Laura Ralston

Senior Economist, Agriculture, and Food Global Practice, The World Bank

Laura Ralston is a Senior Economist with the Agriculture and Food Global Practice at the World Bank. She focuses on strategies to support data access and utilization for agri-food systems, emphasizing increasing equity and sustainability in developing countries. She has worked with the Bank in various roles since 2013, including a field posting in the Indonesia country office, using technology and data for economic empowerment in rural areas, and project leadership experience in youth employment programs in several countries in Africa. Laura enjoys developing collaborations across the World Bank and with external partners, focusing on innovation and sharing of ideas. Towards these goals, she has led data partnerships to monitor citizen sentiments, develop new methods for poverty targeting, and coordinate several impact evaluations across sectors in Africa and East Asia. Laura received her Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed her undergraduate studies at the London School of Economics.

Eliane Ubalijoro

Deputy Executive Director for Programs, Global Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) 

Éliane Ubalijoro, Ph.D. is the Deputy Executive Director for Programs at Global Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN). Eliane leads initiatives at GODAN that bring digitalization to serve scaling regenerative agriculture and achieving more sustainable food systems. She is a professor of practice for public and private sector partnerships at McGill University’s Institute for the Study of International Development, where she co-led Gates Grand Challenges Exploration grants in agriculture and health. She is a member of Rwanda’s National Science and Technology Council and the Presidential Advisory Council. Éliane is a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and a member of the Crop Trust Executive Board. Eliane is a member of the African Development Bank’s Expert Global Community of Practice on COVID-19 Response Strategies. Eliane is a member of the Supervisory Board of the Capitals Coalition. Prior to going back to Academia, she was a scientific director in a Montreal-based biotechnology company in charge of molecular diagnostic and bioinformatics discovery programs.

Emily Gray

Agricultural Policy Analyst, OECD
Emily Gray is an agricultural policy analyst and the thematic lead for Innovation and Digital Agriculture in the OECD’s Trade and Agriculture Directorate. Since joining the OECD in 2015, Emily has worked on various issues, including projects on risk and resilience in agriculture, innovation systems in food and agriculture, and reviews of policies to improve agricultural productivity and sustainability in OECD countries and Southeast Asia. Before joining the OECD, Emily was at the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) where she specialized in agricultural productivity and biosecurity policy. Emily has a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Sydney.

Francesca Casalini

Policy Analyst, Trade and Agriculture Directorate, OECD

Francesca Casalini is a policy analyst in the Trade and Agriculture Directorate of the OECD, where she works on topics related to digital innovation and risk and resilience in agriculture and digital trade topics, with a focus on cross-border data flows and privacy. Francesca holds a Master’s degree in international law from the Graduate Institute of Geneva.

George Rapsomanikis

Senior Economist, Markets and Trade Division, FAO  

George Rapsomanikis is a Senior Economist in the FAO Markets and Trade Division, where he leads the Commodity Markets and Development Team. His work focuses on issues related to trade and markets' contribution to food security and sustainable development. Since 2011, he supports the G20 and the G7 discussions on global agriculture and food security. He is also the Editor of the FAO Commodity Market Review (2007-2010), The State of Food Insecurity in the World (2013-2015), the UNCTAD-FAO Commodities and Development Report (2017), and The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets (2018, 2020).

Andreea Antuca

Consultant, Oxera      
Andreea Antuca is a Consultant in the economic and financial consulting firm Oxera as part of the Digital practice and Competition team. Andreea applies quantitative, and data visualization techniques to support a wide range of clients. She has worked on several projects spanning damages estimation, mergers, market investigations, and impact assessments. She recently worked on identifying potential impacts from the EU Digital Services Act and has advised UITP (The International Association of Public Transport) and RSSB (The Rail Safety and Standards Board) on a range of issues regarding data sharing and the valuation of data in the transport sector. Before joining Oxera in 2017, Andreea completed an MPhil in Economics at the University of Oxford, focusing on industrial organization and econometrics.

Marie Agnes Jouanjean

Agriculture Economist, Data-driven and Digital Agriculture, Agriculture and Food Global Practice, The World Bank

Marie-Agnès Jouanjean is an Economist with the Agriculture and Food Global Practice at the World Bank. She focuses on data-driven and digital agriculture, exploring how digital technologies can support the transformation of agri-food systems in developing countries and the role of governments to maximize efficiency, equity and environmental sustainability outcomes. Prior to joining the World Bank, Marie-Agnès worked at the OECD where she developed policy-oriented analysis on various dimensions of digital technologies in agriculture and trade as well as on Global Value Chains (GVCs). She also worked for a Think Tank (Overseas Development Institute (ODI)) and a range of International Organisations on barriers to trade (infrastructure, services, NTMs), regional integration, the economics of resilience and climate change adaptation. Marie-Agnès holds a Ph.D. in International Economics from Sciences Po Paris, which she did in collaboration with the research centre, LICOS, in KULeuven. She also has a degree as an Agronomist (IRC-CNEARC/Montpellier SupAgro and ENSAIA National School of Agronomics and Food Industry).