Dr. Saskia Keesstra is Senior Researcher Sustainable land and water management at Climate KIC with a background in Physical Geography. She also part-time works at Wageningen Environmental Research. She works on finding nature-based solutions in a socio-economic sustainable system to facilitate the transition towards climate neutral and resilient regions on topics like soil, climate adaptation and water management; specifically in the agri-food system and forestry. She is also one of the main organisers of the Carbon Farming Summits.

Kurt Vandenberghe has been the Director-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA) at the European Commission since January 2023. Before that, he acted as the Green Deal and Health advisor to President Ursula von der Leyen, Director for Policy & Programming of DG Research and Innovation, and Acting Director for Research & Innovation Outreach. Kurt holds degrees in Public and International Affairs and International Relations from Universities in Belgium, Italy and the US.

Elisabeth Werner has been the Director-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) at the European Commission since May 2025. With almost 30 years of experience within the European Commission, Elisabeth brings a strong combination of institutional knowledge, budgetary expertise and coordination skills across a wide range of policy areas. Her background includes extensive work on a number of policy dossiers, including land transport, competitiveness, clean industry and sustainability. Elisabeth holds degrees in Economics and European Affairs.

Massimiliano Giansanti, born in Rome, president of Confagricoltura (General Confederation of Italian Agriculture), has also been president of COPA (Committee of Professional Agricultural Organizations of the European Union) since September 2024. He is president of Agricola Giansanti srl and CEO of the Di Muzio Agricultural Group, which operates in the provinces of Rome, Viterbo, and Parma, companies specialize in the production of cereals, kiwis, milk, and livestock products, that are active in the agro-industrial and agro-energy sectors through the production of electricity and photovoltaic energy. He also produces Parmigiano Reggiano cheese in Parma and high-quality cow's milk for the Centrale del Latte di Roma.

Rémi Rocca has been serving as the Global Vice President of Sustainability for Royal Canin at Mars since January 2025. Prior to joining Mars, Rémi held senior leadership roles at McDonald's in both France and the United States. Most recently, he served as Senior Director of Impact, overseeing Corporate Communications, Public Affairs, ESG, and Philanthropy. During his tenure, he led transformative programs including the establishment of a Global Regenerative Agriculture Platform, and significant advancements in carbon emissions reduction.

Giulia Stellari is a Managing Director at Fall Line Capital, leading impact initiatives in farmland and venture portfolios. Previously at Unilever, she managed global sustainable procurement programs, advancing digital agriculture, transparency, and greenhouse gas reduction programs. She co-founded AgSquared, a farm data management platform, and holds a Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Biology from Cornell and an A.B. in biology from Harvard. Giulia is also a non-executive director at SIPEF, Chair of Cool Farm Alliance, former member of the SBTi Technical Advisory Group, advisor to UNHCR on carbon removals, and an expert on the EU Expert Group on Carbon Removals.

Hugh McDonald is a Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, where he coordinates the economics team. An environmental economist, he researches and advises on policies to promote carbon removals, reduce agricultural emissions, and finance biodiversity. His work on carbon farming includes publications for the European Commission's DG CLIMA, the European Parliament, and the German Environment Agency, among others, as well as support to the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change.

Christian Holzleitner is Head of Unit responsible for Land economy and Carbon removals at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Climate Action. Previously, he worked as Head of Unit for Finance for Innovation and Land Use and assistant to the Director-General for Climate Action covering all issues related to EU and international climate policy; and at the Directorate-General for Competition in the area of State aid for services of general economic interest in the postal, transport, and health sectors. Christian is an economist and holds a PhD from the University of Linz (Austria).

Chris Adamo is head of Global Sustainability Impact & B Corp, assisting Danone to create social and environmental impact throughout its business as a certified B Corp. Chris helps Danone build sustainability strategies and policies to implement its Danone Impact Journey. Prior to joining Danone, Chris spent over a decade in the U.S. government leading strategies on agriculture, natural resources, and climate change. He served as chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality under President Barack Obama and led the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

Gabriella Cevallos is a manager within the agrifood team at Deloitte Sustainability France. She has worked over the years on carbon accounting for the agricultural and forestry sectors, helping to design decarbonization or regenerative agriculture strategies for the agrifood sector, as well as in engaging suppliers to support decarbonization and strengthening the resilience of value chains.

Gerdus van der Laarse is a systemic finance strategist at Metabolic, a systems change organization that supports bioregional transitions to a circular, regenerative economy. With a multidisciplinary background in engineering, policy, and finance, he focuses on orchestrating capital for large-scale systems change. His work includes designing capital orchestration approaches that enable regenerative agricultural practices, scaling decarbonization technologies in the agrifood sector, and shaping regional transition strategies. By connecting financial, policy, and industry actors, he helps turn systemic transition plans into investable action.

Mathieu Mal works at the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Europe’s largest network of environmental citizens' organisations, where he leads the policy work and strategy on the intersections between agriculture and climate. He coordinates the policy work in the CREDIBLE carbon farming project, co-leads the climate work of the EU Food Policy Coalition, and is a member of the EU Commission’s Expert Group on Carbon Removals.

Martina Dal Grande is a winegrower based in the Conegliano Valdobbiadene wine region. For the past seven years she has been managing her vineyards, implementing regenerative agriculture practices. She is a member of ANGA, the youth association of Confagricoltura, for which she served as a delegate to CEJA, the European Council of Young Farmers. Her work focuses on knowledge dissemination and sharing of best practices in agriculture, based on the belief that continuous training, practical field experience, and the systematic analysis of results represent the pathway to achieving tangible outcomes.

Marco Paravicini Crespi is a biodynamic farmer and owner of Cascine Orsine Farm in Bereguardo. He brings over ten years of experience in the organic retail and distribution sector with EcorNaturasì. He currently serves as Vice President of FederBio, the Italian federation for organic and biodynamic agriculture.

Peter Fröhlich is a farmer, agronomist, and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience driving agricultural innovation. A founding member of EARA and a prominent voice in European regenerative farming. Peter has spent the past decade advancing data interoperability, precision agriculture, and digital agronomy. His work now converges in AgriPurpose, a leading approval framework for Regenerative Agriculture.

Ivano Assenza is a Carbon Markets Specialist at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), working at the intersection of carbon finance, climate-smart agriculture and nature-based solutions in European and international policy frameworks. His work focuses on ensuring that carbon markets contribute to resilient agrifood systems, deliver measurable climate outcomes, strengthen farmer livelihoods and generate co-benefits such as soil health, biodiversity and ecosystem restoration.

Hannes Mollenhauer is a researcher at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), working at the interface of climate action and land-use management. His work focuses on carbon farming and climate-smart agriculture, with particular attention to drought stress prediction, risk management, and MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification). He supports science-to-policy exchange and stakeholder dialogue.

Alexa Mayer‑Bosse leads Nature‑based Risk Solutions at Munich Re. As a senior underwriter in agriculture, forestry, carbon, and parametric insurance, she specializes in assessing production risks and structuring risk‑transfer solutions. Her work leverages advanced remote‑sensing technologies. She holds an MBA in finance, marketing and ICT and is an active family farmer.

Anastasia Volkova is a visionary leader shaping the category of agricultural resilience. She has more than a decade of experience in academia and business, creating innovative software solutions. Anastasia holds a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering and has been named a 2023 UBS Global Visionary, one of BBC's 'Top 100 Women' and is on the TIME100 Next list.

Constantinos Hatziparadisis is a Greek farmer based in Northern Greece and runs the Hatziparadisis farm. He is associated with modern, lower-impact cultivation methods such as conservation agriculture and reduced tillage, and has experience with practices aimed at cutting the carbon footprint of crop production. He has also been involved in EU sustainability and innovation initiatives in agriculture. In the LILAS4SOILS context, he is connected to the project’s Living Labs approach supporting carbon-farming adoption in Greece (GRECFL²).

Francesco Morari is professor of soil and water conservation and soil physics at the University of Padova, Italy. He is also adjunct Professor at the Crop & Soil Department, University of Georgia, USA. He is the director of the Experimental Farm of the University of Padova and his major research interests are on soil mapping and precision agriculture, sustainability of agricultural systems and soil physics, and GHGs monitoring and mitigation.

Dr. Ana Gonzalez Pelaez is Head of Agroecosystems at PlanetaryX, focused on scaling nature and credit markets for regenerative agriculture. She grew up on a farm in Spain and has dedicated her career to international economic development, agriculture and climate risk finance, holding senior roles across the public and private sectors, academia and international partnerships. Most recently, she co-led the European Commission and European Investment Bank publication quantifying the climate risks to EU-27 agriculture and insurance systems. She is a 2026 Awardee of the Fin-Erth Women in Climate Awards (Agriculture).

Dr. Daniel Zimmer has an engineering and hydrology background and is leading the Sustainable Land Use activities at Climate KIC. He is also one of the main architects of the European Carbon Farming Summits and is co-leading the Finance Design Team of the 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion people initiative. He has been before the Chief Executive of the World Water Council where he developed a global experience on water-related issues spanning from research & engineering to finance and geopolitics.

Lucia Perugini is an expert on carbon farming certification and LULUCF at the European Environment Agency. With a PhD in forest ecology, her background spans forestry and climate change science. Previously at CMCC Italy, she contributed to major EU research projects and served for 15 years as Italy's UNFCCC delegate on CDM, LULUCF, agriculture, and REDD+.

Anneli Lundmark is CEO of Nordiskt Naturkapital (Nordic Nature Capital) with extensive experience in developing and commercialising new business models across the forest value chain. She acts as a key connector between landowners, buyers and policymakers, translating carbon forestry frameworks into investable projects and real buyer demand. She currently focuses on project development and the sale of high-quality carbon credits in the Nordic region.

Anna Uebachs is a Senior Carbon Project Developer at aeco GmbH with an interdisciplinary background in natural and social sciences. They have extensive experience developing carbon projects and methodologies across a range of project types. At aeco, they currently focus on scaling peatland rewetting by combining hands-on field experience, farm-level stakeholder engagement with the practical requirements of carbon finance.

John Brosnan joined the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) in June 2022 in the newly-created post of Bioeconomy Executive, working primarily on advancing co-operative involvement in the growing and evolving Bioeconomy. John has been working in the agri-food sector for over 20 years, beginning in the food service sector before moving on to work for farmer-owned farm services co-operative, FRS for 16 years in project and operations management. This included agri-environmental and sustainability services provided directly to farmers on behalf of Irish state and semi-state bodies.

Tomas Lundmark is Professor Emeritus of Silviculture and has more than 40 years of experience in forest research, policy, and sustainable land management. He is also an active forest owner, bringing a practical perspective on how carbon removals can be implemented in real-world forestry. Today, he is CEO of Carbon Capture Company, where he works on developing high-integrity standards and certification systems for forest carbon removals aligned with the EU Carbon Removal Carbon Farming regulation (CRCF). Lundmark has contributed to expert and focus group processes supporting the design and implementation of CRCF methodologies and has extensive networks across forest owners, industry, public authorities, and EU institutions.

Christian Holzleitner is Head of Unit responsible for Land economy and Carbon removals at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Climate Action. Previously, he worked as Head of Unit for Finance for Innovation and Land Use and assistant to the Director-General for Climate Action covering all issues related to EU and international climate policy; and at the Directorate-General for Competition in the area of State aid for services of general economic interest in the postal, transport, and health sectors. Christian is an economist and holds a PhD from the University of Linz (Austria).