2023 event information will be announced soon! The 2022 event featured expert presentations from USDA, AWS, SC Ventures LLC, BPS Agriculture LLC, Delta Analytical Corporation, Ingevity, Syngenta Group Ventures, and many more!
Diane Allemang is Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for FMC. She joined FMC in 2015 with the Cheminova acquisition. At Cheminova, she was Executive Vice President for North America. Ms. Allemang was with Cheminova for 14 years in various commercial and regulatory roles at the global and regional levels. Prior to that, she was a Vice President with the consulting firm of Jellinek, Schwartz & Connolly, Inc., where she managed the firm’s pesticide practice and advised clients on pesticide regulatory matters.
Ms. Allemang served as Chair of the CropLife America Board of Directors from 2015-2017, the first woman to do so in the association’s 80-year history.
She holds a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University.
The overall goal of Dr. Walse’s research is to ensure the protection and quality of foodstuffs in global distribution channels, as such, the main foci include food security, food safety, and agrochemical residues. Research results directly enhance production, distribution, and safety of foodstuffs, promote, and retain access of United States-grown crops to domestic and foreign markets, and protect the United States and trading partners from the agricultural, ecological, and economic threat posed by quarantine and invasive pests.
With over 25 years of research management experience, Bob leads Vestaron’s molecular biology and chemistry development teams. Management positions in Fortune 500 companies (Pfizer), academic appointments (Columbia, Michigan) and start-ups add to the leadership and technical experience he brings to Vestaron’s Research and Development success.
Bio coming soon!
Claudia Roessler is Director for strategic partnerships in Food & Agriculture at Microsoft Cloud for Industry. She helps organizations on their digital transformation journey and enables them to build digital solutions for the Agriculture and Food value chain. Claudia is also serving on the Board of Ag Growth International. She is an ambassador for Women in Food and Agriculture and venture partner for Radicle Growth. Claudia Roessler joined Microsoft in 1992 in Germany. She held several international roles with focus on Business Development, Sales & Marketing, Business Strategy, and Industry.
Dr. Yebin Zhao currently works as Head of Science at Agoro. Yebin is responsible for carbon smart faring practices implementation and development. Yebin joined Yara as Director, Global Corn Solutions where he took charge of corn marketing solutions to drive premium product sales growth. Yebin had previously been the Chief Agronomist/Senior Account Manager with CF Industries since March 2013. With CF, Dr. Zhao had worked actively with NGOs and governmental agencies in improving global nutrient use efficiency; he also successfully managed nitrogen fertilizer sales in over 10 states in the US. Prior to joining CF Industries, he was an Agronomist at Enviro-Ag Engineering, where he took charge of large dairy farmers soil fertility and nutrient management planning. Dr. Zhao received his B.S. in Soil Sciences at Shandong Agricultural University in 2000; he earned his M.S. in Plant Science at South China Agricultural University in 2003 and Ph.D. in Soil Science from the University of Georgia in 2008.
Bio coming soon!
As managing director of S Research Partners LLC, John Salmeron works with emerging agtech organizations to design and implement R&D strategies and monetize R&D assets. John draws on 30 years of experience at multinational and startup companies, and an extensive network of experts in agronomy, regulatory science, molecular breeding, genomics, patent law and other disciplines. Providing support in strategic planning, project management and business development, John works collaboratively with his clients to meet their growth objectives. John has worked with Innatrix for two years.
John completed an A.B. degree in Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, a Ph.D. in Botany and Genetics at Duke University, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California at Berkeley. He is an adjunct professor in the Biology Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is the program director for BioAg PRO, a USDA-funded workforce training initiative supporting the plant sciences.
Bio coming soon!
Melissa Johnson is the leader of Product Science & Technology at Corteva Agriscience. Her team is responsible for development, scale-up, launch and support of innovative formulated products and packaging to meet the needs of crop protection markets globally. She has over 20 years of research and leadership experience in formulations and formulation ingredients across industries, including Agriculture, Coatings, Personal Care, Consumer & Industrial Products and Microbial Control. Melissa leads several teams across Corteva R&D in the development and implementation of goals and metrics for sustainable innovation. She is a current member of the Board of Directors for the Council for Agricultural Science & Technology (CAST) and is on the organizing board for the AgChem conference. Melissa holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Northwestern University.
John Reich joined the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) in February 2016, as a Scientific Program Director. John joined FFAR because he strongly believes that advancements in agriculture will be key to maintaining our quality of life, and that the right investments at opportune moments will provide us with the necessary tools to overcome future challenges in agriculture. At FFAR, John works on building partnerships between the public and private sectors that targets pre-competitive research to advance agriculture science including FFAR’s first multi-stakeholder consortium, the Crops of the Future, creating a model for FFAR consortia, and his most recently announced consortium, the Precision Indoor Plants Collaborative. John continuously works on developing partnerships and programs that catalyze new areas of research and build on current investments to benefit the public.
Trained as a biomedical scientist, John applies his background in genetics, molecular biology, and biochemistry to broad range of topics that support food security, health, and economic opportunities through scientific advancement.
Bio coming soon!
Thimmaiah (Tim) is a Senior Analyst at Lux and contributes to the Emerging Ecosystems in Agrifood and Health covering agriculture innovation. In this role, he will be focusing on the impact of agriculture innovation across the food system including circular economy, regenerative agriculture, food waste, and food loss. Tim has also contributed towards disruptive innovations, the development of national organic standards, assurance systems, waste management, policy interventions, and building partnerships.