THANK YOU FOR JOINING US IN 2023
Join us again in 2024 to tackle the challenges and identify the opportunities in harnessing the full potential of regenerative agriculture practices in the food industry.
Our mission is to bring together all stakeholders and be a neutral platform that enables open, constructive, and educational discussions to further progress toward the transition to regenerative practices. We believe everyone deserves a seat at the table and that the best way to effectively bring about change is through peer-to-peer sharing, partnership, and collaboration.
The Regenerative Agriculture and Food Systems Summit USA returns on March 19 - 20, 2024 to bring together the industry with one unified mission – to accelerate the transition to regenerative agriculture to build a more abundant and resilient food system for generations to come!
2023 SPEAKERS
Ryan Vroegindewey
Ryan Vroegindewey is Senior Manager of Sustainable Agriculture at Campbell Soup Company. In his role, Ryan partners with growers to strengthen the resilience of farms and food supply, while helping to communicate this work to consumers and other stakeholders. Ryan has 15 years of experience in agriculture and food systems, including, as a published researcher, consultant, program manager for the U.S. Agency for International Development. He holds a M.S. and PhD in agricultural, food, and resource economics, and in sustainability, from Michigan State University.
Gina Asoudegan
Gina Asoudegan is Vice President of Mission and Regenerative Agriculture at Applegate, the nation’s leading brand of natural and organic meat. In her role, Asoudegan leads the strategy for the company’s evolution toward regenerative agriculture and facilitates the creation of consciously scaled supply chains rooted in regenerative principles. Gina was awarded Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business 2022 for her work in regenerative agriculture and the supply chain collaboration she facilitated between the food and fashion industries.
Asoudegan is on the board of directors of the National Young Farmers Coalition and was instrumental in securing Applegate as a founding partner for the Savory Institute’s Land to Market™ Program, the world’s first regenerative sourcing solution for livestock-derived meat, dairy, wool and leather. Asoudegan is also a member of the senior advisory board at the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.
Stefania Avanzini
Stefania is impact-driven and passionate about collective transformations. As Director of One Planet Business for Biodvisersity, she is working to scale the adoption of regenerative agriculture globally through the organization’s cross-sectoral membership that spans the agricultural value chain from production to distribution. Prior to her work at OP2B, Stefania worked for Danone’s investment fund for social business, and for Ashoka – the world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs. Stefania believes in the power of business to transform agricultural systems in a way that is beneficial for people, climate, and nature.
Rebecca Chesney
Anna Pierce
Bryan Gilvesy
Bryan is C.E.O. of ALUS (alus.ca), a national community-led, farmer delivered charitable program that rewards farmers to produce more ecosystem services and develops market value for those services.
He is also owner of the Y U Ranch, a Texas Longhorn ranching operation in Norfolk County, Ontario.
Bryan serves as an Executive in Residence for Agriculture and Sustainability at the Ivey School of Business at Western University.
Kim Sundy
Kimberley Sundy is the Director for Global Sustainability for Kellogg Company. In this capacity, Kim leverages Kellogg’s commitment to people and the planet to embed purpose into its business and unlock growth for its brands.
Kim is living proof that you can get paid to change the world. Philanthropy, sustainability, and communicating its game-changing value are her passions and professional expertise. She has built an incredible career as a classically trained, mission-driven CPG marketer working for leading companies like Kellogg’s, General Mills, and Kimberly-Clark. Her commitment to excellence and ability to drive for results have created social investment strategies and innovative global stakeholder engagement opportunities.
Kim serves as Liaison Delegate for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and is both a member of CALIBR and co-chair of its Midwest Region. She is also a graduate of McKinsey’s Black Executive Leadership Program. Kim has been a member of the Junior League since 2004. She is also a founding member of the Southwestern Michigan Associate Jewels for Jack and Jill of America, Inc. Kim is the proud mother of a West Point Cadet and lives with her family in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin
Andrew Lentz
Andrew Lentz, the former Policy Director for the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), is joining the Environmental Defense Fund as a Director of Federal Affairs for agriculture policy. He will lead EDF’s engagement with policymakers at the federal level to advance climate-smart agriculture and shape proposals in the upcoming Farm Bill.
“While I am sad to be leaving such a terrific team at ESMC, I am so excited to be joining EDF in their efforts to support farmers’ transition to a climate-smart future,” he said. “Agriculture is uniquely positioned to offer immediate nature-based climate solutions and I look forward to working with policymakers to put farmers and ranchers at the center of our nation’s climate-change mitigation strategy.”
In his new role with EDF, Andrew will work closely with the Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance (FACA), which brings together environmental and agricultural stakeholders to jointly advocate for climate-smart agriculture legislation, and which EDF serves as co-chair. Andrew also worked with FACA during his time at ESMC, which is a general member of the alliance.
In his immediate previous role, Andrew led ESMC’s engagement with federal and state policymakers to educate them on environmental markets for agriculture and develop policy that reduces barriers to entry for farmers and ranchers in order to scale market adoption. He also co-led ESMC’s Working Group on Inclusion & Racial Justice to identify and remove obstacles to equality, equity, inclusion, and racial justice for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in agriculture. “While environmental markets are an important tool in the agriculture sector’s toolbox, it was important for us to make sure we were not developing yet another system of oppression for BIPOC farmers. I am looking forward to continuing to advocate for a broad portfolio of strategies that move the sector towards its climate and equity goals,” Lentz said.
Prior to his service with ESMC, Andrew held various positions in the public and private sectors, including for USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service where he worked to build agricultural markets in post-conflict regions such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and throughout sub-Saharan Africa. He also previously held positions with Deloitte’s Policy & Government Relations team and in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Nick Betts
Kyle Welborn
Kyle is a co-founder and General Partner at Cultivation Capital where he focuses on making AgriFood Tech investments through the Yield Lab North America. He also serves as a Senior Advisor to the Yield Lab Latin America. He is the board chair at NanoGuard Technologies, and a board member at Eiwa Ag and Ascribe Bioscience. He is also a board observer representing the Yield Lab’s investments in Notch Ordering and Hydrosat. Prior portfolio board service includes Label Insight which was sold to NielsenIQ in 2021. He is also a contributor to CropLife.com where he writes about investments in AgTech startups.
Jess Newman
Jess Newman is the Senior Director of Agriculture & Sustainability at McCain Foods, the world’s largest manufacturer of frozen potato products and appetizers. Her team of agronomists and field representatives are responsible for all the vegetable crops purchased directly from farmers. They also implement McCain’s 2025 sustainability goals related to agriculture: 100% of farmers implementing regenerative practices, 25% reduction in farming CO2 emissions intensity, 15% improvement in irrigation water use efficiency in water-stressed regions, and the launch of three Farms of the Future.
Jess works remotely from her home state of Michigan and travels frequently to support her team (when covid allows).
Jess is passionate about sustainability in agricultural supply chains. Her philosophy is to meet farmers where they are and help them move along the sustainability spectrum – while creating profitability too! Talking to farmers is what energizes her. Shas worked at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Ecologic Institute, New York City Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, Booz & Company, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and Anheuser-Busch. She holds a B.A. from Harvard, an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management (with Sustainability Certificate). She loves baking bread, sci-fi/fantasy, and cats.
Betsy Hickman
Betsy leads the nature and regenerative agriculture practices for Anthesis North America. In this role, she partners with ambitious, impact-oriented organizations to deliver sustainable performance in this decisive decade and help create a net-zero, nature positive and equitable future.
Dedicating the past decade of her career to advising executives and investors on effective and meaningful sustainability strategies, Betsy has partnered with leading companies across the agriculture, apparel, beverage, finance, food, forest products, restaurant, and retail sectors to harness purchasing power and investment capital into a force for good.
Through her leadership of Field to Market, the largest multi-stakeholder initiative dedicated to advancing sustainable agriculture, she united diverse organizations and competitors such as PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Target, and Walmart behind a shared vision and pre-competitive approach to building a future in which farmers, business, and nature thrive.
Earlier in her career, Betsy spent nearly six years with the World Wildlife Fund, directing stakeholder engagement for their global sustainability partnerships with companies like The Coca-Cola Company, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble and Sodexo. She also led stakeholder engagement and strategic communications for WWF’s Global Forest & Trade Network across 34 countries. Betsy has also held a variety of leadership roles in communications and marketing for publishing and investor relation firms after cutting her teeth in the advertising industry.
Betsy is a recognized thought leader, guest lecturer and speaker on sustainable supply chains, regenerative agriculture, nature-based solutions, and social innovation. She serves on advisory councils for Cornell University’s Atkinson Center for Sustainability Financing the Transition to Regenerative Agriculture and Drawdown Georgia’s Business Compact and the Board of Directors of EarthShare Georgia. Betsy lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and young daughter.
Øistein Thorsen
Jennifer Simpson
Cristina Rohr
Cristina Rohr a Managing Director of Investments with S2G Ventures. Cristina’s portfolio work ranges from agriculture focused investments in genetics, crop protection, soil health and digital/IOT to consumer facing brands.
Cristina has nearly 10 years of experience in sourcing, executing, managing and exiting venture and private equity investments. Before joining S2G Ventures, Cristina was a private equity investor with the Edgewater Funds in Chicago and, prior to that, with First Reserve in London, where she focused on leveraged buyout investments in the natural resources industry. Cristina also previously worked for Citigroup Investment Banking Division in London.
Cristina graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences with a double major in Mathematical and Computational Sciences and Economics. She earned her MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
Vincent Gauthier
Vincent Gauthier is a manager for climate-smart agriculture at Environmental Defense Fund and a thought leader on agriculture finance solutions that help farmers and ranchers adapt to a changing climate. Vincent collaborates directly with farmers, ranchers, and agriculture lenders to identify and address financial challenges to climate solutions in the agriculture sector. He has advanced actionable financial data on climate-smart agriculture practices and is bringing climate risk assessment and management to the agriculture finance sector. He values spending time with farmers and ranchers to understand the climate and weather challenges they face. Vincent is trained in economics and holds a masters in environmental management from Duke University.
Nova Sayers
Samantha Buchalter
Samantha joined The Russell Group in 2017 and quickly rose through the ranks to become a member of the firm’s senior lobbying team. In her role as Vice President, she advises clients on an array of policy issues and oversees the firm’s Legislative and Regulatory Affairs division.
During her time with The Russell Group, Samantha has been instrumental in building out the firm’s climate and sustainability practice, delivering counsel and developing advocacy strategies that position clients to take on a leadership role in reducing GHG emissions and promoting resiliency throughout the agricultural supply chain. She has also managed the Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance – a first-of-its-kind effort uniting key agriculture, forestry, and environmental stakeholders in support of voluntary and incentive-based climate solutions – since its inception in early 2020.
Samantha is passionate about vocational agriculture education and cultivating the next generation of student leaders. She is a proud byproduct of her hometown agriscience program in central Connecticut and went on to earn a B.A. from the George Washington University
She now resides in Capitol Hill with her husband, Adam, and their two Siamese cats (who make an appearance on Zoom calls from time to time). In her free time, Samantha enjoys sampling the city’s newest restaurants, exploring new hiking trails, and mentoring teens through the DC Family and Youth Initiative.
Megan Rock
Megan Rock is vice president of sustainability and innovation at CHS, the nation’s leading farmer-owned cooperative and an agronomy, global energy, grains and food company.
In 2022, Rock joined CHS as the company’s first VP of sustainability and innovation. Prior to CHS, she served as VP of corporate responsibility and sustainability and global lead of sustainability solutions at Bunge, Inc., and held sustainability and environmental management positions in government and banking.
In her new role, Rock will lead CHS efforts to develop and execute sustainability and innovation strategies across its $48 billion enterprise.
Rock holds a bachelor of science degree in soil, environmental and atmospheric science from the University of Missouri and a graduate certificate in advanced studies in environmental policy and management from the University of Denver.
Rock has served on the board of directors for Field to Market and Ag Future of America. In 2015, she received the Changemaker of Tomorrow award from Keep Akron (Ohio) Beautiful, and she is a member of the St. Louis Business Journal’s 40 under 40 class of 2020. She lives in St. Louis with her three children and two French bulldogs.
Kelli McCune
Kelli McCune, Director, Freshwater & Food Transformation, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) advances regenerative agriculture as a key part of transforming food systems within WWF’s vision for a future where nature and people thrive. Prior to joining WWF, Kelli worked at Sustainable Conservation, a California non-profit. During her 13-year tenure, Kelli built diverse stakeholder collaborations to develop solutions on working lands that improve water, biodiversity, climate outcomes, and producers’ livelihoods. Her work demonstrated innovative voluntary performance-based incentives in agricultural lending and regulatory programs. Kelli received her B.A. in Environmental Science and Spanish from Northern Michigan University and her master’s degree in Environmental Science & Management from UC Santa Barbara.
Richard Vecqueray
Rich is a vet, turned entrepreneur, with over 25 years’ professional experience in farming focusing on animal welfare, health and production as well as the environment and agriculture’s influence on it.
Derek Azevedo
Anastasia Volkova
Anastasia Volkova, PhD, is a Ukrainian entrepreneur and engineer committed to developing technology that empowers the agriculture industry to help solve the global climate crisis. She is CEO and Co-Founder of Regrow Ag, an award-winning SaaS provider that enables organizations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across their agricultural supply chains and build climate change resilience by incentivizing the adoption of regenerative farming practices.
Since Regrow’s launch in early 2021, Dr. Volkova and her team have raised $55M in Series A and B funding, and have nurtured Regrow into a global company trusted by some of the world’s leading CPGs, food companies, and ecosystem market developers, including General Mills, Cargill, Kellogg’s, PepsiCo, and South Pole. Regrow delivers environmental data that makes it possible for organizations to analyze scope 3 sourcing regions, report emissions, and plan sustainability investments, and supports the execution of producer incentive programs that reduce on-field emissions. It pioneered the development of digital MRV (Measurement, Reporting, and Verification) software for agriculture, bringing transparency and credibility to agriculture-based carbon reductions and removals. Regrow’s best-in-class MRV was honored as a Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Idea.
A 2022 Bloomberg New Economy Catalyst and Forbes Technology Council member, Dr. Volkova is a respected thought leader and innovator in regenerative agriculture and sustainable food sourcing. She has been recognized as one of The Australian’s Top 100 Innovators, MIT’s “35 Under 35” Innovators (2020), and BBC’s “Top 100 Women” (2020).
Erica Campbell
Brad Keith
Martina Henry
Gabriel Morgan
Christina Skonberg
As the Director of Sustainability & Mission at Simple Mills, Skonberg leads the company’s strategy to advance human and planetary health through intentional product design and ingredient sourcing partnerships. She brings to the product innovation process a keen eye toward ecosystem health and economic resilience in farming communities, connecting consumer insights with farmer insights to design products that benefit all nodes of the supply system. Prior to Simple Mills, Skonberg held multiple roles at General Mills, including leading sustainability for Annie’s, Cascadian Farm, and Muir Glen, and managing company-wide regenerative agriculture impact reporting initiatives. While at SCS Global Services, she coordinated the Starbucks responsible coffee sourcing verification program in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. As Director of Operations at the Good Food Foundation, she led production for the Good Food Awards, a national recognition program for leading-edge food businesses committed to positive social and environmental impact. Skonberg holds degrees in Agricultural Science and Brazilian Studies from Brown University, and a MS in Agriculture, Food, and Environment from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.
Ashley McKeon
Ashley McKeon is the Director of Regenerative Agriculture at Cargill in the company’s Global Impact group. In this role she leads Cargill’s global strategy to scale regenerative agriculture and deliver on Cargill’s sustainability commitments within our supply chains. Prior to this role, she led Cargill’s sustainability and climate policy and advocacy efforts in Washington, DC, and has nearly fifteen years of U.S. federal government experience in Congress and the Executive Branch leading on agriculture, climate change, and conservation policy issues. During her career, Ashley led efforts to increase investments in soil health and climate change in the 2018 Farm Bill and improve conservation public-private partnership programs. Ashley earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Political Science from the University of Portland in Oregon.
Emily Johannes
Bryce Lundberg
Jay Watson
Jay Watson leads efforts to advance progress on General Mills global impact initiatives, notably the 2030 regenerative agriculture commitment and enterprise climate ambition. In his role, Jay collaborates with farmers, farm advisors, NGOs, suppliers and retailers to deploy programs seeking to improve ecological and economic outcomes of agricultural systems in targeted supply sheds.
Prior to joining the Global Impact Team in 2017, Jay spent 10 years in a variety of buying roles within the company’s global sourcing organization. Jay holds B.S. in Finance and a B.S. in Economics from Arizona State University and a MBA from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management.
Taimur Malik
Franco Costantini
John Kempf
Bryan Ulmer
Bryan grew up farming small grains in western Canada before completing a Ph.D. at the University of Saskatchewan on plant-based resistance to insect pests. He then went on to a post-doc at the University of Alberta working on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and followed that with a post-doc at the University of Florida researching biological controls of introduced crop pests. For the last 17 years Bryan has been working as a scientist for Syngenta, first in the US focused primarily on crop protection in broad acre crops then in Switzerland as a global technical manager before returning to Canada with the cereals breeding program. In his current role as the global technical lead for the value chain Bryan is collaborating with food companies and the industry to support quality and production gains while delivering on sustainability targets.
Kayalin Akens-Irby
Kayalin Akens-Irby is an impact-oriented strategist who has spent her career working across tech, investment, and policy to reshape the way we do business to build a sustainable future together. Kayalin is Head of Growth at Planet FWD, the leading climate management platform for consumer companies to tackle climate change. Previously, Kayalin was Head of VC and Growth equity at Malk Partners where she helped build the firm into the leading environmental, social, governance (ESG) investment advisory for private markets, advising on over $500B in AUM.
Sean Babington
Rebecca Gildiner
Eve Turow-Paul
Liliana Bettolo
Lesley Mitchell
Lotanna Obodozie
Kendra Levine
Kendra Levine is the McDonald’s US Sustainability lead where she and her team cover US supply chain and restaurant sustainability. Prior to this role, she led McDonald’s relationship with their Latin American franchisees on all things supply chain related as their Field Service Director, and prior to that, led McDonald's US supply chain climate strategy and led coffee sustainability globally for the company. Before her time with McDonald’s, she worked in international agricultural development with smallholder subsistence farmers in Kenya with One Acre Fund and Guatemala with Fundación AGIL. Kendra has a master’s and bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University and University of Florida, respectively. In 2019 she was named one of University of Florida’s “40 under 40.
Chris Casolaro
Sonya Hoo
Ethan Steinberg
Debbie Watts
Michael Kondrath
Greg Bohrer
Greg Bohrer serves as Director, Strategic Initiatives, Corporate Affairs at Walmart. He is responsible for the strategy and implementation of Walmart.org's regenerative agriculture philanthropic portfolio and Walmart and the Walmart Foundation's commitment to protect, restore, or more sustainably manage 50 million acres of land by 2030. Prior to joining Walmart in 2020, Greg led the Agriculture Program at Environmental Initiative, administrator for the Midwest Row Crop Collaborative. Greg started his career in the U.S. Senate focusing on agricultural and environmental policy and graduated from St. Olaf College with a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Political Science.
Jeffrey Fitzpatrick
Jeffrey Fitzpatrick has nearly 20 years of experience in the sustainability field and leads one of Cargill's largest and most ambitious programs on climate change: BeefUp Sustainability.
In this role, Jeffrey is responsible for leading engagement across Cargill, customers, ranchers, farmers, NGOs, government agencies and other industry stakeholders to develop strategies, initiatives and projects that support sustainability solutions in the North American beef value chain, with a goal to deliver on Cargill’s commitment of a 30% greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity reduction across its North American beef supply chain by 2030.
Prior to joining Cargill in 2020, Jeffrey spent 16 years at McDonald's Canada as the sustainability and agriculture lead. He has also served as political staff to several federal and provincial cabinet ministers. He currently sits on many industry boards, committees, councils and working groups. In 2021, Jeffrey was named to the inaugural list of Canadian Western Agribition’s Top 50 in Canadian Agriculture.
SUBMIT A SPEAKER
As the Regenerative Agriculture Summit Series expands, we are keen to hear your feedback on whom you want to hear from within the industry.
If you, or anyone in your network, would be interested in having the opportunity to participate as a speaker at our Summits, please submit an application.
All applications will be reviewed and our team will be in touch.
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