Business programme

As technological development accelerates, food and agriculture appear to remain one of the last bulwarks of technological conservatism. While the giants of the passing industrial age – metallurgical plants and automotive factories – now require minimal human input, rural areas are still suffering from seasonal labour shortages, a fact that became especially obvious during quarantine restrictions. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that this is merely the agribusiness quiet before the technological storm brought on by the coming of the Fourth Agricultural Revolution. It is no accident that AgTech and Food Tech have seen increased attention from venture capital in recent years. What would a new form of agricultural production look like? What is the future of foods and the transformation of the human diet?

Moderator
Andrey Zyuzin, General Director, EFKO Innovations

Andrey Zyuzin

General Director, EFKO Innovations

Panellists
Mohamed Badr Al-Sadah, Chief Executive Officer, Hassad Food Company
Maxim Zudin, Member of the Board, Cherkizovo Group
Mikhail Ivanov, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation
Marc Carena, Managing Director, McDonald's Russia
Dmitry Konyaev, Chairman of the Board of Directors, URALCHEM
Dmitry Peskov, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation on Digital and Technological Development
Laurent Thomas, Deputy Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (online)

Mohamed Badr Al-Sadah

Chief Executive Officer, Hassad Food Company

Mr. Al-Sadah joined Hassad Food as Chief Executive Officer back in June 2017. He holds an Engineering degree from the University of Arizona, USA. He has a wide experience in different fields, acquired from working across various sectors, like Oil and Gas, Investments and Telecom.
Moreover, Al-Sadah currently holds a number of other senior positions including Chairman of Widam food, Vice Chairman of Baladna, Vice Chairman for the Arab Qatari Company for Poultry Production (AlWaha), Board Member in Qatar Development Bank (QDB), Board Member in the Arab Co. Livestock development (ACOLID), and Vice Chairman of International Seafood Company (Oman).
Previously, Al-Sadah led several central functions in the capacity of Chief Operating Officer and Chief Business Development, at Vodafone Qatar. Furthermore, Al-Sadah held other senior posts in the period he worked for Qatar Investment Authority. He started his career as an engineer for one of Qatar’s top Gas companies, during that time he spent two years in Japan, in which, he took part in Dolphin Energy’s project development.

Maxim Zudin

Member of the Board, Cherkizovo Group

Mikhail Ivanov

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation

Marc Carena

Managing Director, McDonald's Russia

Marc Carena is appointed General Director, McDonald’s Russia as of July 2018.
Swiss by origin Marc joined McDonald’s in August 2017 as Corporate Vice President, International Lead Markets (UK/Ireland, Germany, Australia/New Zealand, France and Canada).
Prior to joining McDonald’s Marc had an extensive experience in Retail (6,5 years) and FMCG (9 years).
Marc held increasingly senior marketing, sales and general manager positions in Nestlé spanning 10 countries across Europe, Asia and Africa, culminating as member of the European Management Committee of Nestlé Professional running South Europe (14 countries).
Thereafter Marc worked in B2B and B2C Retail for the Metro Group in senior roles in Marketing/E-commerce in Eastern Europe up to CEO of Metro Cash & Carry Croatia as well as president of the Supervisor Board of the common Metro/Spar Austria Joint Venture in Croatia
Marc graduated from the University of Berne, Switzerland, with an MA in Business Administration.
Marc has a strong track record of driving success in many countries; caring about people and using his high energy and dynamic leadership style. He brings with him strong food and retail sector experience and knowledge of the system committed to further enhance McDonald’s brand moving forward in Russia.
«I feel very honored to have received the opportunity to lead McDonald’s in Russia and to continue its 30 years history of success” - says Marc Carena.

Dmitry Konyaev

Chairman of the Board of Directors, URALCHEM

Born in 1971, Mr Dmitry Konyaev graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University (Department of Economics), and he holds an MBA in Marketing from California State University Hayward.
Starting in 1998, he held a number of senior executive positions with major production and trading companies, including Sederrot International AB, Mineral Trading, Uralkali Trading SA (Singapore). In 2007-2011 he was the Commercial Director at URALCHEM. From 2011 to 2018, Mr Konyaev was the Chief Executive Officer at URALCHEM and a member of the Board of Directors at URALCHEM. Since 2018 – Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors at URALCHEM.
With almost two decades of expertise in the mineral fertilizers industry and a proven track record, Mr Konyaev is a member of Executive Board at IFA (International Fertilizer Association) and routinely named among the Russia’s «Top-1000 executives» by the Russian Managers Association.
Mr Konyaev is also a member of the Board of Directors of JSC Voskresensk Mineral Fertilizers and is the Chairman of the Board of JSC «HaloPolymer» and SIA Riga Fertilizer Terminal.

Dmitry Peskov

Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation on Digital and Technological Development

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Laurent Thomas

Deputy Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Laurent Thomas is Deputy Director-General at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He is responsible for FAO’s operations and the management of its business practices to achieve the highest level of efficiency possible within the Organization. In this role, he oversees the work of FAO’s Assistant Directors-General/Regional Representatives and the Heads of Liaisons Offices, the Organization’s Office of Communications, the Information Technology Division, the Human Resources Division, the Governing Bodies Servicing Division, the Finance Division and the Logistics Services Division. He is responsible for Business Continuity Management and the safety and security of FAO employees worldwide. As Designated Official ad interim, he supports the Director-General in managing security and safety of UN Personnel in Italy.
Laurent Thomas oversees the work of the Office of Emergency and Resilience and acts as alternate (B role) to relevant members of the Director-General’s Leadership Team for overseeing FAO’s Investment Centre, the Division for Partnerships and UN Collaboration, and the Project Support Division.
Prior to this role, for the past three years he was Deputy Director-General in charge of FAO operations and before this, FAO Assistant Director-General leading the Organization’s Technical Cooperation and Programme Management Department for over six years. In this role, he was responsible for overseeing the Senior Directors’ team in charge of Strategic Programmes Leadership; programming investment in food security, agriculture and rural development; preparing for and responding to food and agriculture threats and crises; mobilizing resources including through South-South Cooperation partnerships; and administrating FAO’s Technical Cooperation Programme.
He is an agro-economist by training and has over 35 years of experience in development and humanitarian assistance issues. Throughout his career, he has worked on the challenges of food and agriculture systems transformation. Before joining FAO headquarters, he worked for over a decade in developing countries on farming systems research and agriculture extension. With FAO for more than 30 years, he has held positions of increasing managerial responsibility in technical advisory services, investment programming, oversight of the Organization’s Decentralized Offices’ network and the management of programmes to help contribute to eliminating hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition; make agriculture forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable; reduce rural poverty; enable inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems; and increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters.

Front row participants
Elena Baturova, Director, Center for the Development of Financial Technologies, Rosselkhozbank
Alexander Mazhuga, Rector, Dmitry Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia
Natalya Popova, First Deputy General Director, Innopraktika
Maxim Protasov, Head, Russian Quality System (Roskachestvo)

Alexander Mazhuga

Rector, Dmitry Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia

Natalya Popova

First Deputy General Director, Innopraktika

Natalia Popova, First Deputy СEO of the Non-State Development Institute “Innopraktika”, President of Vision Media Center LLC, graduated from Finance Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation and the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies of Moscow State University.
Natalia is a member of the Boards of Directors of ITECMA LLC, VEB Ventures LLC, also the Supervisory Boards of the INTC Composite Valley Foundation and MSP Bank JSC, as well as the Board of Trustees of the School Unit of the “Phystech XXI” cluster and the autonomous non-profit educational organization “Phystech-lyceum” named after P.L. Kapitsa. In addition, she is the chairman of the board of directors of IAC OJSC, the co-chairman of the Coordinating Council for the introduction of innovative Russian products into the production and economic activities of Gazprom. Natalia is a member of the Council for the Implementation of the Federal Scientific and Technical Program for the Development of Agriculture for 2017-2025; the working group which provide support to small and medium businesses in high-tech sectors of the economy, including those introducing innovations, implementing projects in the field of import substitution and (or) producing export products and services; to the Expert council for the development of financial instruments and non-financial measures to support enterprises of Russia's defense industry under the Commission of the State Duma on legal support for the development of organizations in the defense industry of Russia.
Natalia is the originator and the host of Innopraktika media projects, including such projects as “Dom uchenyh” (lit.: The House of Scientists) in cooperation with “Kultura” TV channel, “Nauka” (lit.: Science) in cooperation with “Russia-24” TV channel, also a member of the committee for preparation and implementation of the global project "Russian Seasons".
Since December 2019, Natalia Popova has been holding the position of the Ombudsman representing interests of high-tech leading companies, established on the Commissioner for Entrepreneurs' Rights at the President of the Russian Federation institution basis.

Maxim Protasov

Head, Russian Quality System (Roskachestvo)

Born: 1972 in Moscow. Graduated from the Economics Faculty of Moscow State University and completed postgraduate research at the Institute of Latin America of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 1999 through 2005: member of the Supervisory Council of the National Securities Market Association, of the expert council of the Financial Markets Committee under the State Duma of the Russian Federation. 2011 through 2015: held the position of Chairman of the Management Board of the National Association of Producers and Suppliers of Foodstuffs Rusprodsoyuz. June 2015: appointed head of the Autonomous Non-commercial Organization Russian Quality System (Roskachestvo), set up by Russian Government Directive. Is an active participant in many expert organisations, in particular Open Government, Expert Council of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, working group of the Public Council of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation on foodstuff quality, member of the Commission for Supervising the Code of Fair Practices. Married with three children.