• Member of the Nordzucker AG Executive Board since 1 January 2022
• Areas of responsibility: Digitalization & Technology Service, GoGreen, Operations, Product & Quality Management, Sales and Marketing, Supply Chain Management

• Bruno is Head of Sugar Research for ED&F Man. Previously, Bruno spent 3 years as Head of Americas Sugar Research in Miami, after 5 years working as a senior analyst in the Brazilian Sugar Market in São Paulo. Bruno has experience performing crop tours in several mills among Brazil, Centrals America and Mexico with solid knowledge in supply, demand, prices and trade dynamics aspects related to the Sugar World. Other experience includes working as agricultural commodities analyst, consultancy and AD-HOC work for companies investing in Brazil. Bruno is an Agronomical engineer from Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) with a Master degree of Agriculture Economic in Universidad Catholic of Chile, specialist in agriculture commodities, with over fifteen year experience in the sugar and ethanol market.

Head of Commodity Research and Price risk management for Nestlé. Years of experience in commodity market research.

David Brandes’s passion evolves around doing well by doing good. For the planet, for the animals and for innovation. He believes that evolving our manufacturing systems through biotechnology is a historical opportunity to secure planetary health. Previously, David led Migros Online as CCO, and was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Co. David is also the co-founder of Belgium cell-based meat brand Peace of Meat, a company he successfully exited through the acquisition of a NASDAQ-listed partner.

Doriana Milenkova Analyst – Farm Inputs, Sugar Based in the Netherlands, Doriana works as an analyst for RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness, focusing on farm inputs and sugar. She worked for many years as a policy advisor on agriculture, food, and nature for Bulgaria and Moldovia at the Dutch Embassy in Sofia. Prior to that, she worked for a grain and commodity broker. Doriana holds a Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of National and World Economy, Sofia. She is proficient in Bulgarian, English, and Russian and has a basic understanding of Dutch.

Elisabeth Lacoste is an agro-economist, she obtained a Master’s degree in agronomy from the “AgroParisTech” in France (Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon, France) and a Doctorate in industrial economics from “Mines ParisTech” (France). After experience as a researcher, specializing in agricultural policy and market regulations, she worked for a sugar company in North Germany and as a consultant on world agricultural commodities markets for various agricultural organisations as well as private companies.Since 2006, she is Director of the International Confederation of European Beet Growers (CIBE) based in Brussels, Belgium. CIBE defends and represents the interest of around 130,000 sugar beet growers in Europe.

I have been with AGRANA for 24 years and 21 years within the Sugar business. Before AGRANA, I have been on the other side of business – user of sugar, managing two production units of ice-cream and chocolate, distribution and sales. My career path in the sugar business passed through Austria (four years) and Bulgaria (seven years). I am also the Economic Policy Manager at AGRANA Romania – representing my company in EU and national professional organizations and responsible for sugar trading. I am both the President of Romanian Sugar Organization since 2008 and the Vice-president of ASSUC since 2020.

Gerald joined Tate & Lyle Sugars in 2004 after spending time working in the grain and oilseeds industry and training as an Agricultural Economist in the early 1990s. He has tackled many roles over the years, including being responsible for purchasing the raw cane sugar used at their European refineries, business strategy and relationships with various Governments over the years including both the EU and the UK. In simple terms, his role today involves dealing with issues outside the factory gates. This can include everything from policymakers setting trade and agricultural policies that impact the business, through to planning issues in the rapidly regenerating area around their East London factories. A big part of his work has always been around energy, and he was a key part of the team that led the instillation of biomass boilers at Thames Refinery in 2006. More recently, he has been working alongside technical and finance colleagues to look at how the refineries can be decarbonised, as well as dealing with the short-term energy shocks that have faced European markets in the last few years

Ian Munnery completed a degree in Botany and Microbiology at Royal Holloway, University of London, followed by a Post graduate diploma in Crop Protection at Harper Adams. His career spanning over 30 years has encompassed agrochemicals, trials, grain, fertiliser & seed giving him a unique perspective and experience having served in many industry advisory roles and committees. Ian is a Director of SESVANDERHAVE UK and sales lead for North West Europe.

Jessica Edinger is the lead analyst in the sugar team at S&P Global Commodity Insights. In her current role at S&P Global, she covers Global sugar market and is responsible for overseeing the outstanding sugar analytics the company provides. During her career, Jessica has worked with sugar research on a trading house and investment banking. Ms. Edinger holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from Brazil and a Master's in Finance from Universidade Catolica Portuguesa.

José Orive is currently the Executive Director of the International Sugar Organization, a post he assumed in January 2014. He was unanimously reappointed to serve a second period through 2021 and again for a further third term of four years through 2024. Previously Mr. Orive was the Executive Director of the Central American Sugar Association (AICA) for 19 years, where he was responsible for negotiations for the private sugar industry, with emphasis on coordination of joint actions on priority issues, clearinghouse for information relevant to the sector, publications, participation in international forae. Since 2010 he also was a partner in ARTLEX law firm in charge of large corporate clients, distribution contracts and environmental issues and arbitration. Prior to that, Mr. Orive was honored to be a partner at ARIAS & MUÑOZ, a Central American law firm, where he worked for 10 years in corporate, M&A, environmental matters and government affairs/lobbying. He holds a Law Degree from Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala and obtained a Masters in International Law from Georgetown University Law Centre. Soon after graduating in 1985 Mr. Orive took up the post of Minister Counselor for Economic & Commercial Affairs, Embassy of Guatemala, Washington, D.C.

Koen Dillen started his career in the European Commission as a research fellow in its Joint Research Centre. Since 2013 Koen works in the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development. He started as an analyst doing market outlook and has used his analytical skills in a number of roles. Since June 2022 Koen leads the unit monitoring and regulating the markets for arable crops and olive oil. Koen Dillen holds a PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Leuven.

Lawrence Cohen is part of the Commodities Risk Management team at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners responsible for implementing hedging strategies and managing the portfolio of raw material price risk across sugar, aluminium, gas, power, gasoil, and petchems. Lawrence has over 15 years of commodities exposure across the physical trade, derivatives sales & trading, and retail advisory gained with Noble Group, National Australia Bank, and Sainsbury's Supermarkets.

Marc Letroublon has been at Bayer since 1998 and worked in various functions, both country & regional: development, portfolio management, marketing, and strategy.

Mark Spencer was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in September 2022. He was previously Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons from February 2022 to September 2022, before which he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Chief Whip) between July 2019 and February 2022. He was elected Conservative MP for Sherwood in May 2010. Before entering Parliament, Mark was Chairman of the National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs as well as a District and County Councillor. He studied at Shuttleworth Agricultural College before joining the family farm business, which now employs around 50 people. He is still a local farmer and businessman, growing the produce which is sold in the farm shop.

Marie-Christine Ribera is a French citizen and lives in Brussels. She began her professional career in 1987 with an internship at the European Commission before becoming a policy officer in a variety of settings, initially with the French National Federation of Rural Territory Management and later in the regional Chamber of Commerce of Industry of the lde-de-France region. In 1991, she joined the French National Centre for Young Farmers as an Advisor in charge of Community matters. During this time, she was also a substitute member of the Economic and Social Committee of the EU. In 1993, she became the legal advisor to the Director General of the French inter-professional National Cereals Office.

In 1999, Marie-Christine Ribera joined COPA-COGECA (European Farmers and Cooperatives Association) as Policy Advisor with special responsibility for arable crops and bilateral agreements. She has been deeply involved in the agriculture, environment, and food policies of the European Union, developing a robust network of relations on the Brussels/EU scene.

In 2008, Marie-Christine Ribera was promoted to Director of Commodities & Trade.

In 2009, she joined the European Association of Sugar Manufacturers, CEFS (Comite Europeen des Fabricants de Sucre in French) as Director-General.

Maria Nunez has been a sugar analyst with S&P Global Commodity Insights since 2011 (formerly known as Platts and Kingsman), covering Global sugar markets, Central America, NAFTA, and South America except Brazil. Before joining her last role, she worked on market research for Cubazucar. She was a futures and options trader for 10 years for Caribsugar SA and then worked for Novafin Financiere SA in Geneva (export finance and country risk). Ms. Nunez holds a degree in Economic Sciences with a Major in Finance and a Master's in International Trade from the University of Havana. She had advanced training in Futures Trading and Options in Sucres et Denrées (SUCDEN, Paris and SUCDEN Financial, London).

After completing an engineering degree in agriculture, Marion Hoff, aged 43, started out in sales in the agri-food sector, where she progressed through various managerial positions. Marion joined Tereos in 2011. After starting out as sales manager for the sugar business unit and responsible for commercial development of stevia extracts, she handled sugar & starch and sweeteners for the Benelux and export market for 4 years. In April 2022, Marion was appointed European Sales Director. Her responsibilities cover the entire range of products from our European factories: sugar, starch products, beet alcohol and grain alcohol. Customers covered include the food, feed, pharmaceutical, paperboard and green chemistry industries.

Michael Levitz is Sugar Trading Manager at Sucden Americas Corporation. Responsible for the physical trading in the Americas excluding Brazil. He started his career in sugar in 1982 as a physical broker in London. Joined E D & F Man in 1996 working in the London, New York and Miami offices until 2018 focusing primarily on the sourcing of sugar from Latin America. After working for a couple of years at Glencore, he joined the Sucden Group in 2020. Michael holds a BS and MBA from The Ohio State University.

Michael chairs NFU Sugar Board meetings and is the lead spokesperson representing sugar beet growers with British Sugar, the media, NFU Council and NFU Policy Board. He represents growers in monthly meetings and annual contract negotiations with British Sugar, playing a key role in the NFU Sugar negotiating team. Michael farms in the Fens of North Cambridgeshire and South Lincolnshire, farming 2000 hectares, across three farming businesses. The family has been involved in drainage and farming in the Fens since the 17th century. The farms grow wheat, spring barley, sugar beet, spring beans, oilseed rape, marrowfat peas and condiment mustard. They are part of the RSPB’s Farmland Bird Friendly Zone, which now covers more than 4000 hectares and landscape scale benefits covering 230km sq. Also with fellow mustard growers, they are working on a landscape scale bee and pollinator project with Unilever. Michael has also served as NFU county chair and the council delegate for Cambridgeshire, the most farmed county in the UK, chairing the East Anglian regional board for four years, as well serving as chair of the NFU Audit committee. Michael is chair of the North Level District Internal Drainage Board, serving 34,000 hectares. He spent 10 years on the Anglian Northern Regional Flood and Coastal Committee. He is currently chair of the English Mustard Growers and vice chair of Condimentum LTD for the milling of mustard seeds and processing mint leaf in Norwich, working with Unilever’s Colman’s brand.

Norma Tregurtha was previously the Director of Policy and Partnerships at ISEAL, where she helped business leaders, policymakers, and civil society organizations understand how they can use standards and certification to build sustainable supply chains. Norma has a background in agricultural development and smallholder livelihoods.

Head of CSR Group at Tereos since November 2022, Olivier Hantz has worked in the fields of CSR and sustainability for more than 20 years, including 15 years in food and agricultural production. After starting his career at the French Agency for Ecological Transition and EU Life projects management, Olivier Hantz as developed an expertise in climate strategy and low carbon value chains development.

Patrice Bougault is the founder & managing director of Valtorcim, a sugar & ethanol consulting firm specialised in commercial activities, risk & asset management. Patrice held various leadership position in sugar & ethanol trading for Cargill, Alvean & Wilmar. Patrice holds an engineer degree from Ecole Superieure d'Agriculture d'Angers in France.

Patricia Luís-Manso has 20 years of experience in analytical and leadership roles in agri-commodities, investment banking, and network industries. In her current role at S&P Global, Patricia is responsible for Agriculture Research and Sustainability, leading a global team of experts in Soft Commodities, Crop Science, Sustainability and Animal Health to generate essential data and intelligence for the Agribusiness industry.

Paul Mesters is the CEO of Cosun Beet Company, the sugar beet processor in the Netherlands, and a member of the Executive Board of Royal Cosun, a dutch farmer cooperative with 8100 members. Royal Cosun has a turnover of more than 3 billion Euro’s with the following business groups: Aviko (potato specialties and French Fries), Cosun Beet Company (sugar and other products from sugar beets), Duynie Group (animal feed/circular co-products), Sensus (chicory fiber and specialties), Cosun Protein and Cosun Biobased Experts. Royal Cosun has 24 production sites in 7 countries with 4200 colleagues. Paul Mesters has a longstanding career and extensive experience in the food ingredients business with various roles in marketing & technical sales, production and R&D at DSM (GB), Corbion (PURAC) USA and Europe, CSM Sugar and Cosun Beet Company. He has a Master degree in Business Administration and a Bachelor degree in Food Technology. Furthermore, he served as President of the ESST (European Society of Sugar Technology) 2015-2017 and is since 2018 President of CEFS (Comite Europeen des Fabricants de Sucre). Other functions: Chairman of the supervisory board of Limako Chairman of the supervisory board of Eemshaven Sugar Terminal Treasurer of the board of Cosun Nutrition Center Member of the board IRS (Dutch sugar beet research center) Member of the board of PFP (Primary Food Processors).

Philip started his career in sugar trading back in 1997 in Cargill, when he joined as a trainee on the futures desk. He worked at Cargill for 15 years across multiple geographies and functions, before joining Bunge in 2012 to help build their whites futures trading desk. In the 6 years at Bunge, Philip went from running the whites book to running the sugar and ethanol trading business, before this was sold to Wilmar in late 2018. After 2 years at Wilmar, Philip is now trading sugar at Engelhart in Genava as part of their softs trading desk.

Rebecca is a Senior Editor in the Biofuels team at S&P Global Commodity Insights, joining Platts following the acquisition of the Live Rice Index in 2019. She is focused on developing Platts European sugar, vegetable oils and renewable tickets (HBE) price assessments. Rebecca holds a First Class Honors BA in Anthropology and Sociology from Goldsmiths, University of London and has a keen interest in humanitarian and environmental issues such as food security and environmental sustainability.

Stefan Uhlenbrock has responsibility for sugar and coffee forecasting and analysis at S&P Global Commodity Insights. Stefan is responsible for the company's extensive work in the sugar and coffee sectors. He oversees several reports, is responsible for the company's projections with regard to these soft commodities, advises clients on developments in global markets and contributes to the maintenance and further development of the company's vast statistical database for different commodities. With more than 20 years of experience in the industry, Stefan is a regular speaker at conferences across the globe and is frequently cited by major media publications.

Timothé Masson is an agronomist from the Institut National Agronomique in Paris, and he also has a Master’s Degree in plant breeding. His first job was in Cambodia, as an agronomist for Caritas Internationalis for 2 years. Back in France, he worked for 8 years in the animal products industry, as an economist in the French meat industry sector union, and as Secretary of the French Egg & Egg products’ Union. He joined the French beet growers’ confederation (CGB) in 2013, as an economist, in charge of international affairs. Since 1st January 2014, he has been Secretary of the World Association of Beet and Cane Growers (WABCG), which brings together beet and cane growers from more than 35 member associations all around the world and unites over 5 million sugarbeet and sugarcane growers.

Living in Brasil for the last 4 years. Managing the department for 2 years, and formerly Operational Manager for 2 years. I am managing a team of more than 40 people, and attending markets with more than 60 certification or verification schemes for several industries, such as Forestry, Agri, Fishery, Food, Feed, Social Compliance, Textiles, Biomass and Biofuels. Some of the programs we manage are Bonsucro, RTRS, CRS, ISCC, 2BSvs, FSC, GMP+, FairTrade USA, SMETA among several others; and private programs for companies such as Cefetra, Unilever, Pepsico, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, ADM, Amaggi, Bunge, Cargill, COFCO, Dreyfus, Braskem, Copersucar, Raizen, Tereos. In the sugar sector we work with more than 150 sugar mills, specially for Bonsucro scheme and other Biofuel schemes such as ISCC EU, ISCC CORSIA, and Renovabio in partnership with BENRI. During these 4 years the Certifications department more than doubled its operations and turnover, reaching more markets and visiting and auditing more than 1.000 clients annually. I´ve been in certifications industry for 9 years, starting as an Agricultural Engineer and auditor in Argentina in 2015.

Volodymyr Zakharchenko is Head of Sugar sales. Joined Astarta-Kyiv 4 years ago. I have more than 30 years of experience in international trade and business development.

Biography coming soon.

Yury Sharanov has accumulated more than 15 years of experience in R&D and procurement within the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector. For the past 10 years, his focus has been primarily on the sugar market. The majority of his professional journey has taken place at the world's largest confectionery producer, Mars Wrigley. Presently, he serves as the global leader for sugar sourcing and price risk management at Mars. Additionally, Yury currently holds the position of President at the European Industrial Sugar Users Association (CIUS). Alongside his industry expertise, Yury holds a PhD in Bioorganic Chemistry.