Abdulaziz’s interest in food security began during his time at McKinsey & Co. working extensively with GCC governments addressing a variety of national risk challenges. A serial investor in disruptive technologies (Lyft, Indigo Ag, among others), he is dedicated to addressing the food security challenge. He dedicates time to the region’s food ecosystem as a mentor at Savour Ventures, the Middle East’s first accelerator focused on food. Previously a banker with HSBC, Abdulaziz holds a BA from University of Pennsylvania and MBA from Wharton.

Alex Mitchell is an Investment Director at Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners, where he leads investments in the Future of Food including portfolio company 8F Pure Salmon, a leading global onshore salmon aquaculture business. Prior to joining Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners, Alex was an Investment Vice President and Strategy Director at SoftBank Investment Advisers in London and Abu Dhabi, leading growth equity investments for the SoftBank Vision Funds with a focus on fintech, energy and enterprise software in emerging markets. Previously, Alex was a Senior Manager at Strategy&, part of the PwC network, leading delivery of M&A commercial diligence and strategy projects with a focus on TMT and Healthcare. Alex holds an MA in Oriental Studies Combined from the University of Cambridge.

For twenty years, based in New York, Paris, the Middle East and Africa, she has advised global leaders at the United Nations, the World Bank, and other international organizations, working closely with governments, donors, business and civil society. Until 2019, she was Chief of Staff of the UN Environment Programme and a member of the Executive Board where she led on all strategic and operational matters for the organization. Now Anne continues her global engagement as an entrepreneur and strategic advisor. She actively advises businesses, investment funds, consulting management firms, foundations, and tech start-ups in the agri-food space to promote greater sustainability and climate action. She is also the President and co-founder of Chefs4thePlanet, an international network of prestigious chefs worldwide advocating for sustainable gastronomy. In May 2021, she was nominated UN Champion for the transformation of our Food Systems. A mother of two, she holds a PhD in International Politics with a focus on the Middle East from the University of Oxford, UK.

Badr Al-Olama is the Executive Director of the UAE Clusters unit within Mubadala’s UAE Investments platform. The platform contributes to the acceleration of the UAE’s economic transformation, and investing in national world class champions, fostering vibrant industrial and commercial clusters, and partnering with world-class global entities. In addition to his responsibilities in overseeing a diverse portfolio of assets in multiple sectors including technology, aerospace, and healthcare, Badr is leading a dynamic team that are incubating new sectors to further diversify the UAE’s economy such as clean energy and life sciences. Through his career journey Badr led aerospace investments at Mubadala which included key portfolio assets such as Strata Manufacturing PJSC (Strata), Nibras Al Ain Aerospace Park, and Sanad Group (Sanad). Prior to that, Badr was the Chief Executive Officer at Strata and was instrumental in positioning the company as a global tier-one supplier to both Airbus and Boeing. Badr is the Chairman of Emirates Post, Strata and Sanad, and also serves as a Board Director at Mubadala Health, Yahsat, Oumolat Security Printing and TASIAP GmbH – a joint venture with Daimler. In addition to his role at Mubadala, Badr leads Hub71, Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem, which nurtures the development of tech startups at all stages of growth in various sectors. Badr also heads the organizing committee for the Global Manufacturing and Industrialization Summit (GMIS) where he oversees the Mohammed Bin Rashid Initiative for Global Prosperity – an open innovation platform that seeks to solve real-world challenges by fore-fronting the corporate social responsibility of global manufacturers. Badr holds a degree in Shari’a and Law from the UAE University, LL.M from Harvard Law School, and was nominated as a Young Global Leader for the Middle East and North Africa regions by the World Economic Forum.

Christophe Lalo is the Chairman Middle East for Pure Salmon in Abu Dhabi and the CEO of 8F AM Middle East, an impact investing asset manager, based in ADGM, Abu Dhabi. He has been instrumental in setting up 5 companies with Pure Salmon (Global Headquarters) and 8F since he moved from London to the UAE in July 2020. Initially with 3 employees, it has grown now to 40, part of a 300-person group located in the US, Europe and Asia.

Christophe interacts with the private and public sector, with financial institutions as well as local government entities and universities (for the Pure Salmon Academy) to help the UAE with Food Security and build a sustainable agritech land-based RAS aquaculture salmon farm and processing facility in the UAE.

He has a finance background and has held various senior positions amongst others with Société Générale Asset Management (now Lyxor) and Deutsche Bank.

A French citizen, Christophe has worked in Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong, and London. He is now living in Abu Dhabi.

Cinar obtained his BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Evansville, as well as his MSc in Electrical Engineering and Telecommunication Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. His career began as a System Integration Engineer at Motorola, before advancing to become a Technical Release Manager for Motorola’s iDEN Group until 2004. As a serial entrepreneur, he has founded several companies including KES Engineering based in Chicago (1997), dBKES Engineering Services (2000) and DEK Technology (2010) based in Istanbul, MGT Electronics based in Chicago (2007), and HAWK Technology based in Abu Dhabi (2011). Post exiting these companies, Cinar currently leads Catalyst, a Masdar-BP initiative, which is the first startup accelerator focused on sustainability in the MENA region, funding in the following fields: Clean & Renewable Technologies, Energy Storage Solutions,   Harvesting, Efficiency & Optimization, Waste Transformation & Food Security Technologies, Biomechatronics, Smart City & Living, Sustainable Building Material Science, Predictive Analysis & Maintenance, E-Mobility & Efficient Logistics and Agro Tech.

Damian’s focus is to support Fera’s engagement with businesses, governments and investors looking at the agri-food sector, and work in developing go-to-market strategic propositions with spin-outs, start-ups and investors, alongside our commercial products and services. Managing a broad portfolio of strategic and potential spin-out projects, Damian works closely alongside the Fera Science community, with a focus on Insect novel protein feed and food industrial solutions, & insect waste reduction industrial solutions. He is leading international commercial and public sector research collaborations and evidence/horizon scan studies, and was lead author on multiple publications including but not limited to the UN FAO report exploring the adoption of insect farming in the Caribbean as a waste valorisation solution. Damian is also responsible for the implementation of a capital investment project to build an industrial insect bioconversion facility at Fera Science. He also leads Fera’s collaboration with Future Planet Capital to establish an agri-food innovation £100m impact fund working.

In 2013, Danielle Nierenberg co-founded Food Tank with Bernard Pollack, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization focused on building a global community for safe, healthy, nourished eaters. Bringing together all sides of food issues for critical discussion, Food Tank is a global convener, research organization, and non-biased creator of original research impacting the food system. Danielle conducts extensive on-the-ground research, having traveled to more than 70 countries across the world to document what’s working to help alleviate hunger and poverty while protecting the environment. Her knowledge of global agriculture issues has been cited widely in more than 20,000 major print and broadcast outlets worldwide. Speaking at more than 100 events per year, Danielle has built a worldwide social media following and web following of more than 1,200,000. Danielle has an M.S. in Agriculture, Food, and Environment from the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and spent two years volunteering for the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic.