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Simon Y. Liu (Keynote Speaker)
Associate Administrator at USDA Agricultural Research ServiceDr. Simon Y. Liu is the Associate Administrator of the Agricultural Research Service. He holds 2 Doctoral Degrees and 3 Master's degrees in Computer Science, Education, Government Management, Business Administration, and Mathematics.
Dr. Liu previously served as Director of the National Agricultural Library, the world's largest and most accessible research library specializing in agriculture. Before that, Dr. Liu served as Associate Director of the National Library of Medicine and Chief Information Officer. He also served as the Director of Information Management & Security at the Department of Justice and the Chief IT Architect of the Treasury Department. He has served as an adjunct faculty member of Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland, and George Washington University for over 20 years. He has also served as an editor of 3 journals and an editor-in-chief of the IT Professional Magazine published by the IEEE Computer Society.
Dr. Liu has published a book and more than 80 journal articles. He was the recipient of a U.S. Presidential Award, an Abraham Lincoln Honor Award, an HHS Secretary Award, a NIH Director Award, an IEEE Special Achievement Award, and a Computer Sciences Corporation President Award.
Edwini Kessie (Sustainability)
Director of the Agriculture and Commodities Division at World Trade OrganizationDr. Edwini Kessie is the Director of the Agriculture and Commodities Division, World Trade Organization. He holds a Doctorate Degree in Law from the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, and Master’s Degrees in Law from the University of Toronto, Canada and the University of Brussels, Belgium.
Dr. Kessie worked in different Divisions in the World Trade Organization, including the Council and Trade Negotiations Committee Division, Development Division and the Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation. Between 2012 and 2017, Dr. Kessie took leave from the World Trade Organization to become the Chief Trade Adviser of the Pacific Island Countries and Chief Executive Officer of the Office of the Chief Trade Adviser located in Port Vila, Vanuatu and provided technical advice on a broad range of trade and investment issues to the Pacific Island countries and supported them in the free trade negotiations (PACER Plus) with Australia and New Zealand.
Dr. Kessie's principal areas of interest are regional integration, agriculture, trade and development and dispute settlement. He has participated in many international conferences on international trade and written a number of articles on international trade issues.
Ravi Khetarpal (Innovation)
Executive Secretary at Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), ThailandDr. Ravi Khetarpal is the Executive Secretary of Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI). He holds Doctorate Degree in Life Sciences (Virology) from the University of Paris and was a Visiting Scientist in an EU Collaborative Project INRA, Versailles, France for three years.
He served CABI –South Asia (India) as Regional Director and also as its RegionalAdvisoron Strategic Science Partnerships over a span of seven years. Prior to this, he worked for the National Agricultural Research System in India for three decades and worked as a consultant of twelve FAO/World Bank Projectsnotably in Indonesia(as Team Leader), India, Nepal, Mauritius, and Cambodia.
He represented Asia as Developing Country SPS Expert in STDF Working Groupin in WTO. He has published 110 research papers, 19 books, 56 book chapters, 12 review articles, and 3 policy papers.
Charles Huang (Sustainability)
Chairman at Circular Taiwan Network, TaiwanAs the founder of Taiwan Circular Economy Network, Charles is dedicated to promoting Taiwan’s economic transition toward Circular Economy, an economic model that decouples economic growth from resource depletion and environmental impacts. Also, a founder of Association of Food Waste Compost Promotion, Charles champions Circular Agriculture by advocating a clean and safe environment by producing fertilizers and bio-energy from local waste.
Charles has had diverse business background, as he served as chairman of Taiwan Sugar Corp., a state-owned enterprise. Previously, he was the Chairman and CEO of TSRC Corp., a leading synthetic rubber manufacturer, and marketer. Earlier in his professional career, Charles worked for Exxon Corporation, and Booz. Allen and Hamilton.
Additionally, Charles was on the boards of Taiwan Fertilizer Company, a state-owned enterprise, and Hao-Ran Foundation, a leading philanthropic institution dedicated to harnessing human rights, protecting environment, supporting development of healthy farming.
Charles Huang received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and earned his MBA from the Wharton School also at the University of Pennsylvania.
Miranda Mirosa (Sustainability)
Associate Professor at Department of Food Science, University of Otago, New ZealandDr. Mirosa is an Associate Professor and Director for the Consumer Food Science Programme at the Department of Food Science, University of Otago, New Zealand. She is an Interdisciplinarian who has a background in consumer behavior research and food marketing. Her research aims to understand why people eat, what they do, why they don’t eat, what they don’t, and how we might best impact upon these choices to encourage people to choose quality, healthy and environmentally sustainable foods.
Dr. Mirosa has recently completed a Postharvest Food Loss and Waste Research Fellowship funded by the Ministry for Primary Industries and the Ministry for Business, Innovation, and Employment and represents New Zealand on the multiyear APEC-funded Food Loss and Waste project. She is a Strategic Team Leader of the New Zealand Food Safety Science Research Centre and Co-Leads the Markets and Perceptions Theme. She is also the University of Otago Lead on the New Zealand China Food Protection Network. Dr. Mirosa currently has National Science Challenge High-Value Nutrition funding from the Consumer Insight program so is working to guide the health research programs towards “biomarkers” of health that resonate with consumers and to provide a knowledge base for businesses to leverage from when conducting their more specific market and consumer research and product design.
Marco Wopereis (Sustainability)
Director General of World Vegetable CenterDr. Marco Wopereis is the Director General in the World Vegetable Centre. He is an agronomist with a Doctorate in Tropical Agronomy from Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
Dr. Wopereis has global expertise in agricultural science and management, and previously served as Deputy Director General and Director of Research for Development of the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) in Benin and as the Director of the Annual Crops Department of the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) in France. He also worked in different capacities for the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) in Togo, the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA, now AfricaRice) in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire and for the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.
His strengths include fostering productive, action-oriented partnerships for efficient and effective research among international research institutes, national research systems, the private sector and community organizations. He was a recipient of the 'Grand Prix du Président de la République du Sénégal pour les Sciences', for the development and diffusion of the ASI thresher-cleaner, now widely used in Senegal, Mauritania, and Mali. He was also the co-developer of a Participatory Learning and Action Research (PLAR) approach for lowland rice systems focusing on options for Integrated Crop Management (ICM), adopted in 7 countries.
Lao-Dar Juang (SUSTAINABILITY)
Director of Department of Planning, Council of Agriculture Executive Yuan, TaiwanDr. Juang is Director of Depart of Planning in COA, Taiwan. He specializes in the fields of Crop Production and Marketing, Protection of PVR, Edible Fungi Cultivation, Postharvest Technology of Horticulture Product, Pomology, Crop Science, and Plant Molecular Genetics.
Dr. Juang previously served as DDG, Director, Central Region Branch, Director, Southern Region Branch, Specialist, and Section chief in Agriculture and Food Agency (AFA), Taiwan, during 2004~2020.
And previously served as Section Chief of Central Taiwan Office in COA, Taiwan during 2002~2004, and Junior specialist of Taiwan Provincial Gov.
Prasad Dharmasena (SUSTAINABILITY)
Director and CEO of National Institute of Plantation Management, Ministry of Plantation, Sri LankaDr. Prasad Dharmasena is an exemplary renowned character in vital subjects of Environmental Management, Soil Conservation, and Agroforestry & Plantation Management with brilliance expertise knowledge spanning over 19 years. He held supremacy positions of Head of Agroforestry & Sustainability attached to Hayleys Group of Talawakelle Tea Estates & Kelani Valley Plantations of Sri Lanka prior to present advocacy. He was in academic staff of Rajarata University of Sri Lanka in the capacity of Lecturer & Subject Coordinator in Environmental Management. In addition to his super grade accreditations, contributes immensely to state universities as a visiting lecturer in Environmental Conservation & Management. It should be placed on record that Dr. Dharmasena manifested preliminary experience in Plantation Management having worked in few Plantation Companies as Plantation Executive gaining wide experience in Agroforestry, Timber & Tea cultivation with manufacture, too.
Dr.Dharmasena has completed his PhD in Agroforestry and Regional Planning. He also has completed Master of Science in Natural Recourses management at the Post Graduate of the Agriculture of the University of Peradeniya of Sri Lanka. Completed Bachelor degree in Environmental Management from Rajarata University of Sri Lanka. He has actively collaborated intensively in Research & Development on facts finding along with research in Agroforestry & Environmental Management having extensively contributed towards Plantation Industry with subjugate Environmental Conservation, Biodiversity, Soil Conservation, Environmental Economics & Valuation. Dr.Dharmasena has given contribution to university of Kashmir as a Research scholar from 2009 to 2012. He is also in the National Advisory Board of the Ministry of Education in Sri Lanka as a Member. He is also a Charted Biologist and Fellow Member of Institute of Biology, Sri Lanka.
Kothandapani Ganesh (SUSTAINABILITY)
Senior Knowledge Expert & Global Lead at MSC Center of Competence, Mckinsey Knowledge Centre India Private Limited, Mckinsey & Company, IndiaDr. Kothandapani Ganesh is the Knowledge Expert and Global Head of MSC Center of Competence at McKinsey & Company. Dr. Ganesh holds a Doctoral Degree in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.
Dr. Ganesh has 16 years of research and consulting experience in the supply chain domain. He served as an Assistant Consultant at Integrated Supply Chain, Manufacturing Industry Solutions Unit, Tata Consultancy Services Limited, Mumbai and worked mainly in the areas of supply chain network design and optimization. Later he joined as Senior Consultant in Global Business Services-Global Delivery of IBM India Private Limited, Mumbai, India and worked in Supply Chain Transformation projects for various industries.
He has published over 100 papers in leading international research journals and more than 10 papers in leading national journals. He has been honored with 4 awards for academic excellence and obtained 3 awards from TCS. He is also on the editorial board for various international journals. He is the editor-in-chief for 5 International journals including the International Journal of Supply Chain Management and International Journal of Decision Making in Supply Chain and Logistics.
Wee Liang Tan (Sustainability)
Associate Professor at Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University, SingaporeDr. Tan has served as a national expert for entrepreneurship and SMEs for APEC, Asian Productivity Organization, the Colombo Plan Secretariat and the Commonwealth Secretariat. His current research interests lie in the domains of entrepreneurship, family business, international cooperation, and corporate governance. His initial research was in law as he began his career as a law professor. He has since moved into entrepreneurship research and published in Journals and Reviews such as the Journal of International Business Studies, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and Journal of High Technology Management Research. In addition to journal publications, he serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Small Business Management, International Entrepreneurship and Management Research, and Small Business Research.
Tianzhu Zhang (Sustainability)
Professor at China Agricultural University, ChinaDr. Zhang is Professor of College of Water Resources & Civil Engineering and Director in Institute of Agricultural Planning Science of China Agricultural University. He is adept at planning and design of regional agriculture and agricultural parks, agricultural and biological engineering, facility horticultural science and engineering, new facility material and agricultural construction engineering, and has taken charge and participated in more than 500 planning projects of agricultural parks and areas.
Montha Kai Hirun (Innovation)
Innovation Promotion Manager at National Innovation Agency, ThailandMontha Kaihirun is an innovation counselling manager of Agro-Business Creative Center (ABC center) under the National Innovation Agency (Public Organization). One of the main responsibilities is to develop entrepreneurial capability via technology and innovation in order to solve agriculture challenges through the value chain. Moreover, building the strong AgTech entrepreneurial ecosystem in Thailand in order to support startups, co-operative/community enterprise and SMEs. Montha is fully committed to manage and operate ABC center to achieve its goals successfully. With collaboration and supportive partners such as innovation entrepreneurs, public agencies, AgTech startups, universities and private firms in the agriculture industry, AgTech communities are gradually built to strengthen the ecosystem both national and international perspectives in terms of investment and expanding markets to the global level.
Shu-Hung Liao (INNOVATION)
Chairman at Association of Pro agriculture technological development Taiwan, TaiwanMr. Shu-Hung Liao was born in Yunlin, Taiwan, 1955, and raised in the farmer’s family. His strong connection with agriculture is originated from his early life in the countryside and the deep influence of his parents. After receiving his master degree in agriculture economics, he devoted to the development of Taiwan’s agriculture over 30 years. His effort in farmers’ education and training assisted the progress of agriculture modernization. However, the severe urban-rural gap brought the well-known three issues: agriculture, countryside, and farmers. Therefore, Mr. Shu-Hung Liao proposed an alternative approach to these three issues – the 1330 system, which helps the traditional agriculture transform into the novel type of agriculture.
Wei-Ling LOW (Investment)
Chief Executive Officer at Vanda Global Capital, SingaporeWei-Ling LOW is CEO of Vanda Global Capital (“Vanda”) a Singapore Financial Institution comprising internationally prominent industry leaders. Vanda focusses on high-potential companies in Fintech-Tech-Sustainability-Impact ESG Infrastructure, and officially partnered with a systemically important ecosystem of government, regulatory, state-sponsored private enterprises to facilitate efficient access to capital Singapore & Globally.
Tenaciously 25 years across Tier1 investment banking, asset management & private banking conglomerates in senior management & board capacities managing centi-millionaires, billionaires & unicorns businesses; revamping of Financial Institutions & VCs from scratch to sustainable enterprises optimising business opportunities to successful trade exits & IPOs, growing investments postulating inter & intra-institutional collaboration with deep cognizance in regulatory compliance risk governance framework led to her recognition as an industry all-rounder.
Trained & educated at Harvard Law School & NYU Program, National University of Singapore & Raffles Junior College, offered state scholarship, she also serves the Monetary Authority of Singapore ("MAS") Private Banking Advisory Group & was awarded the International Outstanding Young Private Banker of the Year for exemplary leadership globally. She is a judge of the MAS Global Hackcelerator & Fintech Awards & speaks at global conferences.
Wei Ling is Advisory Board Member of Singapore Management University Academy, Johns Hopkins University, Regional Chair of Rotary International, Foundation of Rotary Clubs Singapore Chairman of Investment Committee & Advisor to the Governing Board; Founder & Chair of Rotary Club of Singapore East ("RCSE") Education Bursary Fund & Past President of the RCSE.
Jeffrey Chi (Investment)
Founding Member & Vice Chairman at Vickers Venture PartnersDr. Jeffrey Chi is a veteran in the venture capital industry and a strong advocate for the promotion of venture capital, entrepreneurship & socially responsible investing.
Dr. Chi co-founded Vickers Venture Partners in 2005 is currently its Vice Chairman for Asia and a member of its Investment Committee. He is also former Chairman and currently Ambassador of the Singapore Venture Capital & Private Equity Association. Dr. Chi also sits on board of SEEDS Capital (Investment arm of Enterprise Singapore) and on the advisory panels of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, A*ccelerate, the commercialization arm of A*Star and the National University of Singapore Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Management.
Based out of Shanghai, Dr. Chi heads Vickers Venture’s investments in Asia and has investments in artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, education, healthcare/wellness and financial services (including fintech) technology companies.
Dr Chi’s wealth of experience include investment banking (Partner at Pegasus Capital), strategy consulting (senior consultant at Monitor Delloitte) and operations (Managing Director of Spandeck Engineering SEA). Dr. Chi is a CFA Charter holder and graduated from Cambridge University with 1st Class Honours in Engineering. He earned his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in organizational knowledge and information technology.
Chung-Hsiu Hung (INVESTMENT)
Chairman at Mitagri Co., Ltd., TaiwanDr. Chung-Hsiu Hung is Chairman of Mitagri Co., Ltd., Taiwan. He holds a Doctorate Degree in Applied Economics at National Chung Hsing University (Taiwan).
Dr. Hung previously served as Director-General, Pingtung Agricultural Biotechnology Park, Department of International Affairs, and Department of Farmers’ Service in Council of Agriculture at Executive Yuan in Taiwan for 3 years. And served as Director of Agriculture and Food Agency and Deputy Director of Agriculture and Food Agency in the Council of Agriculture at Executive Yuan in Taiwan for 2 years.
Shu-Hung Liao (INNOVATION)
Chairman at Association of Pro agriculture technological development Taiwan, TaiwanMr. Shu-Hung Liao was born in Yunlin, Taiwan, in 1955, and raised in a farmer’s family. His strong connection with agriculture is originated from his early life in the countryside and the deep influence of his parents. After receiving his master's degree in agriculture economics, he devoted to the development of Taiwan’s agriculture over 30 years. His effort in farmers’ education and training assisted the progress of agriculture modernization. However, the severe urban-rural gap brought the well-known three issues: agriculture, countryside, and farmers. Therefore, Mr. Shu-Hung Liao proposed an alternative approach to these three issues – the 1330 system, which helps traditional agriculture transform into a novel type of agriculture.
Stephen Ho (Investment)
Independent Director of Azeus Systems, SingaporeMr. Ho was the former CEO of DBS Asia Capital and the former managing director of DBS Bank (Singapore) Co., Ltd., and DBS Bank (Taiwan) Co., Ltd.
Stephen joined as a managing director DBS’ Investment Banking Group in Singapore in June 2001. Prior to joining DBS, Stephen was the Head of Global Telecom, Media & Technology ("TMT") Group in Asia at JP Morgan Chase since 1998. He started his career with Chase in 1989 as a Mergers & Acquisition ("M&A") generalist in New York before specializng in media and telecom sectors in the U.S. and subsequently in Asia.
In addition to his global coverage responsibility as a managing director and Head of the DBS TMT Group from 2001 to mid 2011, he was also Head of DBS Middle East in 2008-9 and Head of DBS Malaysia in 2010-11, before he became the CEO of DBS Asia Capital, a position he held in 2011-13. He was a managing director at DBS Bank (Taiwan) Ltd in 2014-18.
He holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Iowa State University, a M.S. from M.I.T. and an MBA from the Wharton School of Finance, University of Pennsylvania.
Nen-Fu Huang (Technology)
Dean at College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, National Tsing Hua University, TaiwanNen-Fu (Fred) Huang received the Ph.D. degree in computer science from National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), Taiwan, in 1986. He is now serving as the Dean of EECS College of NTHU. From 1997-2000, he was the Chairman of Department of Computer Science, NTHU. His current research interests include Internet of Things (IoT) sensor networks, AIoT-based Smart Agriculture and agriculture blockchain, AI-based crops classification technologies, LPWAN (LoRaWAN/NB-IoT) transmission technologies and applications, AI-based Big Data Analysis for MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), network security, and SDN/NFV networks. He was the founder/ CEO/Chairman of Broadweb Corp. (a network security company), which was acquired by TrendMicro, an international security company, in 2013. He is also the founder of ShareCourse, an AI-based MOOCs platform (www.sharecourse.net), which provides MOOC courses including IoT, AI, Big Data Analysis, FinTech, Robot related courses. Dr. Huang has published more than 200 journal and conference papers, including more than 50 papers in IEEE INFOCOM/ICC/GLOBECOM flag-ship conferences. Dr. Huang also has granted/pending more than 60 patents. He is a Fellow of the BCS (British Computer Society) and a senior member of the IEEE.
Steven Arquitt (Technology)
Senior Research Analyst & Asia Regional Lead at Millennium Institute, USADr. Steven Arquitt is the Senior Research Analyst and Asia Regional Lead of Millennium Institute. He had obtained a Doctoral Degree in System Dynamics and has published on sustainable development planning, agriculture, aquaculture, environmental restoration, and sustainable consumption among others.
Dr. Arquitt works with government institutions and international organizations to use system dynamics models to analyze complex sustainability challenges and to derive policies to solve them. With over 15 years experience, Dr Arquitt has worked on broad environmental policy and sustainable development issues, including sustainable agriculture, aquaculture, water quality, coastal zone management, and national planning for the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Bill Hsieh (SUSTAINABILITY)
Director of Agro-Green Agricultural Business Division, Taiwan.MR. Hsieh has more than 20 years of experience in the agricultural industry, served one of the farmers' association in Changhua county, Taiwan.
Now, he is the director of Agro-Green Agricultural Business Division, Taiwan (Nam-Liong Group), working on plant protectants development. Two products he developed will be introduced at this conference.
Agro-Green is one of the members of Nam-Liong Group in Taiwan. We entered Agriculture since 2010. The main services we provide now are plant protectants, organic fertilizers, selenium-enriched products and organic vegetables & fruits. Also, we are agent of BVA spray oil, GreeNeem and ICL. Our packing-house of vegetable and fruits is ISO 22000:2005 & HACCP certified. You can find our crops in supermarkets at Taiwan. Nam-Liong Group was founded in 1972 at Taiwan and started in the textile industry. It's famous for manufacturing high-tech, functional, environment-friendly polymers and high elastic foam materials. Nowadays, there are more than 61 companies and 15,000 employees worldwide.
Brian Chen (INNOVATION)
Executive Director of Rolling Greens Co., Ltd, TaiwanMr. Chen works in Rolling Greens Co., Ltd and is engaged in the research of environmentally friendly fertilizers and Bioproducts.
RollingGreens is a company that develop and manufacture affordable environmental friendly fertilizers and bioproducts. RollingGreens' goal is to achieve agricultural sustainability and help improving growers' living standards, with our help, growers can produce more with less. RollingGreens has expanded its markets to various countries and places including China, India, Indonesia, and Thailand.