worked with
numerous institutions on Zoonotic disease in Africa, with special focus on
Sleeping Sickness and its socio-economic impact on the continent at large.
She has been working closely with farmer organizations, government
institutions and humanitarian agencies for the past eight years. Ms. Alak
works in the vector control of Animal and Human African Trypanosomiasis.

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She is a firm believer in the importance of trans-border collaboration to fight zoonotic diseases
and promote improved animal health services in Africa as a key element for increased livestock
productivity and food security.

Cheong Qing Yang, Analyst, Duxton Asset Management

Qing Yang Cheong is part of Duxton Asset Management’s investment
team with key responsibilities in executing transactions and the
management of direct agricultural investments in emerging markets such
as Tanzania, Zambia, Jamaica and India. Prior to joining Duxton, he
worked in operations, project management and financial audit at Citibank
and Deloitte. Qing Yang graduated with a double degree in Accountancy
and Business (Banking & Finance) from the Nanyang Technological
University in Singapore.

Eric Trachtenberg, Director Food and Agriculture Sector, McLarty

Associates
Eric Trachtenberg is currently Director, Food and Agriculture Sector at
McLarty Associates and has more than 20 years’ experience working on
global food and agriculture issues. McLarty Associates was founded in
1998 by Thomas “Mack” McLarty, former White House Chief of Staff for US
President Bill Clinton. The McLarty Food and Agricultural practice is
currently focused on addressing nutrition and non-communicable diseases
(NCD) and on providing support international government relations for
Fortune 500 firms, improving agricultural productivity, promoting new
agricultural technology and performing due diligence for mergers and acquisitions. Before
founding McLarty’s Food and Agriculture practice in 2012, he served as Vice President,
International Trade Policy, for the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council (USAPEEC) where he
worked on market access issues in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Trachtenberg also worked
as a career diplomat at USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) both in Washington and
overseas. During his FAS career, he negotiated the resolution of market access issues,
supervised international development programs, reported on agricultural production, and
promoted U.S. agricultural exports in key markets such as China, Taiwan and Russia.
Trachtenberg has an M.S. in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University, an M.P.A.
from the University of Southern California and a double B.A. in Government and Economics
from Cornell University. He speaks Russian and Mandarin Chinese.

Randy Duckworth, Executive Director, Global Pulse Confederation

Randy Duckworth has extensive experience in the pulse industry and
international agriculture, having spent 18 years working for the US Dry Pea
& Lentil Council and the US Dry Bean Council where he was instrumental
in developing new international markets.

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Wayne Dredge, Managing Director, Piscari Industries Pty Ltd
Wayne Dredge is the Managing Director of Piscari Industries, a small
commercial fishing company based in Victoria, Australia that specialises in
high value seafood products. In 2014 he was the recipient of an Australian
Nuffield Scholarship during which he travelled to over thirty countries
studying technological innovation in fisheries and fisheries management
structures. Wayne now spends considerable time throughout Africa on
behalf of Nuffield International running agribusiness tours, developing an
international network for agricultural professionals, establishing a Nuffield
Scholarship program for food producers from African countries and raising
awareness of the importance of fisheries in relation to global food security.
Juan Gonzalez-Valero, Head Public Policy and Sustainability, Syngenta
Juan Gonzalez Valero is Head Public Policy and Sustainability at Syngenta.
He is a senior executive leader integrating sustainability aspects into core
business practice. He has shaped the company’s ‘Good Growth Plan’ and
oversees its implementation and company performance against it. Prior to his
current position, he served as Head of Ecological Risk Assessment, Head of
Sustainable Use and Stewardship, and Head of Corporate Responsibility
within Syngenta. Before joining Syngenta, he worked as Head Ecotoxicology
at Novartis. He served on the board of a number of non-for-profit
organizations, among them the Fair Labor Association and the Society for
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
Mr. Gonzalez Valero earned his PH.D in Biology, from the University of
Hamburg with specialization in Ecology and Environmental Toxicology.

Flaminia Battistelli, Senior External Relations Officer, International

Development Law Organization (IDLO)
Flaminia Battistelli is Senior External Relations Officer at International Development
Law Organization (IDLO). Previously has been Senior United Nations and
International Organizations Relations Officer at Expo Milano 2015 Company;
Communication Manger at the Italian Development Cooperation in Ethiopia;
Communication Officer at World Food Programme.

Bernhard Stormyr, Head of Sustainability Management, Yara

International
Mr. Stormyr is the Head of Sustainability Management in Yara International
ASA, previously working as Director of Communications and sits in the
Strategic Committee of the Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture. In
2015 he completed the Harvard Business School Executive Education
program on Creating Shared Value. He is an educated journalist and he also
completed the Executive Master of Management program PR and
Communications at BI Norwegian Business School. Earlier experience
include the Central Federation Unio, The Norwegian Nurses’ Union and
working as a news journalist in the daily newspaper Klassekampen. He has

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held several positions in Norwegian Environmental organizations including as local chairman,
and he has elementary University courses in History and Philosophy.

Ramesh Kana, CEO, Emery Oleochemicals

Ramesh brings over 25 years of diverse, international experience to Emery
Oleochemicals Group. He built most of his career with the Royal Dutch Shell
Group, holding key positions in Australia, China, United Kingdom, Latin
America and Malaysia. Since joining Emery Oleochemicals in 2009 as Group
Chief Financial Officer, Ramesh has played a key leadership role in driving
and implementing various growth strategies. With his appointment as the
Group Chief Executive Officer, he is resolute in driving Emery
Oleochemicals' long-term ambitions through his deep understanding and experience of the
company’s business, culture, people, partners and industry.

Adrienne Gardaz Cuendet, Senior Policy Manager, UN Global Compact

Adrienne Gardaz Cuendet leads the UN Global Compact activities on
Food & Agriculture facilitating dialogue and collaboration among
companies and other stakeholders in support of the SDGs and a world
without hunger. Since joining the UN Global Compact in 2010, Adrienne
created this engagement platform on food security and sustainable
agriculture and the “Business 4 Peace” platform designed to support
businesses in their efforts to adopt more sustainable and conflict-
sensitive approaches to their operations.
Prior to her current role, Adrienne worked for the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as a field delegate in Rwanda and
Sri Lanka, and for the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs as policy adviser. Adrienne holds a
Master’s degree in international relations and a Master’s degree in international law from the
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.
Anna Burzykowska, Earth Observation Projects Specialist, European
Space Agency
Anna Burzykowska has 8 years of experience working at the European
Space Agency as a policy analyst at the ESA Washington Office and an
Earth Observation projects specialist at the Directorate of Earth Observation
programmes at ESA Earth Observation Center in Frascati (outside of
Rome). During that time she has been seconded the World Bank Group to
develop collaboration with the major IFIs concerning the use of innovative
satellite-based information services in the developments operations and focused on linking
closer international development community and European geo-spatial information industry.
Before joining ESA Anna has been working at the UNFCCC in preparation of the COP14 (in
Poznan), and at the Space Research Center in Warsaw. She graduated from Warsaw
University with a degree in International Relations, University of Leiden with Adv. Masters in
Aviation and Space Law, and the University of London, King's College where she received a

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postgraduate degree in Science and Security Studies. She was also a visiting researcher at the
George Washington University's Space Policy Institute.