Parmesh Shah
Global Lead, Data-Driven Digital Agriculture, Agriculture, and Food Global Practice, The World Bank
Parmesh Shah is the Global Lead for Data-Driven Digital Agriculture at the World Bank. He provides leadership to Bank’s work in these areas and supports the development of global knowledge and learning in these areas to offer solutions to clients and other development partners. His current areas of interest are making markets and public services work for the poor, social entrepreneurship, digital and data-based innovations in agriculture and rural development, climate-smart agriculture, agriculture and technology enabled start-ups, venture and patient capital for innovation, promotion of on-farm, off-farm and digital jobs and public-private and people partnerships for rural poverty reduction. He is currently involved in developing a global program on scaling up data-driven digital agriculture involving data platforms and establishing ecosystems for innovation, entrepreneurship and incubation. He holds a D Phil in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a B.Tech degree in Agricultural Engineering from Pantnagar in India.
Martine Jansen
Head of Partnerships, Acorn
Martine Jansen is the Head of Partnerships at Acorn and is responsible for the relationships with NGOs, COOPs, governments, and corporates that support large groups of smallholders in agroforestry by providing technical assistance and other expertise. Acorn is a marketplace that is created to link farmers to corporates wishing to offset their carbon emissions with high-quality, traceable credits. Prior to this, Martine worked for Rabo Foundation as a Program Manager providing high-risk loans to farmer-based organizations and later as a Sr. Innovation Manager focusing on using data and technology to improve the access and quality of services to smallholder farmers. She started her career in commercial banking.
Eline Kajim
Head of Certification, Acorn
Eline Kajim is responsible for ensuring high-quality carbon project certification within Acorn. After completing her Master of Change Management at the University of Groningen, Eline started working at Rabobank where she pursues a carrier in Innovation. She is dedicated to putting her expertise and knowledge into practice to accelerate sustainable business models. At COP26 in Glasgow, Eline announced the Acorn Framework & Small-scale Agroforestry Methodology that Acorn developed for program-level certification.
Emma van de Ven
Strategy and Research Lead, Acorn
Emma van de Ven builds successful business models that help create a healthier world. She loves a good challenge, and she doesn’t shy away from commercial successes to achieve idealist goals.
Mila Luleva
Head of Remote sensing, Acorn
Mila Luleva holds a Ph.D. in Imaging Spectroscopy and Remote Sensing. She has worked as a Remote Sensing and Environmental consultant and led research and development teams across Europe and Africa. She is now the new Head of Remote Sensing at Rabobank, working with smallholder farmers in Africa and Latin America, encouraging them to adopt restoration and reforestation practices with the goal to remove carbon from the atmosphere.
Jelmer van de Mortel
Head, Acorn
Jelmer van de Mortel works for Rabobank to develop innovative, meaningful, and pragmatic solutions in the Food & Agri domain. He is responsible for project Acorn, which supports smallholder farmers in the transition to agroforestry that helps them with additional income from Carbon Removal Units that are verified with the help of remote sensing to allow for scale. As a former strategy consultant, he has ample experience in bringing strategy into practice. During his period at World Food Programme, he experienced farmer needs in developing countries firsthand.
William Sutton
Global Lead for Climate-Smart Agriculture, Agriculture and Food Global Practice, The World Bank
William R. Sutton is Global Lead for Climate-Smart Agriculture and the Lead Agricultural Economist in the World Bank’s Agriculture & Food Global Practice. He has worked for over 25 years to promote sustainable development by integrating across sectors—including agriculture, environment, and climate change—and leading both investment and analytical projects in East Asia & the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa. Until recently he coordinated the World Bank's climate-smart and sustainable agriculture programs in China, including preparing the innovative Hubei Smart and Sustainable Agriculture Project. He also led studies in five Southeast Asian countries to better understand and build resilience to the El Niño Southern Oscillation in agri-food systems. He is currently the Team Leader for the GEF-financed Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Global Platform. Dr. Sutton has authored dozens of journal articles, reports, and books, including Looking Beyond the Horizon: How Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Responses Will Reshape Agriculture in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He was awarded the World Bank Green Award in 2011 in recognition of his innovative work on climate change and agriculture. Dr. Sutton holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California, Davis.
Ademola Braimoh
Senior Natural Resources Management Specialist, Agriculture, and Food Global Practice, The World Bank
Dr. Ademola Braimoh has expertise in agriculture and rural development, integrated landscape management, and resilience of ecosystems and people to global change. Dr. Braimoh studied at the Center for Development Research, the University of Bonn in Germany, and at the University of Cambridge in England. Prior to joining the World Bank, he worked as the Executive Director of the Global Land Project in Japan where he focused on climate mitigation and resilience of the Agriculture and Forestry Sectors. Dr. Braimoh serves as a Task Team Leader for land based carbon projects, and as a Coordinator for the Climate-Smart Agriculture portfolio in World Bank’s Africa Region.
Rama Chandra Reddy
Senior Environmental Economist, Environment, Natural Resources & Blue Economy, MENA Region, The World Bank
Rama Chandra Reddy is the Senior Environmental Economist in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region of the Environment, Natural Resource, and Blue Economy Global Practice at the World Bank. He leads environment, natural resources, and climate change work programs in the MENA region. Prior to this, he served as a Senior Carbon Finance Specialist in the Climate Change Group for over 10 years and led work programs on climate policy, finance, methodology, regulatory, monitoring and operational priorities of climate change mitigation programs in agriculture, and forestry, energy and other sectors. His pre-Bank experience includes leading the design and implementation of large sub-national and national programs, policy dialogue, and public and private sector engagement in the environment and natural resource sectors in India. He holds a Ph.D. in Resource Economics from Bangor University, UK.
Joel Brounen
Solidaridad´s Country Manager, Colombia
Joel Brounen is Solidaridad´s Country Manager in Colombia leading the work in the area of digital solutions, blended finance, and continuous improvement models for sustainable supply chains. He has developed multiple partnerships with renowned companies in the food and agro sector. As a researcher, he has contributed to multiple articles on sustainable production and markets. Currently, he focuses on new concepts to measure and monetize the impact of sustainability strategies in the agriculture sector. Joel has a Master’s degree in Sustainability Leadership from the University of Cambridge and a Master’s degree in International Economics from the University of Utrecht.
Questions Submitted
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- May 17, 2022Mahaman Mourtala
- May 9, 2022DR. YOGENDRA NATH
- May 8, 2022jose luis
- Apr 30, 2022