Varun Deshpande serves as Managing Director at the Good Food Institute Asia, where he is focused on building the future of food by working with scientists, foundations, governments, entrepreneurs, and corporations to build the alternative protein sector across the continent. As the son of a cancer surgeon from Mumbai, Varun has been deeply immersed in healthcare and technology from a very young age.

Prof. William Chen is the Michael Fam Endowed Professor and Director of Food Science and Technology Programme with Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU). He is also Director of Singapore Agri-food Innovation Lab (SAIL), and Co- Director of Singapore Future Ready Food Safety Hub (FRESH).

Dr. P K Joshi superannuated as the Director-South Asia, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC. Prior to this he was holding the positions of the Director, ICAR-National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, and the Director of the ICAR-National Centre of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research. After his superannuation, he is serving as the Policy Adviser to the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization, Harvest Plus of the CGIAR; Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research; and the BAIF Development Research Foundation.

From 1986 to 2003 he worked at the Research Institute of Economics and Organization of Agricultural Production of the Tajik Academy of Agricultural Sciences; 2003 to 2007 as the Dean of the Faculty of Economics of the Tajik Agrarian University; 2007 to 2011 as Director of the Research Institute of Economics and Organization of Agricultural Production of the Tajik Academy of Agricultural Sciences; 2011 to 2014 as the head of the department of agriculture and land use of the Executive Office of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan; November 2014 to January 2017 as the Head of the Depar

As Vice-President, Global Technical Services and Chief Technical Advisor at Nutrition International, Mandana oversees the technical quality of Nutrition International’s programming in 10 countries and leads a team of experts to address the most challenging gaps in evidence and practice in order to improve nutrition, especially for vulnerable populations and those most in need, including adolescents’ girls, women, and young children.

Dr. Hoang Anh Le earned his master degree in VNU University of Science (Hanoi, Vietnam) in 2002 and another one in Asian Institute of Technology (AIT, Bangkok, Thailand) in 2007 on Environmental Engineering Management. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in Environmental System Engineering from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, Seoul, Korea) in 2012.

Romina Cavatassi is in charge leading a number of Impact Assessments (IA) and in setting up a systematic approach for sound IA. This involves defining the theory of change and related indicators, developing the tools for data collection, leading the training and the data collection as well as data analysis and dissemination of results. She is also collaborating in mainstreaming climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Omer serves as a Principal Natural Resources and Agriculture Specialist of the Asian Development Bank, covering Southeast Asia. He is currently based at the ADB resident mission in Lao PDR.

Before joining ADB, he worked for IFAD and UNOPS, where he covered about 35 countries of Southeast Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Caribbean. Most recently, Omer served as IFAD Country Director for Bangladesh and the Maldives.

Dr. Sudarshan Dutta has more than 15 years of working as agriculture scientist in smallholder farming system.

Presently Dr. Dutta is working as Lead Agronomist (India) at Agoro Carbon Alliance, a Norway based Carbon Farming organization. Dr. Dutta promotes sustainable management practices in Indian farming systems and provides leadership in planning and execution of carbon farming in India.

Jean Balié has over two decades of experience in leadership and expertise developing policies for agriculture, food, and rural development.

Dr. Balié is currently the Director General of the International Rice Research Institute, and the Regional Director for South East Asia and the Pacific of the CGIAR. As Director General of IRRI, he sets the global strategic direction of the institute and manages its affairs in accordance with the policies and decisions of the IRRI Board of Trustees.