This topic explores the current development of AI worldwide, with a particular focus on explainable AI and its applications in agriculture and food systems. It examines how AI is transforming the agri-food sector through smart farming, precision agriculture, supply chain optimization, and sustainable food production. The topic also discusses how the Dutch agri-food sector, known for its innovation, advanced greenhouse technology, strong research institutions, and data-driven farming practices, could play a leading role in developing and applying AgriXAI. By combining agricultural expertise with transparent and trustworthy AI, the Netherlands can

Cynthia Zhu, Stef  Maree , Theodoros Matakiadis, Zhen Liu

The Adoption of AI in Agri-Food: Present Status and Future Direction

Dr. Zhen Liu is a Program Manager of Artificial Intelligent at the Wageningen Academy and Business Development Manager at Wageningen Food & Biobased Research of  WUR, the Netherlands.
She holds a PhD in Innovation Management from WUR and has extensive experience in agrifood innovation, executive education, and international collaboration. Dr. Liu specializes in connecting science, industry, and entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on sustainable agriculture, food systems, digital agriculture, and agrifood business development. She has designed and led numerous international executive programs, summer schools, and industry-academia partnerships involving participants from Europe, China, and other regions.
In addition to her work at WUR, she is co-founder of DeCi AgriTech, an AI-driven startup developing autonomous greenhouse growing solutions for sustainable food production.

Program Manager AI of Wageningen Academy

Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of LettUs Grow.
LettUs Grow is a specialist supplier delivering Aeroponics in a rolling bench format that boosts crop health and yield across hectare-scale glasshouse horticulture.
Our Aeroponic Rolling Benches are designed for simple integration into automation systems, enabling growers with hydroponic bench systems to easily upgrade (in full or part) to a higher performance irrigation system - always in partnership with the best manufacturers and installers in the business.
We continue to innovate via our talented R&D team - validating Aeroponics' very competitive performance across novel glasshouse crops such as Spinach.

Chief Scientific Officer & Co Founder

Managing Director

Security Specialist

Experienced cannabis industry professional with a strong background in operations, business development, and regulated cultivation environments.
Proven expertise in mother plant management, propagation scaling, GMP-oriented processes, and cross-border project coordination.
Adept at working with government bodies, universities, civil associations, and multidisciplinary teams across Europe and Latin America.

Founder / CEO

Industrial PhD candidate since 2023, specializing in greenhouse cultivation of Cannabis using supplemental LED lighting. Focused on developing new strategies to improve crop efficiency, product quality, and energy sustainability through precise resource control.

PhD student

Green architect, inspirator and strategist.

Minister for Food Security, Fisheries and Horticulture

Process & Project Manager

Jesse Verbeke plays a key role at Phormium Climate Screens, where he supports customers in selecting and using climate screens in the most optimal way. He has extensive knowledge about screen properties and is actively involved in the development of new screen types, helping to innovate and refine solutions that meet the evolving needs of the horticultural industry.

Product manager

Comparability is becoming increasingly important for environmental information - but it can only be achieved if data, methodology and processes fit together.
As project manager of the DIN EPD program, I deal with the question of how environmental information for products can be made comparable, comprehensible and internationally compatible.
In the DIN group, I support the development of the DIN EPD program as well as topics relating to environmental product declarations (EPDs), product carbon footprints (PCF) and product category rules (PCR).   My focus:  ✔ Creating comparability  ✔ Developing structured processes  ✔ Enabling credible environmental information

Project Lead DIN EPD Programme

Consultant in global controlled environment agriculture space with 8+ years of experience across vertical farming, greenhouse systems, and fresh produce supply chains. Co-founder and editor at VerticalFarmDaily, part of a global family media group with 16+ industry publications, where I built a strong network and in depth market insight. I now support companies and startups with market research, go to market strategy, and business development.

Owner

Professor of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) specializing in vertical farming, indoor agriculture, and climate-smart food systems. His work advances food security by integrating plant physiology, environmental sustainability, and agri-tech innovation. With over 15 years of experience across academia and industry, Prof Gauthier advises corporations, investors, universities, and growers on vertical farming strategies, indoor production systems, and AgTech development, translating plant science into scalable, real-world solutions. He serves on boards of Asia-Pacific agribusiness and AgTech organizations and have held leadership roles across academia, startups, and large research initiatives, collaborating with industry and public partners to design high-efficiency, resilient agricultural systems. A Professor, keynote speaker, consultant, and published researcher, Prof Gauthier holds a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology and Horticulture, with additional training in Business Management and Marketing, and have served as faculty at Princeton University, UC Davis, and Penn State. His mission is to accelerate innovation in climate-smart agriculture and global food security by connecting science, education, and industry.

Associate Professor

Adrian is the Co founder and President of Roelands Plant Farms a vegetable plant propagation greenhouse located in Lambton Shores, Ontario, Canada.

President

Researcher in high tech cultivation systems and vertical farming at the Business Unit Greenhouse Horticulture and Flower Bulbs (WUR).

Researcher

Director of Engineering

Anneke van de Kamp comes from the Netherlands and holds a Master’s degree in Horticulture & Phytopathology from Wageningen University. She started her professional career in 1990 as a staff member at the Central Office of the Horticultural Auctions.
Over the years, Anneke has built extensive expertise in traceability, sustainability, and food safety through roles at DLV Advisory Group, the Product Board for Arable Crops, and the Product Board for Horticulture.
Since 2012, she has been Group Manager Communication, Public Affairs at the Dutch vegetable breeding company Rijk Zwaan. 
In her role at Rijk Zwaan, Anneke focuses strongly on strategic communication, public affairs and foresight, with a particular emphasis on stakeholder engagement and anticipating developments that impact the future of horticulture, including sustainability, food security, and innovation.
Anneke is actively involved in international sector organizations. She is Chair of the Public Affairs & Foresight Committee (HC) of Plantum. She also participates in the CPOL of Euroseeds and the ISF Value Chain and ESR coordination Groups.
From 2020 -2025, she was member of the Top Team Horticulture & Starting Materials. Since January 1, she serves as Chair of TKI Horticulture & Starting Materials, where she contributes to strengthening innovation and public-private collaboration in the sector.
I

Chairman Board

Business Development Manager

Medeoprichter

Director Horti Division

Kyle Freedman is the global Market Segment Manager CEA and Jiffy Gel Product Manager for Jiffy Group responsible for providing technical guidance and support to Jiffy's global CEA customers and helping to drive market expansion. Kyle holds a BA in Philosophy from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He earned his MSc. in International Agriculture Development from the University of California at Davis with a concentration in Horticulture and Agronomy where his research focused on climate-smart, small-scale postharvest processing systems of coffee in Honduras. He obtained a PhD in Horticultural Sciences from North Carolina State University where his research focused on the development of a new hydroponic grapevine production system called Precise Indoor Vine Conditioning (PIVC) in which young grapevines are conditioned with supplemental light to produce fruit in their first season of field transplanting. With 15+ years of experience, Kyle was previously a Sr. Project Management Specialist at RTI International prior to graduate school where he was a part of their global food security and agriculture team managing over $150 million in USAID and USDA development projects in East Africa and Southeast Asia.

Market Segment Manager CEA

Dominick Dimucci is Director of Cultivation at Haven Greens, specializing in fully automated mobile gulley systems for baby leaf lettuce. With experience across Colorado, Texas, and Ontario, he holds undergraduate and master’s degrees in horticulture and is focused on driving operational excellence and crop first outcomes in controlled environment agriculture.

Director of Cultivation

General Manager Mexico

As a crop advisor, I act as a sparring partner for the grower. I assess the crop, describe its condition, and advise the grower on how to respond using climate control, irrigation, and nutrition strategies.
I have always had a strong interest in new developments. Topics such as new (green) crop protection products, Plant Empowerment, autonomous growing, and LED lighting are examples of this.
Through Delphy, I now regularly work abroad. It is both enjoyable and interesting to combine business with pleasure.

Advisor Glasshouse Vegetables: Tomato, Pepper, new crops, Water Coach

Founder & CEO

Mexx Holweg is a researcher specializing in controlled-environment agriculture and plant physiology. Currently he is achieving his PhD in Horticulture and Product Physiology at Wageningen University & Research. His doctoral work focused on the photobiology of medicinal cannabis, with particular emphasis on the effects of light intensity, spectral composition, and air temperature on plant morphology, photosynthesis, and the accumulation of pharmaceutical compounds.
Holweg’s research integrates morphological, physiological, and metabolic analyses to better understand how environmental parameters can optimize crop performance and secondary metabolite production. He has collaborated with both academic and industry partners to advance knowledge in cannabis cultivation under controlled conditions.

Head of Crop Science & Agronomy

The core is focused on an affinity with technology and desiring to find optimal and new solutions. These can translate to incorporating new designs on existing systems as well as presenting new innovations to optimize processes. Designing new projects where complex and multi-layered iterative processes form obstacles have proven to hold my interest and are considered a welcome challenge.
As a research and development engineer I’ve been focused on climate and energy and improving the supporting systems in horticulture. With the vision that a stronger market benefits all, the market for horticultural projects is far from saturated. In this, optimizing our ecological footprint, the sustainability of projects on both the resource and finance sides and ensuring fresh and healthy products leave the site, are an on-going and long-term challenge for us all.

Director/Owner

www.cresultant.nl  www,plantscout.eu

Founder Gracious AI - AI ethics researcher, designer and advisor

Alexander van Tuyll has been working on greenhouse horticulture at Wageningen University & Research for nearly five years, with a background in biosystems engineering. His research explores circularity. This is also the topic of his ongoing PhD. Fertilisers, CO₂ and renewable growing media are the focus of his current projects.

Researcher in Circular Greenhouse Horticulture

Software Development Leader

Dr. Nils Borchard is Head of Research and Innovation at DLG (the German Agricultural Society) and Visiting Associate Professor at Lisbon School of Economics and Management. He studied geography at Humboldt University Berlin and holds a doctorate from the University of Bonn. His career spans leading research institutions across Europe and Asia, including Forschungszentrum Jülich, the Center for International Forestry Research, and the Natural Resources Institute Finland, where he served as the scientific heads of agriculture and horticulture. At DLG, he builds up and drives R&D&I activities across the entire agri-food value chain, with a particular focus on food systems innovation and knowledge management.

Head of Research and Innovation

Independent professional at Greenport West-Holland, raised among the greenhouses of South Holland. With a background in Business Administration and ICT, I combine practical experience in energy, digitalization, and greenhouse horticulture. Currently among other topics involved the RE-GREENHOUSE project, driving innovation at the intersection of sustainability and technology.

Independent professional at Greenport West-Holland

Not an armchair expert, but with both feet still in the trenches. As Managing Director of LetsGrow.com, Gabriël van der Kruijk is deeply involved in technological innovation that delivers real impact. He looks beyond the hype and shares down‑to‑earth, practical insights. With his enthusiasm and energy, he consistently connects effortlessly with his audience.
With more than twenty years of experience in the tech sector, Gabriël has a strong track record in developing digital and AI solutions. His in‑depth knowledge of the horticulture sector has been shaped by hands‑on experience; he was a key driver behind the digital transformations of global players such as Rijk Zwaan and Koppert. This experience enables him to truly understand how to successfully apply technology in horticulture.
The common thread throughout his career is translating technological capabilities into tangible business results, always through a customer‑focused and co‑creative approach. In his keynote sessions, Gabriël shares concrete insights and thought‑provoking real‑world examples. In workshops, he dives deep, guiding participants in translating their own challenges into effective digital solutions.

Director LetsGrow.com

Nieves is full time researcher in cultivation of horticultural crops at the Business Unit Greenhouse Horticulture of Wageningen University & Research. In this position, she has been leading numerous (applied) research projects and collaborating in many others, both national and international. Research topics cover the entire production chain, from propagation to post-harvest performance through the management of the crop in all its facets: biological soil disinfection, plant rooting, substrate selection, irrigation, fertilization, integrated pest control, the implementation of new materials and technologies and the efficient use of resources, especially energy. With her research she hopes to inspire growers and the horticultural supply industry, in The Netherlands and beyond, to implement cultural practices that contribute to increase the sustainability of the sector. Nieves studied Biology at the “Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona”, and has lived and worked in the Netherlands during nearly her whole profesional career.

Senior Researcher Cultivation

Katia has been involved in the soilless cultivation space for the past 10 years, spanning from glasshouse operations to TCEA (aka vertical farming), with a focus on both technical and business aspects. Her primary area of expertise is in strawberry cultivation, gained through a combination of roles at start-ups and research organisations. Katia holds an MSc in Agricultural Engineering and an MBA in Agribusiness, and she is currently pursuing a part-time PhD at Harper Adams University, specialising in LED lighting and TCEA strawberry cultivation.
Katia is the founder of InnoPhyte Consulting, a specialist consultancy offering “Science-as-a-Service” to AgriTech companies. InnoPhyte supports businesses with experimental design, data interpretation, grant writing, and technical strategy, translating research into real-world outcomes. Katia’s professional path includes a part-time role as TCEA Soft Fruit Specialist at Niab, one of the UK’s leading crop science organisations. Additionally, she volunteers as the Communications Director for UKUAT (UK Urban Agricultural Technologies), a membership organisation that brings together key players in modern urban agricultural technologies.

Plant Scientist

Rien Kamman is CEO and Co-Founder of Source.ag, leading the company’s global mission to empower fruit and vegetable growers with AI. Since 2020, he has driven Source.ag’s expansion and vision to make high-tech, efficient greenhouse farming accessible and scalable worldwide.

CEO & Co-founder

Innovation Manager

Tom de Vos is a Consulting Sales Engineer at Sprinkler Energy, a company specialized in sustainable energy solutions for the horticultural industry. Sprinkler Energy helps growers and businesses reduce their dependency on natural gas through innovative heat pump systems, thermal energy storage, and integrated energy solutions. The company focuses on lowering energy costs, reducing CO₂ emissions, and supporting the transition toward future-proof and more sustainable greenhouse operations. During GreenTech Amsterdam 2026, Tom shares his expertise on innovative energy technologies, grid congestion challenges, and the transition toward fossil-free horticulture.

Consulting Sales Engineer

Founder & Head of Content and Policy

Connecting people and organisations, address sustainability challenges, facilitate cross-disciplinary collaborations and find innovative solutions is my passion.  Connect business partners with the well-known knowledge institute Wageningen Plant Research in order to enforece collaboration and making it possible that knowledge and innovative ideas finds its way to the market and vice versa

Program Manager

Manager Smart Growing

Manager Delphy Digital

Dr. Sebastian Kipp is Director Innovation at Klasmann-Deilmann, where he focuses on driving sustainable growing media solutions for professional horticulture. He leads innovation initiatives related to renewable raw materials, growing media technologies, and climate-friendly cultivation systems. Dr. Kipp studied plant sciences and received his PhD from the Technical University of Munich, specializing in plant phenotyping and sensor-based technologies for crop research. Today, his work focuses on developing next-generation growing media, including innovative biochar solutions as well as peatreduced and peat-free substrates to support more sustainable and climate-resilient horticultural production.

Director Innovation

Ramon van Esch is a plant specialist at HempFlax Agro BV, where he works on tissue culture, specialized metabolite analysis, and integrated pest management in cannabis and hemp. He has a background in Plant Sciences from Wageningen University & Research, with a strong focus on controlled environment agriculture, plant physiology, and medicinal cannabis cultivation.
Ramon combines hands-on experience in EU-GMP medicinal cannabis cultivation with applied research experience in contract cannabis trials, focusing on how cultivation strategies influence plant performance, flower development, and specialized metabolite profiles.
During his research at Wageningen University & Research, he investigated the effects of UV-A radiation on medicinal cannabis, contributing to a deeper understanding of how light quality can influence cannabis growth, physiology, and phytochemical composition.

Plant Specialist

Simone is the chairman of the Union of coffeeshop retailers in the Netherlands, kandidate for the European Parlement and working at the national and international level to advance regulation of cannabis and to professionalize the emerging industry. She is ons of the key figures who advocates on the legalization on a European level.

Chairman

Managing director

Innovation Project Manager

Job has been commercially responsible for GreenTech Global for the past eight years. During this time, GreenTech Amsterdam evolved from a biannual event into an annual exhibition, and GreenTech Americas and GreenTech North America were successfully launched.
His enthusiasm, positive mindset, and strong passion for the horticulture industry have been instrumental in contributing to GreenTech’s continued success.

Senior Sales Manager - GreenTech Global

Ot Messemaker is Head of Business Finance at Skytree, an Amsterdam-based Direct Air Capture (DAC) company developing systems that capture CO₂ from ambient air on-site at greenhouses and integrate seamlessly with local infrastructure. In his role, Ot structures the subsidy programs and financial incentives that make DAC the most economical CO₂ source available on location. He brings over four years of experience at the intersection of DAC and Dutch horticulture, has led subsidy applications totaling more than EUR 100 million for greenhouse projects, and currently works with growers across more than 150 hectares of greenhouse area on DAC deployments.

Head of Business Finance

Joseph began his career in 2012 in instrumentation and controls engineering, using sensors and PLC systems to control auxilary systems in semi-conductor manufacturing. In 2019, he returned to university to study biosystems engineering at Wageningen University and Research. Since graduation he has worked at Wageningen research modelling water flows through soil to reduce emission of water, nutrients, and PPPs into the environment; optimizing fertilization to accomodate dynamic recirculation throughout the crop cycle; and, since 2023, using biochar as a cultivation susbtrate in greenhouse trials at the WR Glastuinbouw research station in Bleiswijk. Joseph brings a fresh perspective into the horticultural industry and has an eye for both what is possible and what is practical.

Researcher - Rootzone Dynamics and Sensing

Researcher Delphy Improvement Centre

Dr. Jan-Gerd Frerichs leads technology development at OrbiFarm GmbH in Germany, where he drives innovation in fully automated controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) systems.
Prior to joining OrbiFarm®, he headed the Future Farming division at Körber Technologies GmbH where he and his teamdeveloped various concepts for the next level of growing indoors. Before joining Körber, he served as Senior Vice President for Software, Automation, and IT at Kalera (International) GmbH. There he played a pivotal role in developing automation and software solutions for large‑scale indoor farming operations. He further strengthened his industry impact as Chief Digital Officer and Head of Software & Automation at &ever GmbH, contributing significantly to pioneering innovations in indoor farming technology, from prototypes and local retail solutions up to highly automated farms in Kuwait and Singapore.
With extensive experience managing global, interdisciplinary teams across both start‑ups and established enterprises, Dr. Frerichs has consistently demonstrated strong strategic and organizational leadership.
He holds a PhD in Technical Chemistry from Leibniz University Hannover and a diploma in Electrical Engineering, underscoring his solid scientific foundation and technical expertise.
Dr. Frerichs’ career reflects a broad spectrum of experience across Total Controlled Environment Agriculture (TCEA), biotechnology, digitalization, automation, and adjacent technology domains—positioning him as a key driver in shaping the future of sustainable, technology‑enabled food production.

Marketing Manager

Ariane GRISEY, graduate engineer from Polytech’Marseille (2000) in energy engineering mechanics. She has been working in CTIFL for 22 years. She has carried out various projects such as : Interreg NW Re-Greenhouse (2024–2027), 11 partners, aiming to develop a decision-support tool for selecting renewable energy sources for greenhouses. Monitoring of a pilot site in Brittany heated by waste heat. Horizon Europe (2022–2029) ClimateFarmDemo, 80 partners, Thematic Leader for vegetable production, organization of webinars to reduce GHG emissions. Greengo PEREN (2021–2023), 8 partners: improving the environmental performance of apples. Greengo PERTOMCO (2022–2024), 9 partners: improving the environmental performance of tomatoes and cucumbers grown under cover. Contribution to the creation of the carbon tool CarboneF&L (2021), low-carbon diagnostic plan (ADEME, MASA), online deployment of the tool (2024–2026). Project manager for the multi-partner program “Energy-Producing Greenhouse” (2008–2012), aimed at building three 1,000 m² greenhouse units dedicated to energy experimentation (insulation materials and double screens, double heating pipes, thermodynamic dehumidifiers, semi-closed greenhouse, air/water heat exchangers, water/water heat pumps with aquifer storage, 100% electric greenhouse).
Her areas of technical expertise and completed studies include: Since 2006, participation in the ATEE/Agriculture working group on energy savings certificates, preparation or co-preparation of technical sheets each year. Chair of the Agriculture group since 2023 Conducting studies and surveys (update of the heated greenhouse inventory in 2021) on energy topics in greenhouses: biomass, heat pumps, solar thermal (ADEME Solarsorp study, 2022). Private consulting studies for AgriPV project development.Private studies on greenhouse energy consumption calculations Technical assessment of greenhouse investment projects Contribution to the note and calculation tool for greenhouse thermal coefficient (U-value) Agrithermic for ADEME Expert reviewer for project proposals and innovation competitions Numerous articles and presentations in France and abroad Training sessions for professionals and advisory technicians, conducted annually on greenhouse climate management and environmental impacts of the fruit and vegetable sector.

Manager of the Environment and Energy Unit

Director Construction

Founder

R&D manager

Arnoud Witteveen is CTO of Saturn Bioponics.
At Saturn Bioponics, Arnoud leads the science and technology development behind an integrated cultivation platform that combines precision irrigation, advanced fertigation, environmental control, automation and commercial analytics into a single managed system. Saturn's proposition is integration leadership — taking responsibility for complete cultivation outcomes rather than supplying individual components. The platform's intelligence layer, FarmIntel Analytics Hub, translates every cultivation variable into operational and financial insight in real time. That platform is now operational across the UK, Europe, Japan and Brazil.
Arnoud's scientific foundation is plant physiology and root-zone science, with a particular focus on how the early phase of crop development shapes everything that follows. Strong propagation, precise root-zone steering and faster post-transplant establishment reduce variability, compress crop timelines and make production systems more manageable at scale. That thinking underpins both Saturn's system design approach and the development of CultivaTECH, Saturn's precision control platform, which manages irrigation, nutrient dosing and climate as a single responsive matrix calibrated to individual genetic profiles. Arnoud also leads dedicated work at the specialist end of plant performance through Hydronomy, focusing on phytochemical content and advanced enhancement of crop quality characteristics that standard production protocols don't address.
His work spans commercial horticulture, research environments and specialist crop programmes across vegetables, fruit, herbs, forestry species and cannabis. He studied Plant Science and Plant Biotechnology at Wageningen University.

Researcher at Root Zone Dynamics Business Unit

Corporate Communication Manager

Shravya Chinnappa, Wageningen-trained plant geneticist and KUBO Blueprint® specialist, designed and led the strawberry research programme at KUBO's BlueLab® testcentre. A GLOBALG.A.P. trainer, she turns greenhouse climate data into proven cultivation strategies — and shares the science behind controlled strawberry cultivation in Ultra-Clima®.

Cultivation Specialist

co-founder Bionomic

Within Delphy I am responsible fot the managment of th soft fruit research location in: Delphy ISFC. This includes setting up trials, spreading and transferring knowledge at meetings, events, etc. Working at Delphy and the Delphy ISFC offers me the opportunities to contribute to innovating and improving strawberry and soft fruit cultivation. By doing this, we not only contribute knowledge for growers, but also to the entire food chain. With the Delphy ISFC team we contribute to sustainable cultivation of strawberries and soft fruit for the future, with regard to people, planet & profit.

Manager ISFC

Paolo de Heer is working as data science consultant at the Digital Built Environment department of TNO. His research interests are artificial intelligence and optimisation, and he is currently the lead of the ‘computational models & tooling’ technology line of the department. In the High-Tech Greenhouses team of TNO, he advises on algorithms and modelling. Further more, he is also leading the AI team of the unit Mobility & Built Environment. He has a strong operational & long-term view, connecting people and knowledge through his extensive network and knack for effective and inspiring communication.

Data Science Consultant

Ben Nikaj is a highly accomplished Senior Crop Advisor at Grodan, leading provider of root zone management solutions for professional horticulture. With an impressive career spanning over 22 years, Ben supports vegetable and medicinal crop growers worldwide in optimizing their irrigation strategies and cultivation methods. Ben’s focus is on sustainable and efficient solutions to enhance plant performance and product quality. Ben’s unparalleled expertise plays a pivotal role in advancing innovative substrates and cultivation techniques.

Senior Crop Advisor Medicinal Plants

Christopher Leavitt is a cannabis breeder and tissue culture scientist who founded Voyager Genetics, a clone-only B2B genetics business specializing in servicing commercial medical cultivations. He is based out of Portugal, but works internationally with clients in Thailand, Portugal, South Africa, and the UK. He is the former CSO/COO of Compound Genetics and co-founder at Node Labs in San Francisco, California. His approach to cannabis clone development is unique- combining the use of plant tissue culture techniques and traditional clone selection techniques within the compliant medical framework, while balancing the art and science of breeding exceptional flavors into plants that perform agronomically.

Managing Partner

Country Director Morocco

Hassan Halawy is the Group Chief Executive Officer of Elite Agro Holding, a leading integrated agrifood platform headquartered in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates with a growing footprint across the GCC, Africa, and Europe. With over two decades of experience spanning agriculture, infrastructure, and digital systems, Hassan has built a career at the intersection of large-scale farming, engineering, and food systems development. He began his career in Africa, gaining hands-on experience in complex agricultural operations, before bringing this expertise to the UAE, where he has played a pivotal role in advancing modern, climate-resilient agriculture and contributing to national food security objectives. Prior to his current role, Hassan led and delivered large-scale agricultural projects across multiple geographies, combining open-field and controlled-environment agriculture to optimize productivity, resource efficiency, and year-round production. His work integrates engineering discipline, agronomic expertise, and digital innovation to address the structural challenges of farming in arid and water-stressed environments. At Elite Agro, Hassan leads the company’s strategic transformation into a fully integrated, technology-enabled food production platform. Under his leadership, the group operates across the full agricultural value chain, from engineering, procurement, and construction of farming assets to farm management, production, and distribution; delivering resilient and commercially viable food systems. In addition, Hassan has been actively involved in government-to-government (G2G) initiatives, leading and supporting strategic agricultural projects in collaboration with governments, international organizations, and development partners. These engagements focus on advancing food security, enabling knowledge transfer, and developing sustainable agricultural ecosystems in emerging markets. Beyond operations, Hassan contributes to global dialogue on food security and climate-smart agriculture. He has participated in high-level forums including COP16 Riyadh, Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, and other international platforms, where he engages on topics such as supply chain resilience, Agri-tech innovation, and sustainable food production. Hassan is recognized for his execution-driven leadership style and his ability to bridge public and private sector collaboration, positioning agriculture as a scalable and investment-ready sector. He holds a degree in Agricultural Engineering from the American University of Beirut.

Chief Executive Officer

Peter van Hooft, Head of Project Development EMEA at Skytree, leads the development of direct air capture (DAC) projects across Europe, the Middle East, Africa. He focuses on advancing local CO₂ generation solutions for industries including indoor farming, CDR and Power-to-X projects, greenhouses, and mineralization, supporting the transition away from fossil fuel-based CO₂ supply. Drawing on his experience in innovation strategy and public-private collaborations, Peter helps create scalable pathways for cleaner industrial processes.

VP of Project Development

Since 2000, Anja Dieleman works as a (senior) scientist at the business unit Greenhouse Horticulture of Wageningen University &amp; Research. With greenhouse crop physiology as her main application field, her research interests are the effects of greenhouse climate factors (light, CO2, temperature) and cropping systems on crop growth and development, including underlying processes like photosynthesis and transpiration. Recently, she has been working on the design of energy efficient LED based production systems, plant monitoring systems and effects of spectral composition of the light on plant growth, development and morphology. Since 2020, she is also working on the development of autonomous greenhouse cultivation systems. This research is done in close collaboration with greenhouse growers, (international) horticultural supply companies and national government.

Researcher plant physiology

Laura van de Kreeke is a founding farmer at Growy, a vertical farming company based in Amsterdam. Driven by a strong belief that food systems must change, she is committed to making tasty, healthy, and affordable food accessible to everyone.
With over seven years of experience in controlled environment agriculture, Laura combines hands-on farming knowledge with a focus on the commercial side of the business. Her work spans sales, marketing, and communications, translating complex growing technology into clear value for chefs, retailers, and consumers.
At Growy, she is involved in connecting plant science, technology, and market demand, contributing to scalable, data-driven farming systems that improve consistency and efficiency. Alongside her work, she regularly gives talks and guest lectures on the future of food production and the role of vertical farming in building more resilient, local food systems.

Farmer

I am a senior lecturer and researcher at the HAS green academy University of Applied Sciences ('s Hertogenbosch, NL), department of Agri and Business, Team Horticulture and Arable Farming. Within the research I do, I am associated with the Professorships "Green Health (Groene Gezondheid)" and "Horticulture Technologies". This entails doing research, using modern and innovative technological advances within horticulture, to ensure quality (internal, phytonutrients, product health) of produce, allowing consumers to have an informed choice about the quality of their produce and the health benefits this may provide them upon prolonged consumption. Within the UAS system, the main focus of our research is to closely together with companies, Universities and governement to ensure the research we do is relevant and applicable in the sector. 
My previous experiences include:
PhD (University of East Anglia; John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK) 2002 (cereal starch metabolism);
PostDoc on Pollen-pistil interactions (Radboud University Nijmegen, NL)
Agricultural consultancy ( Sustainable Crop Management; ADAS, Cambridge, UK)
Seed Production Researcher (Nunhems / BASF Vegetable Seeds, NL)
Cereal breeding (Sorghum; DSV, NL)

Senior Lecturer and Researcher

Tom Coen is a Belgian entrepreneur specializing in agricultural robotics. He holds a PhD in engineering sciences from KU Leuven. Coen co-founded Octinion in 2009, where he led R&D projects in mechatronics for the agriculture and food sector. In 2021, he became CEO of Octiva, a merger of Octinion’s agricultural robotics division and Priva’s robotic solutions. With his innovative, solution-driven approach, he can bridge technical expertise with practical applications in the agri-tech industry.

Ronald Hoek is CEO and co-founder of Blue Radix, a pioneering company revolutionizing horticulture through AI-driven solutions. With a profound commitment to sustainable greenhouse production, Ronald spearheads innovations that optimize crop yields while minimizing resource usage. With the Blue Radix team he unlocks the value of Autonomous Growing for greenhouse companies worldwide.

Founder & Director

Friso Klok is Chain Manager South & East Asia at Rijk Zwaan, where he focuses on strengthening strategic partnerships and value chain development across the rapidly evolving horticultural markets of South and East Asia. In his role, he works closely with growers, retailers, processors and supply chain partners to align market demand with innovative vegetable concepts and genetics.
With a strong focus on collaboration throughout the fresh produce chain, Friso supports the introduction and expansion of high-value vegetable categories, helping connect consumer trends, retail strategies and production opportunities across diverse international markets. His work contributes to the development of sustainable, market-driven horticultural solutions that create long-term value for both growers and commercial partners.

Global Chain Manager South & East Asia

Roel Janssen is Chief Business Development Manager at Eternal.ag. Before joining Eternal.ag, Roel served as Chief Business Officer at Planet Farms, a technology company that builds and operates fully autonomous vertical farms at scale. Prior to that, he spent 13 years at Signify (previously known as Philips Lighting), where in his latest role he was the Global Director for City Farming. Through his years at Signify and Planet Farms, Roel established himself as an industry expert in high tech horticulture and vertical farming and has been invited to speak and share his views around the globe. He has also served as a guest lecturer at the HAS University of Applied Science in the Netherlands. Roel holds a degree in Business Administration from Eindhoven, where he still lives with his wife and two children. Alongside his passion for sustainable agriculture, Roel is an avid wine enthusiast and holds a WSET Level 3 certification.

Chief Business Development Officer

Prof Harrison is the Managing Director of the Plant Sciences Group, which comprises approximately 1400 staff across 20 chair groups in Wageningen University and the insitute Wageningen Plant Research. In the Netherlands he is a member of the Top Team “Tuinbouw en Uitgangsmaterialen/ Horticulture and Starting Materials”, representing all Dutch Knowledge Insitutes . He provides strategic oversight of several programme boards for large regional and national initiatives on behalf of Wageningen U&R.  He is an honorary  professor at the University of Birmingham,UK. 
Previously he was an executive Director at NIAB (UK) with overall responsibility for NIAB’s portfolio of arable genetics, pathology, biotechnology, data science and crop characterisation. Alongside that he led NIAB’s contribution to the Crop Science Centre, the alliance between the University of Cambridge and NIAB, designed to bridge the gap between discovery science and societal impact. This alliance has received significant philanthropic support and rapidly established its position in the national innovation landscape. Prior to his role in Cambridge, he worked at East Malling as head of genetics, where he specialised in horticultural genetics and genomics of fruit crops.  
Prof Harrison has a PhD in evolutionary systems biology. His research group has worked to understand the evolution and genetic basis of complex traits, such as interactions between plants and microbes, particularly in horticultural crops. Outputs have included scientific knowledge, tools, techniques and products to underpin the sustainable development of the agricultural, horticultural and food industries, using both breeding and biotechnology solutions. His group was among the first to implement gene editing techniques in key horticultural crops and in fungi used for alternative protein production. Through collaborative work with industrial partners, he and his team have delivered disease resistance traits into multiple commercial breeding programmes, as well as having initiated new public-private breeding programmes funded by global partners.

Managing Director Plant Science Group

Jouke Campen became an engineer in Applied Physics at the Technical University of Delft, specialized in heat and mass transfer. He started working at Wageningen UR in 1997. His main field of research is energy and climate control in protected horticulture. He finished his PhD on dehumidification of greenhouses October 2009. Currently he is the coordinator of the energy program of the ministry of Agriculture in The Netherlands involving annually 7 million EURO of projects on reducing energy use in the Dutch protected horticultural sector. Aside of this task he is international project manager for the last 20 years working on numerous projects all around the world.

International Project Manager

Erik Pekkeriet (1970) is Program Manager Vision + Robotics. He studied Mechanical Engineering at the NHL-Stenden University of Applied Sciences in Emmen. He specialized himself in Maintenance Technology and Management. After he finished his BSc he started his career at Philips as a project employee in maintenance management. In 1996 he started a new position within innovation management in a Greenhouse Horticulture Association. He started as a single consultant, but built and led a department with 5 innovation consultants. After 7 years he made a change to Wageningen University & Research, building great robots, vision sorting systems and new greenhouse production systems for, and together with farmers and machine manufacturers. Main projects he developed and worked on were: vision sorting systems for pot plants, cut flowers and vegetables in X-ray-, NIR-, Fluorescence- and RGB-technology in 2D and 3D; robot harvesting systems for cutting roses, gerberas, cucumbers, sweet peppers and tomatoes and new moving greenhouse production systems for chrysanthemum, pot plants and vertical farms. Erik coordinated the EU-project PicknPack (flexible robotic packaging systems) and NXTGEN Hightech Agrifood. Erik is also the founding father and network coordinator of the European Digital Innovation Hub network on Robotics named: agROBOfood
The last decade Erik broadened the robotic scope from greenhouse horticulture to open field, livestock, marine, food and other Wageningen agri-food domains. Erik is now leading the agilie team of the Agro Food Robotics Program which consist of 60 experts from Wageningen Reserarch. Erik is also an IPMA-C certified project manager. Other positions are:
<ul>
<li>Boardmember of the topicgroup on Agricultural Robotics at EU Robotics</li>
<li>Chair of topicgroup Greenhouse Horticultuire at the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Techniek in de Landbouw (Dutch Society of Technology in Agriculture)</li>
<li>Network coordinator at the European agROBOfood network</li>
<li>Advisory board member of the European Machine Vision Forum</li>
</ul>

Programme Manager Vision + Robotics

Project Manager, Business Development

Business Lead

Founder of Learning Academy Worldwide, Theophilus van Rensburg Lindzter's blend of practical agricultural education experience, focus on relevant technology solutions, enlarging expertise in modern agricultural practices like CEA, strong project management and communication skills, and his ability to facilitate engaging dialogue will serve as moderator.

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