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Dr. Dimitrios Drisis

Dimitris Drisis (BSc, MSc, MBA, PgDipCIM, DBA) was born in Kavala Greece in 1969. His early exposure to Malthusian Economics, the social role of agriculture to feed a growing population and his affinity to nature created the right motivation mix to study Agronomy. His studies are enriched with an MBA, a Doctor in Business Administration, and an ongoing lifelong education.

Dimitris has served blue-chip leaders in the Agribusiness industry as a General Manager and Regional Marketing Manager, supported small and medium-sized start-ups escalating their business and lectured in several academic and professional fora.

His studies and professional life developed his pro-science attitude. His favorite quotes from Albert Einstein, that “I never think of the future, it is always close enough,” defined his economic beliefs on the role of capital to plan timely and develop technologies that contribute to social welfare.

After 26 years as a Corporate professional manager with credentials in turnaround management and business scaling up, Dimitris currently resides in Bucharest and shares his time between Romania, the UAE, and Germany.

He is an active entrepreneur and a public speaker. Dimitris is married and a father of four children.

Mr. George Pontikas

George Pontikas has been President and CEO at Syngenta Hellas Single Member SACI, and President of the Hellenic Crop Protection Association (ESYF).

He began his career in 1990 at Ciba Geigy Hellas (Legacy company of Syngenta), as Seed Development Manager. In 1997 he became Director of the Seed Division and in 2011 Head of Sales of the company’s consolidated business and Managing Director since 2015.

In January 2020 along with the position of Head of Sales for Crop Protection Products he assumed the duties of President and Managing Director at Syngenta Hellas Single Member SACI as well as the position of Business Area Manager for the countries Greece, Israel/Palestine, Cyprus, Albania and Kosovo (BA Mediterranean).

He served as President of the Hellenic Crop Protection Association (ESYF), of the Greek Seed Trade Association (SEPY) from 2010 to 2016 and a member of the Board of the International Seed Federation (ISF) from 2010 to 2013.

George Pontikas is an agronomist with a master’s degree in rural economy, marketing & sociology, and a master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA).

Dr. Dimitrios Skuras

Dimitris Skuras is the Vice Rector of Economics and Planning at the University of Patras and Professor at the Department of Economics. He studied at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Universities of Aberdeen and Essex in the United Kingdom.

His research is in natural resources and environmental economics, particularly analysing the impact of agricultural and rural development policies on GHG emissions, on the use and quality of water and soil resources, and on biodiversity and ecosystem services. His work has appeared in over 100 articles, studies and books. In 2008 his work was awarded the Academy of Athens award in the “Class of Ethical and Political Sciences”. He has developed programs and studies for the European Union, the OECD, the United Nations (FAO) and many government agencies in Europe, Latin America and Africa.

Mr. Geert Wilms

Geert Wilms studied Horticulture at Wageningen University and Business Administration at Open University. For more than 20 years Geert has been director of Agricultural Innovation Brabant (LIB), and he is consultant at Royal Haskoning DHV.

LIB is a partnership of Province North-Brabant and farmers organization ZLTO. Each year more than 30 innovative projects are initiated and supported, with the participation of hundreds of (agricultural) businesses. Several workshops are organized and guided. Geert is directly accountable to the President of ZLTO and regional Minister of agriculture in North-Brabant. One project he started and is very proud of: “Smart irrigation in agriculture; 3.000 farmers participating with 60.000 hectares, and 25% gain of efficiency in water use”.

 Geert Wilms also is a speaker, discussion leader and initiator of cooperation in different regions in Europe. He is/was involved in more than 15 European funded projects, for example Water management, Water conservation, Agrispin, Eurodairy, EU-PIG and STRING.

Dr. Oded Sagee

  • Specialist in agriculture-related and food security projects and start-ups.
  • Founder and manager of a few start-companies in the fields of biotechnology and agro-high-tech:
  • CapsiBreed ltd., breeding Pepper as a platform for producing natural health-promoting metabolites.
  • PlantExt ltd., evaluation, and identification of specific cannabis plant extracts with activity against inflammatory diseases.
  • BreedIt ltd., breeding information technology. Software as a decision support system.
  • CannabiVar, develops cannabis Chemo-variants and molecular markers for better breeding.
  • Chief scientist and CTO of Gaon Agro Industries Ltd. Manager of Aquaagrolab, and founder of Aquagro fund.
  • Wide-ranging experience in scientific development and management of various R&D projects.
  • Entrepreneur of international projects in agriculture. Including a seed breeding company in Baku, Azerbaijan. Seed company in UAE.
  • Senior scientist and Department manager in the ARO, Volcani Center, Israel.
  • Head of various R&D committees and projects including BARD and the chief scientist evaluation committee for research budgets.
  • Vice president and CTO of the public company Phytech Ltd.
  • R&D manager in AminoLab ltd., the largest contract laboratory in Israel
  • Holds master’s degree (Cum Laude) in plant sciences and Ph.D. in plant physiology, The Hebrew University. Postdoc, UCR, USA.