Arthur Lira

President, Câmara dos Deputados (Lower House in the Brazilian Congress)

COMING SOON

Arnaldo Jardim

Federal Deputy, Chamber of Deputies, Brasilia, Brazil.

COMING SOON

Aditya Jhunjhunwala

President, ISMA – Indian Sugar Mills Association

Aditya Jhunjhunwala is currently the Managing Director of K.M.Sugar Mills Ltd a company engage in Sugar, Co generation and Ethanol.

He is currently the President of Indian Sugar Mills Association which is Apex body of Private sugar mills in India and Chairman of ISEC, company engage into exports of sugar and molasses. He is also associated with various leading industries bodies like CII, FICCI and Young President Organization.

Alessandro Gardemann

President, ABiogás

COMING SOON

André Cury

Head of Commercial Bank, Citi

Head of commercial bank at Citi Brazil, André Cury holds a master´s degree in Finance and Economics from FGV-EESP and bachelor degrees in Law from USP and business administration from FGV-EAESP.

The executive has over 20 years of experience in the financial sector, notably in Corporate and Investment Banking. Throughout his career , he worked at banks such as Itaú BBA, where he was Commercial Director, HSBC and BankBoston.

Before being appointed to the new position, André Cury was Co-Head of Citi Brazil Corporate Banking.

Carolina Troster de Hollanda

Partner, DATAGRO Financial

Carolina Troster is a partner at DATAGRO Financial. She has over 20 years of experience in the financial market and has worked at institutions such as Banco ABC Brasil and Citi. Outside of Brazil, she was Director of Wealth Management at UBS Bank in Geneva, Switzerland, and Vice-Director of the structured operations distribution area at Cargill in Singapore.

Corina Monaghan

Head of Political Risk & Credit, Americas, Validus Specialty

Craig Tashjian

Managing Partner / CIO, AMERRA Capital Management LLC

Managing Partner
Chief Investment Officer

Craig has a long history of serving agricultural investors and cofounded AMERRA in 2009. As AMERRA grew both in size and capabilities, Craig’s role evolved to Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer. As CIO, Craig directs the firm’s strategic vision and investment strategy in private equity, special situations and debt investments.

Craig believes that the key component to AMERRA’s success is identification, development and retention of exceptional human talent – both inside AMERRA and at portfolio companies. As a result, he leads AMERRA as a progressive, entrepreneurial company dedicated to continuous learning and growth. He invests a significant amount of his time and AMERRA’s resources in both formal and informal development activities and sees his role as an advisor to our teams. When speaking at the Global AgInvesting conference in April 2018, Craig was quoted as saying “the key to AMERRA’s success is our talent and culture.”

Craig’s technical leadership is rooted in insights he developed investing in the food and agribusiness and natural resources markets for over 30 years, with expertise covering global agriculture, aquaculture, natural resources and trade finance markets. Craig also leverages his experience in previous roles where he managed Société Générale’s Natural Resources business line in the Americas and served as Global Head of Commodities at Standard Chartered Bank, managing multinational commodities finance teams.

Throughout his career, Craig leads by example and takes a “roll-up-your-sleeves” approach. He travels frequently to source and diligence prospective investment opportunities, engage with existing portfolio companies, attend board meetings and keep his finger on the pulse of developments in agribusiness markets to continually develop new investment themes.

His experience and innovative approach to food and agribusiness investing has led to his recognition as an expert in the agribusiness asset class. As a result, Craig is invited to speak at agricultural investment conferences and forums around the globe and is a sought after advisor to other companies and universities interested in this sector.

He currently sits on the boards of Avramar S.A. (Greece), Aquaship A.S., Biomega AS (Norway), Ciclon Trading Corp. (U.S.A), F&S Agrisolutions Indústria de Biocombustíveis Ltda. (Brazil), Pipeline Foods (USA), and Rio Amambai Agroenergia S.A. (Brazil).

Enrico Biancheri

Commercial Director, LDC Sugar

COMING SOON

Ernani Judice

Founder & CEO, Agrion

Academic Training

• Business Administration – PUC Rio de Janeiro (1995 – 2000 drop out to follow international racing career)

Business Professional Experience

Sales Manager – MONY Life Insurance Company (Brazil / USA 1997 – 1999)
• Life Insurance Company and Variable Income Funds, with headquarters in the USA;
• Focus on selling income-based life insurance in the US and approach of the company with funds in Brazil (e.g. Banco Itaú, Banco
Multiplic).

Partner & General Manager – Holding of Brazil Insurance Broker
Performance Insurance (United States 1997 – 1999)
• Development and management of life insurance wallet with servers of the State of São Paulo, from the bank Nossa Caixa Nosso Banco;
• Insurance in general.
• Representation in the state of Rio de Janeiro of COSESP (Companhia de
Insurance of the State of São Paulo)
• Insurance Platform South America Insurance

Executive Director & Partner – Two Arches Waste Treatment Center
Other enterprises (managing partner) (United States 2005 – 2009)
• Landfill planning, implementation, licensing and management private and solutions for urban and health waste in the northern region of state of Rio de Janeiro. Contracts with 12 municipalities in the region.
• Leadership in project implementation and management of:
• Street lighting,
• Collection of garbage,
• Management of hospitals and health points,
• Works, Cleaning and maintenance of public places,

Founder (CEO 2009 – 2014 and 2106 – 2018) – Geocycle Biotechnology S/A (Brazil 2009 – currently)
Business Model Formation, Preparation of Business Plans,
Executive Management;
• Development of technology, production process (bench, plant pilot, Ramp up), and sales;
• Funding, relationship with financial institutions, entities of the sector, M&A processes, etc.
• Open Innovation R&D laboratories;
• Leadership in the company’s extensive restructuring process;

Founding Partner – VENTINNO Capital (Brazil 2009 – currently)
Investment holding company and participation in business, mentoring and consulting,
such as:
• Prepark: technology company for technology mobility and management of parking lots;
• Pay Via Fone: joint venture with Pay By Phone, the world’s largest company to electronic parking payment platform;
• Joint venture with US Specialty Minerals Inc in PCC project (Precipitated Calcium Carbonate) with Klabin;
• Be Green: largest urban farms company in Latin America
• Aroma Selezione: beverage production company;

CEO & Founder – AGRION Agrisolutions (Brazil / USA 2020 – currently)
• Agrion Agrisolutions: company that develops sustainable agriculture projects for large waste generators and fertilizer consumers.

Evandro Gussi

President, UNICA

Evandro Gussi is the President and CEO of the União da Indústria de Cana-de-Açúcar e Bioenergia (Unica), an organization dedicated to providing clean, renewable, and natural energy in the form of sugar, biofuels, bioelectricity, and biomass.

Before taking on the leadership of UNICA, Evandro Gussi served as the Comptroller-General of the Chamber of Deputies. Elected to Congress in 2014 (term from 2015-2019), he served as the leader of his party between 2016 and 2017.

Gussi was the author of the “RENOVABIO” Law, a key piece of legislation aimed at increasing the use of biofuels in Brazil, contributing to the country’s achievement of its greenhouse gas reduction targets and its commitments under the Paris Agreement.

Evandro Gussi holds a Ph.D. in Law from the Faculty of Law at the University of São Paulo (2009) and a Master’s in Law from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (2005).

Ernesto Revilla

Chief Economist for Latin America, Citi

COMING SOON

Geoff Cooper

President & CEO, RFA - Renewable Fuels Association

Guilherme Nastari

Director, DATAGRO

COMING SOON

Helder Gosling

CCO and Logistics Director, São Martinho S/A

COMING SOON

José Orive

Executive Director, ISO

José Orive is currently the Executive Director of the International Sugar Organization, a post he assumed in January 2014.

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 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.  He has also held senior posts in other law firms in Guatemala.

Soon after graduating from Georgetown University Law Centre in Washington in 1985 Mr Orive took up the post of Minister Counselor for Economic & Commercial Affairs, Embassy of   Guatemala, Washington, D.C.

Mr Orive is married with two sons.

Maher Alexandre Guedes Kafrune

Corporates Division Agribusiness, IDB Invest

COMING SOON

Maria do Carmo Ferrante

Senior Banker, Rabobank

Mário Campos Filho

Executive President, Siamig e Bioenergia Brasil

Mário Ferreira Campos Filho is 39 years old. He is an economist graduaded from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), with an MBA in Finance from IBMEC and Government Relations from FGV Brasília.

He has been active in the sector since 2003. Currently, he is the executive president of the Sugar-Ethanol Industries Association of Minas Gerais – SIAMIG – and the Unions of the Sugar and Alcohol Industry in the State of Minas Gerais.

In 2021, he assumed the role of Chairman of the Sugar and Alcohol Sector Chamber of the Ministry of Agriculture and Bioenergia Brasil.

He is also the president of the Environmental and Sustainable Development Council of the Federation of Industries of Minas Gerais.

Michael Schaupp

Managing Director / COO / Chief Sales Officer, Pfeifer & Langen

Michael Schaupp is a Managing Director at Pfeifer & Langen and responsible for the main divisions Production, Supply Chain, Purchasing and Sales.

Before joining Pfeifer & Langen he worked as a Managing Director for a leading German company for highly processed grain products and baking ingredients mainly in the food industry.

Prior to this he was involved in technical industries and has several years of experience in North America and France.

Pablo Di Si

President & CEO, Volkswagen North America

COMING SOON

Plinio Nastari

President, DATAGRO

Dr. Nastari holds M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural Economics, from Iowa State University.
Phi Kappa Phi (1983), Gamma Sigma Delta (1983).

Was Professor of Economics at FGV – The Getúlio Vargas Foundation, in São Paulo, in undergraduate and graduate level courses (MBA, Masters and Doctoral programs) from 1984 to 2001.

Member of PAPSAC, the Private and Public, Scientific, Academic and Consumer Food Policy Group, at Harvard University, in Cambridge, MA, USA, since 2012.

Professor at the MBA in Agribusiness Joint Programme established between ESPM in São Paulo and Université de Nantes, France, since 2015.

Former Executive Director and President of the Board of the Brazilian Association of Automotive Engineers (AEA), from 2000 to 2002, during the 1980s he helped the design of ethanol specifications which enabled the use of ethanol in fuel injected engines.

He has served as member of the Technical Committees of Brazil’s Interministerial Council on Sugar and Alcohol, National Energy Commission, and Commission for Reexam of the Energy Matrix. He has assisted the Brazilian government in Energy Planning (1984-86 and 1991-93), industry deregulation (1997-1999), trade negotiations (1991-2004), and trade disputes.

Representative of the Civil Society Specialist in Energy at the National Council on Energy Policy, at the Federal Government of Brazil, designated for the period of 2016 to 2018, and reassigned until 2020.

With extensive experience in trade negotiations and trade disputes at the International Trade Commission and the World Trade Organization, Dr. Nastari has acted before the Brazilian Government as Chief Economist in the trade disputes involving ethanol exports to the United States (US ITC), and subsidized sugar exports from the European Union, European Union bananas import regime, and Brazilian regime for the import of used and retreaded tires (WTO).

He is Arbitrator at the “Camara FGV de Arbitragem” (Arbitration Chamber of the Getulio Vargas Foundation), and at “Camara de Conciliação e Arbitragem da Sociedade Rural Brasileira”) and has acted as Expert Testimony in many cases, at this Chamber and at ICC, the International Chamber of Commerce, in Paris.

Lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – Second Assessment Report (2AR), and Consultant for Biomass Energy other than Wood, to the World Energy Council.

Co-founder and Member of the Sustainable Biofuels Consensus (Bellagio Consensus), Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, Bellagio, Italy, 2008, and Participant of the Bled Strategic Forum, since 2008 in Bled, Slovenia.
Dr. Nastari is Member of the World Sugar Committee, at ICE Futures (Intercontinental Exchange) in New York, where recommendations are made for improvements in contract rules and other matters related to the world trade of sugar.

Member of the Council on Infrastructure of ACSP – Commerce Association of São Paulo, in São Paulo, since 2012.
Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee, National Laboratory for Science and Technology of Bioethanol, National Research Center on Energy and Materials, Brazil´s Ministry of Science, Technology, Inovation and Communication, Federative Republico f Brazil, since 2018.

President and CEO of DATAGRO Consulting Ltd., one of the world’s leading consulting company specialized in agricultural markets, serving clients in 41 countries, since 1984.

He leads a team of 97 collaborators at Datagro, housed in seven offices (Alphaville, Sao Paulo/Capital, Ribeirao Preto, Santos, Recife, Piracicaba, and New York), assisting a host of companies in market analysis, investments in production and logistics assets related to sugar, ethanol and other agrindustrial activities, in countries in the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Throughout the years, Dr. Nastari established a fruitful cooperation between Datagro and the International Sugar Organization (ISO), jointly organizing the prestigious Sugar & Ethanol Conference that precedes the Person of the Year Award (BrazilCham) and the New York Sugar Dinner for the last ten years. He was Chairman of the 19th ISO Annual Seminar in London.

Organizer of the Sugar & Ethanol Summit – Brazil Day, for five consecutive years in London, in cooperation with Brazil’s Ministry of External Relations. Organizer for seventeen consecutive years of the traditional Datagro International Conference in São Paulo that precedes the São Paulo Sugar Dinner, and the Datagro Ceise Br Fenasucro Conference in Sertãozinho, SP, the largest equipment fair for sugar & ethanol in the world. Organizer of the Global Agribusiness Forum, in partnership with the Brazilian Rural Society (SRB), ABRAMILHO (corn producers), ABCZ (cattle producers),Citrus BR (orange juice producers) and Forum Nacional Sucroenergetico (sugar & ethanol producers) a biannual venue which has the official support of the USDA, the European Commission, and the governments of France, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Israel, Turkey and Cuba.

Dr. Nastari is a frequent speaker at energy, biofuels and agribusiness conferences around the globe, with frequent attendance in London, Paris, Brussels, New York, Washington, Delhi, Bangkok, Tokyo, Barcelona, Kyoto, Johannesburg, Bled, Orlando, São Paulo, Singapore, Amsterdam and Dubai.

Honorary Citizen of the State of Nebraska, State Assembly of the State of Nebraska, USA (1998).
Honorary Citizen of the State of Pernambuco, State Assembly of the State of Pernambuco, Brazil (2016).
Scholarship President Ernesto Geisel, by the American Chamber of Commerce in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (1978)

Prize Canassauro Rex (2002).

Keynote Speaker, New York Sugar Dinner 2013, New York, NY, USA (2013).

Prize Top Ethanol (2014), Unica, Union of the Sugar Cane Industry.

Prize Merit of Agroenergy (2018), UDOP, União dos Produtores de Bioenergia.

100 Most Influential in Energy, Full Energy (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019).

Ethanol Man of the Year, Mastercana International (2019).

Keynote Speaker, Sugar & Ethanol Dinner Brazil 2019, Bienal Pavillion Sao Paulo (2019).

Grand Official of the Order of Merit of Anhanguera, State Government of Goiás, 2017.

Commander, Order of Rio Branco, Brazilian Government, 2018.

From his contribution to the development of biofuels in the US Dr. Nastari was awarded and recognized at the White House for his contribution to the development of biofuels use in aviation (2003).

Married to Rute, the couple has three children, Francisco Guilherme (36), Louise (34) and Luiz Felipe (33), and four grandchildren, Carolina (6), José (5), Anna Sophie (4) and Francisco Luiz (3).

Prashant K. Banerjee

Executive Director, SIAM – Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures

COMING SOON

Robert Stam

Americas Director, Peterson

COMING SOON

Sofia Licona

Responsibility and Social Development Manager, Ingenio Santos, Mexico. 

Thierry Songeur

Managing Director, Groupe Sucres & Denrées (Sucden)

After graduating from Rouen Business School in 1983, Thierry Songeur began his career in auditing with Coopers and Lybrand in France and then in banking with Banco Frances & Brasileiro in Brazil.

He joined the Sucden Group in Brazil in 1986 and served in the rice trading division from 1988 until 1992. After a short spell with Gyma International (France), he rejoined Sucden in 1995 at its Paris headquarters covering various sugar markets in Eastern Europe and Africa.

In 1997, Thierry Songeur was appointed President and CEO of Sucden Americas and relocated in Miami / USA. He remained in that position until 2018, contributing to the redevelopment of the Group presence in the Americas. He became member of the Management  Board in 2010.

He was promoted Managing Director of the Sucden Group in January 2019 and moved back to Paris.