Speakers' Biographies
Founder and Managing Partner, I-FARMS, India
Mr. Asthana is the founder & managing partner of I-FARM Venture Advisors, a social focussed PE fund with investments in India Food, Agribusiness, Rural Markets & Services (I-FARMS). I-FARMS is a Asset Management Company dedicated to raise US$ 200 million PE fund (US$ 100 million domestic & US$ 100 million international) and invest in Small and Medium Enterprises in the growing India Food and Agribusiness sector. Mr Asthana is a recognized leader in the Food & Agri business with over 22 years of work experience in India & Internationally. As a part of leadership team, he managed the roll out of Reliance Retail with investment size of US$ 1 bn. At Reliance Retail, he built the food business grounds up and he was instrumental in developing unique business models. As Director on board of Cargill India, he managed the grain & oilseed business handling revenues in excess of US$ 500 mn. Cargill recognized it amongst the most innovative large scale businesses in emerging economies. While at Cargill, he made significant business Innovations in ‘Saathi’ (integrated farm gate business model) and customer solutions platform. He also headed several projects such as trading grains and oilseeds across Asia Pacific. Mr. Asthana is on several national committees of trade chambers and served on three key committees of Planning Commission and is currently on the board of Ruchi Soya and NCDEX Spot Exchange.
Andreas Blüthner
Global Coordinator Food-Fortification/SAFO, BASF, Germany
Dr. Blüthner is BASF’s Global Coordinator of Food-Fortification/SAFO. He is also a permanent lecturer of International Economic Law at the University of Mannheim. He holds a degree in Business Administration and a PhD in International Economic Law and Human Rights. He has published various scientific articles and a book on international trade, corporate social responsibility and development partnerships. Dr. Blüthner has served as a panellist and speaker at various international conferences. Dr. Blüthner’s professional experience spans over 60 countries. Within the private sector, Dr. Blüthner worked for Bosch, Baker Mc Kenzie, a leading international law firm, and worked with international consultancies on strategy development, international law and corporate social responsibility. His public sector experience includes the German Foreign Office (Berlin), United Nations Organizations such as UN HABITAT, UN Volunteers and last but not least, GAIN (Geneva).
Vice-President, CSR and Territory Development, France Telecom / Orange, France
On graduation from a telecom engineering school in France in the early 1990's, Mr. Centonze started his career in Wall Street working for a bank where he introduced new information technologies such as PCs, distributed servers, IPs and a network to whole company including the financial trading room. On his return to Paris, 6 years later, Ludovic worked as an independent telecom consultant for financial institutions and ran a film production company as a side business with a team of school friends. Mr. Centonze managed feature film technical post-production projects as the industry was entering a new digital age. After years of consulting, international IPTV projects and business development, Mr. Centonze joined the Orange corporate social responsibility department. Mr. Centonze is currently working on socio-economic development projects and Orange's international footprint.
Programme Manager, BoP Innovation Center, the Netherlands
Dr. Chevrollier is a Programme Manager focused on the subject of 'Scaling Strategy and the Enabling Environment' at the BoP Innovation Center. The BoP Innovation Center is an independent foundation that uses a multi-stakeholder approach to facilitate sustainable innovations in base of the pyramid markets. In addition to his duties at the BoP Innovation center, Dr is the deputy manager of the programme "Innovation for Development" at TNO, the Dutch organization for applied scientific research. His current focus is to develop, learn about and accelerate innovative market based strategies in the water, food, energy and ICT sectors to create a positive impact on the lives of the poor. Previously, Dr. Chevrollier held positions in the US, Africa and France for multinational companies, NGOs and research institutes.
Director, Center for Public Health Nutrition, UW Center for Obesity Research, Washington University, USA
Adam is the Director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition and the UW Center for Obesity Research, both at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is Professor of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health and the Director of the Nutritional Sciences Program. Dr. Drewnowski obtained his MA degree in biochemistry at Balliol College, Oxford, and a PhD degree in psychology at The Rockefeller University in New York. His studies on hunger, appetite and satiety have helped the food industry develop innovative foods and beverages for better weight and health. The Seattle Obesity Study (S.O.S.), funded by the National Institutes of Health, has helped develop new methods and measures to explore links between obesity and social disparities, and diet quality and diet cost. Dr. Drewnowski is a member of the Standing Committee to Prevent Childhood Obesity at the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, trustee of ILSI North America and Board Member of the ILSI Research Foundation. Dr. Drewnowski is the inventor of the Nutrient Rich Foods Index to assess nutrient density of foods, and is in the process of applying nutrient profiling tools to the needs and resources of developing nations.
Executive Director Partners in Food Solutions, USA
Mr. Dykstra currently serves as the Founding Executive Director of Partners in Food Solutions, a consortium of leading global food companies (General Mills, Cargill and DSM) who are committed to improving food security by sharing the knowledge and expertise of their employees with small and growing food processors across Africa. Before recently accepting this role, Mr. Dykstra and his company worked for three years with General Mills to develop and launch the idea for what became Partners in Food Solutions while consulting with a number of other Africa focused companies and organizations working at the intersection of business and development. Mr. Dykstra’s career has included numerous business development, marketing and communication roles at both large global organizations like Cargill and World Vision as well as at several smaller start-up ventures. Mr. Dykstra’s current work is shaped and informed by having spent half his career in the business world and the other half in the relief and development world (including two years living and working in Lusaka, Zambia) leading to a unique and practical understanding of how both of these sectors can benefit from the other and accomplish more together than apart. A Colorado native, Mr. Dykstra is a graduate of Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA and currently resides in Edina, MN with his wife, Molly and three children – Mackenzie, Clara & Bennett.
Chairman and managing partner of Eysink Smeets World-Wide Retail Strategy Consultants, the Netherlands
Mr. Hans Eysink Smeets specialises in rapid change projects for retail companies and FMCG brands. His projects have taken him to 29 countries on 4 continents. His unorthodox, out-of-the-box mind brings provides results for companies like Rewe, Unilever, Volkswagen, Citibank and Migros. In addition to his consultancy work he also acts as a provocative and inspiring speaker at congresses all over the world. More on www.eysinksmeets.com
Manager, Universal Salt Iodization (USI), GAIN, Switzerland
Mr. Garrett has over a decade of experience providing management and technical expertise on a number of international, multi-million dollar health and nutrition programs funded by USAID, the UK Department for International Development, the World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has lived and worked for over six years in Africa and Asia, including two years in Kyrgyzstan working with the Ministry of Health managing USAID’s contribution to national nutrition campaigns. One of these was a highly successful iodized salt campaign which increased household coverage of iodized salt from 60% to 90% in less than two years. Mr. Garrett has an MSc in International Development from the University of Bath.
CEO, Renata Limited, Bangladesh
Mr. Kabir is the CEO of Renata Limited, a position he has held since 2002. He started his professional career as an economist at the University of Oxford, and later worked on projects funded by the World Bank and USAID. Mr. Kabir entered the private sector in 1997 as Managing Director of Renata Agro Industries Limited. He was educated at University of Oxford, University of EastAnglia, and Claremont McKenna College.
Manager, Constituency Mobilization, GAIN, USA
Miss. Logalbo is leading GAIN's first global campaign to galvanize a community of support aimed at improving nutrition among mothers and young children. Before joining GAIN, Miss. Logalbo served as the Executive Director of the United Nations Foundation 'Nothing But Nets' campaign, a global, grassroots campaign to raise awareness and mobilize resources to prevent malaria in Africa. In addition to Nothing But Nets, Miss. Logalbo managed and implemented public-private partnerships to raise awareness and funds for UN Foundation programs and oversaw outreach to diverse global constituencies regarding some of the world’s most pressing health issues. Her international experience includes living in both East and West Africa, specifically Kenya and Ghana. Miss. Logalbo is a graduate from Middlebury College with a joint degree in Sociology-Anthropology and Geography.
Deputy General Manager danone.communities, France
Mr. Marchant is in charge of danone.communities projects in Bangladesh, Senegal and Cambodia, and danone.communities mutual funds (a French SICAV). A French citizen, he started his career as a Strategy consultant at OC&C Strategy Consultants where he worked mainly on issues related to FMCGs and Modern Trade. He joined Groupe Danone in 1998 as Director of Strategic Planning. Prior to his current position he spent 5 years in Mexico in Finance and General Management in the water division.
Vice President Strategy & Innovation, Root Capital, USA
Mr. Milder is Vice President of Strategy & Innovation for Root Capital, a non-profit social investment fund that invests in agricultural businesses in Africa and Latin America. He leads Root Capital’s Strategy, Knowledge & Innovation Department and is the Director of Root Lab, which houses the organization’s research and development on new markets and financial products. He also serves on Root Capital's Executive Team. Prior to joining Root Capital in 2007, he served as Boston Site Director for Project HEALTH (now Health Leads) and was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the Nonprofit Enterprise and Self-sustainability Team (NESsT), which operates a venture fund to incubate sustainable social enterprises in Chile. He holds a BA in social studies from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is fluent in Spanish and is on the Board of Directors of Patagonia Sur Foundation.
Senior Director, Nutrition Programs, Switzerland
Throughout her career, Dr. Moench-Pfanner has focused on nutrition and health programming both in development and emergencies and on micronutrients and poverty alleviation programs. She has spent more than twenty years working in the field of relief assistance and international development. She is a Fullbright Scholar and holds a Doctorate in International Nutrition from the University of Bonn, Germany, and a Masters of Science from Michigan State University, USA. Dr. Moench-Pfanner has published and contributed to several publications. Prior to joining GAIN in 2005 she served as Regional Coordinator for Helen Keller International (HKI) in the Asia Pacific, overseeing the development, implementation and quality management of HKI's programs in public health and eye health. Regina began her career with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and worked throughout Africa and Europe. She went on to become Head of Mission for the IFRC in Chad before moving on to provide technical consultancies in food and nutrition programs for a number of international organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), and the World Food Programme (WFP). Besides Africa and the Asia Pacific, her experience also includes work in the Middle East, South America and Europe.
Category Director Health Wellness, Britannia Industries Ltd, India
Ms. Narasimhan leads Health and Wellness for Britannia, India’s leading food company with a revenue of USD 1 Billion. Britannia is India’s 'Most Trusted Food Brand' (Brand-Equity 2011) and 'Most Favorite Food Brand' (National Food Survey IV, 2008) and caters to all socio-economic segments across urban and rural India. Britannia products are available in over 3.5 million outlets, at consumer-accessible price points starting from 4 US cents, and reach over 40% of Indian homes. She has charted Britannia on the Health and Nutrition course focusing on Better-for-You and Fortified products as well as driving advocacy and grassroots awareness. Notable amongst Anuradha’s contributions are the Iron Fortification of the largest brand Tiger and Innovations on Britannia’s health-brand Nutrichoice. Ms. Narasimhan leads Britannia’s partnership work-with Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, United Nations World Food Program, Clinton Global Initiative, World Bank Institute and with Indian organizations like Naandi and Navjyoti Foundation. An engineer by qualification from IIT Bombay and a marketer from IIM Bangalore, Ms. Narasimhan has worked across sectors -Titan Industries of the Tata group, Hutchison Telecom and Hindustan Unilever.
Manager Business Development – Dutch Alliances, Coordinator of the Amsterdam Initiative Against Malnutrition (AIM)
Prior to joining GAIN, Dr. Perdersen worked for more than 10 years for Accenture as a management consultant responsible for various project and programs for major Dutch multinationals in the chemical and natural resources industry. Before joining Accenture in 2000, she worked for 10 years for a leading agricultural crop seed producer where she was responsible for researching programs to improve plant breeding methods using bio-technology. Dr. Perdersen holds a MSc and a PhD in agricultural sciences from the Royal Veterinarian and Agricultural University in Copenhagen, Denmark, and a MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management, the Netherlands.
New Business Unit Unilever, UK
Ms. Phung works with Unilever’s New Business Unit (NBU) leading corporate entrepreneurship initiatives in emerging markets, specifically focused on Africa and BoP. The NBU incubates new ideas and innovation to create new markets and capabilities for Unilever. She is interested in designing market based solutions with public sector partners that leverage the business, size and scale of Unilever. She has eight years of experience in solving complex business problems in the public and private sector. Prior to Unilever she worked in strategy consulting advising executives in Fortune 500 companies. In addition, she has worked with USAID and the UNDP and has lived and worked in Senegal, Mali, Swaziland, and China. Ms. Phung holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and a Masters in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) from Harvard Kennedy School.
Head,Private Sector and Development, Austrian Development Cooperation Agency, Austria
Dr. Schall works at the Austrian Development Agency, the operational unit of the Austrian Development Cooperation. As head of the “private sector and development” unit he is in charge for both private sector development in ADA’s partner countries and ADA’s business partnership program. Prior to that, he worked as a Policy Advisor for the Federation of German Industries (BDI). Dr. Schall holds a PhD of the University of Freiburg.
Managing Director, BioAnalyt Gmbh, Germany
Dr. Schweigert is an internationally recognized scientist in the field of human and animal nutrition with more than 200 scientific publications. He has been trained as veterinarian at the University of Munich and did his post-doctoral training at the Harvard Medical School. Currently he holds the chair of Nutrition Physiology and Pathophysiology at the University of Potsdam in Germany and is president of the Society for Vitamin Research. Innovative ideas and concepts of his ongoing research resulted in the foundation of the company BioAnalyt. The spin-off of which is dedicated to the development of easy-to-use test kits for the food and feed industry and for personalized nutrition related diagnostics.
Associate Vice President, International Programs and Director, RENEW Project
Population Reference Bureau, USA
Over the last 20 years, Ms. Smith has worked extensively on family planning and reproductive health (RH) issues globally, building capacity on RH policy advocacy, and helping organizations better use data for policy reform. Currently, she is leading a global initiative—RENEW—that focuses on the costs and consequences of malnutrition, using the groundbreaking presentation software "Trendalyzer" and other multimedia technologies. Prior to joining PRB, she served in the USAID mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, managing the Basic Rural Health (SANRU) Project, which provided technical assistance and financial support to 90 rural health zones throughout the country. Ms. Smith has authored or contributed to many policy-oriented publications and training materials on reproductive health and has worked in more than 15 countries in Africa,Asia, and the Caribbean. She is the lead author of most recent edition of PRB’s Family Planning Saves Lives.
Director of Nutrition Improvement Projects, Associate General Manager R&D Planning Dept, Ajinomoto Co., Inc, Japan
Dr.Toride, is the Director of Nutrition Improvement Projects and Associate General Manager of the R&D Planning Dept at Ajinomoto Co., Inc, a company he joined 20 years ago as a researcher. His current interest is to establish a sustainable business model for nutrition improvement of children in developing countries with the ongoing project in Ghana, West Africa being a model. He has a Ph.D in Agriculture, Agricultural Chemistry (Nutrition) from the University of Tokyo.
Executive Director, GAIN, Switzerland
Deputy head and senior policy advisor, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation, the Netherlands
Mr. van der Wal, born in 1957 in Friesland (NL), has worked as Deputy Head and Senior Policy Advisor in the Sustainable Economic Development Department in the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation in The Hague since February 2001. Before joining the ministry, Mr. van der Wal worked and lived for nearly 20 years in Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania where he worked as advisor and program manager in various agricultural, rural development and governance programs. He has studied tropical soil science and development economics at Wageningen University between 1976 and 1983. In his present position, Mr. van der Wal has been instrumental in getting more attention to issues like nutrition, land tenure security, social dialogue and technical and vocational education and training. All aspects that are limiting private sector development and food security in developing countries.
Senior Manager Global Health Partnerships, GAIN Business Alliance Coordinator, the Netherlands
Dr. van Liere is the Senior Manager for Global Health Partnerships at Unilever. Unilever adopted the partnership approach to support its sustainability agenda as well as to promote market development. Dr. van Liere facilitates strategic relationships with international health and nutrition organizations and foundations. Since December 2010, she has facilitated the Private Sector Task Force of the UN Scaling Up Nutrition movement. From 1998 to 2004, she worked as senior nutrition advisor at the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam. For over 6 years, she was involved in training, planning and programmes related to maternal and child malnutrition, and HIV/AIDS in developing countries. She has worked with national governments and district health teams, as well as with several international development organizations (FAO, DGIS, DFID, World Bank) in Africa and Asia. From 1994 till 1998, Dr. van Liere worked as a nutrition epidemiologist at INSERM, Paris, on the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Dr. van Liere has a Msc and PhD in Human Nutrition from the University of Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Manager, Innovative Finance, GAIN, Switzerland
Mr. Walker, Manager of Innovative Finance, brings his background in official development finance to his work on a range of innovative financing programs at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), including the development of market-based approaches to improving nutrition in developing countries. Prior to joining GAIN, Mr. Walker was a Fellow with Acumen Fund, a non-profit social venture capital fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. During his Fellowship,he worked for one of Acumen Fund’sinvestments, the Dial 1298 for Ambulance Service in Mumbai, India, as the Head of Marketing and Business Development. Mr. Walker previously worked on a range of international economic and development policy issues in the U.S. Government. He was the Associate Director of International Relations at the Millennium Challenge Corporation. He also served as an International Economist at the U.S. Treasury Department and in the Economic Bureau of the U.S. State Department. He has also worked in Southern Africa and Central America on economic development programs. Mr. Walker has a Master in Public Affairs from Princeton University, where he specialized in International Development, and a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College.
