Full Event Schedule:

1:00 p.m. - 1:05 p.m. Opening remarks
1:05 p.m. - 1:25 p.m. Innovations project showcase
1:25 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. Panel: Our shared responsibility to innovate
1:45 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Networking session

Featured Pitchers

Nidhi Pant

Co-Founder, S4S Technologies

Nidhi Pant is the Co-Founder of Science For Society, S4S Technologies, a key partner of the Solar 4 Resilience Initiative. Nidhi works at the intersection of agriculture, gender, energy access and financial inclusion. S4S Technologies is a near-farm gate food processing platform converting farm losses to value-added products for F&B Industry.These ingredients are processed by women farmers at the farm-gate using sustainable solar-powered technology - resulting in doubling down the household income for the farmers and prevention of food wastage.

Aadith Moorthy

Founder and CEO, Boomitra

Aadith Moorthy is revolutionizing carbon markets with AI and satellite technology. He runs the first global soil carbon marketplace, linking buyers with farmers for carbon removal credits. Recognized by TechCrunch as a top AI founder, he's also a Stanford Knight-Hennessy Scholar with degrees from Stanford and Caltech.

Joyce Waithira

Founder and CTO, EcoRich Solutions

Joyce Waithira is the founder and CTO of EcoRich Solutions, where she manages business development and building partnerships. EcoRich has developed a waste processor that decomposes food waste into organic fertilizer, which reduces urban waste and air pollution while improving farmers' production.

Featured Speakers

Gillian Hinde

EY Global Corporate Responsibility Leader

As EY Global Corporate Responsibility Leader, Gillian Hinde leads the implementation of the EY Ripples program to help drive sustainable inclusive growth in our communities, as well as overseeing efforts to embed social and environmental value creation more deeply in everything we do. A native South African, Gill moved to Sydney, Australia, where she joined EY in 2010. There, she spent six years with Advisory and Financial Services before joining the global Digital team, helping to develop and package new digital service offerings. Combined with experience at Unilever and then the Standard Bank Group in South Africa, launching new services for the underbanked, this explains her passion for innovating new models and collaborations that can help accelerate the creation of social and environmental impact at scale.

H.E. Mohammed Al Ameeri

Assistant Undersecretary for the Food Diversity Sector, UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment 

H.E. Mohammed Mousa Alameeri is Assistant Undersecretary for the Food Diversity Sector at the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment of the UAE. In this capacity, he has completed the legislative frameworks for agricultural production and environmental sustainability and has founded the Farmers Council. Previously he was manager of the Plant Tissue Culture Program at the Elite Agro LLC, the UAE; regional manager, shareholder representative and general manager at the Elite Agro LLC’s subsidiaries, Morocco; general manager at the Elite Agro LLC, Mauritania; and Deputy Director of Agricultural Operations at the Elite Agro LLC, the UAE. While at the Elite Agro LLC, he initiated and oversaw the first-ever foreign agricultural investment involving high technology in Mauritania. He holds a BSc in Agricultural Engineering from the UAE University in Al Ain, the UAE.

Saliha Dobardzic

Senior Climate Change Specialist, Adaptation Fund

Saliha Dobardzic is the Programming and Innovation Unit Lead and Senior Climate Change Specialist at the Adaptation Fund, where she oversees the programming of over half a billion dollars in funding annually and leads the policy work related to the administration of climate finance for adaptation, including innovation and locally-led action. Previously, she worked on adaptation, environmental, international waters, and integrated coastal zone management issues with the Global Environment Facility and The World Bank for over a decade.  She has also supported the World Bank’s MENA climate change beam and the Global Facility for Disaster Risk Reduction. She is a recipient of several awards and distinctions and was recognized as one of “100 Women Leaders in Energy and Climate Change” by the White House in 2013.

Paul Garaycochea

Director for Sustainable Supply Chains, Agricultural and Food Systems, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

Paul Garaycochea was recently appointed as Director of the Directorate ‘Sustainable supply chains; agricultural and food systems’ at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Before that he was head of the multilateral division at BMZ, particularly during the 2022 German G7 presidency. Garaycochea has broad experience in bilateral development cooperation. He was head of division for cooperation with South America and held different postings as head of cooperation at German Embassies in Bolivia and Peru. Additionally, he was head of division of cooperation with the World Bank at the BMZ headquarters.

Brigitte Gosselink

Director of AI and Sustainability, Google.org

Brigitte Gosselink is Director of AI & Sustainability at Google.org, where she leads initiatives that leverage emerging technologies and Google’s expertise to address global challenges. Since 2018, she has led programs and research on the use of AI for social impact, including the $25M Google AI Impact Challenge. She also leads Google.org’s work on sustainability and climate change and crisis response, including the organization’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. Over her career at Google, she’s helped fund and enable organizations to responsibly bring the benefits of technology to the issues and communities they serve. 
Prior to Google.org, Brigitte worked across the social and public sector to deliver innovative approaches through work at The Bridgespan Group, the U.S. Agency for International Development and IRD. She has an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a BS in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia. 
 

Bernhard Kowatsch

Head of UN Innovation Accelerator

Bernhard Kowatsch is the Head of the United Nations (UN) World Food Programme (WFP) Innovation Accelerator, which he created in 2015.  Prior to starting the Accelerator, Bernhard co-founded the award-winning ShareTheMeal app that crowdsources funding for WFP and has delivered over 165 million meals for hungry children worldwide. His previous experience includes creating WFP’s Business Innovation Unit and working as a Project Leader at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).