Global Food Security Symposium 2018

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Conference

The 2018 Global Food Security Symposium examines how surging youth populations can fuel tremendous agricultural growth that will impact the global economy, but, if underemployed, they present a risk.

Five people on stage during the 2018 Global Food Security Symposium

Event Date

March 21, 2018

About This Event

By 2050, Africa’s population will double, with 1 billion projected to be under 18 years old, and many others regions are experiencing similar trends. How can we harness the potential of this promising demographic to secure economic growth and stability? Global leaders, innovators, disruptors, and trailblazers are shaping the future of food and agriculture. Attend this year’s symposium to learn why this transformative moment is crucial to global food security and stability.

About the Speakers

Kunlé Adeyemi

Founder/Principal, NLÉ

Kunlé Adeyemi is an architect, designer, and urban researcher. He is the founder/principal of NLÉ, an architecture, design, and urbanism practice he founded in 2010 which focuses on developing cities and communities. Adeyemi’s notable works include Makoko Floating School, an innovative prototype floating structure located on the lagoon heart of Lagos.

Joy Basu

Senior Advisor, Food Systems for the Future, Stanford University

Doug Bereuter

Distinguished Fellow, Global Food and Agriculture

Doug Bereuter is a distinguished fellow of global food and agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. For four years, he co-chaired the Council's Center on Global Food and Agriculture. He is the president emeritus of the Asia Foundation, a non-governmental development organization, which he led for more than six years following his service as a member of the US House of Representatives.

Catherine Bertini

Distinguished Fellow, Global Food and Agriculture

Catherine Bertini served as executive director of the UN World Food Program, the world’s largest international humanitarian agency, from 1992 to 2002 prior to joining the Council. She was named the World Food Prize laureate in 2003 for her groundbreaking leadership there.

Alesha Miller

Nonresident Fellow, Global Food and Agriculture

Alesha Miller is a nonresident fellow of the Center on Global Food and Agriculture at the Council. She currently advises a social impact technology startup and is an independent consultant and public speaker on food and agriculture. Most recently she was managing director of the Council’s Center on Global Food and Agriculture, overseeing strategy, research, policy development, and team management.

Helena Bottemiller Evich

Reporter, Food and Agriculture POLITICO

Helena Bottemiller Evich is a senior food and agriculture reporter for POLITICO Pro. Before joining POLITICO, she spent four years reporting on food politics and policy at Food Safety News, where she covered Congress, the Food and Drug Administration, and the US Department of Agriculture. Bottemiller Evich’s work has also appeared in the Columbia Journalism Review and on NBC News.

Howdy Bouis

Interim CEO, HarvestPlus

Howarth “Howdy” Bouis is the founder and interim CEO of HarvestPlus. He was awarded the 2016 World Food Prize for his pioneering work that helped take biofortification from an idea in the 1990s to today when over 26 million households benefit from biofortified crops globally.

Reuben Brigety

Vice Chancellor and President, Sewanee: The University of the South

Reuben E. Brigety II is the 17th vice chancellor and president at the University of the South.

Robert Burnet

CEO, Well Told Story

Rob Burnet is CEO of Well Told Story, a two-time Emmy Award-winning media research and production company based in Kenya and Tanzania that uses insight, data, and multi-platform media to create social and economic value. Well Told Story’s flagship youth media brand Shujaaz reaches over six million young people across Kenya and Tanzania.

Ariane Campbell

Associate Program Manager, Youth Livelihoods, Mastercard Foundation

Ariane Campbell is an associate program manager with the Youth Livelihoods team at the Mastercard Foundation. Since joining in 2014, she has supported several projects focused on youth employment and entrepreneurship in agriculture. Campbell was also a co-organizer of the Foundation’s 2017 Young Africa Works Summit which focused on youth driving agricultural transformation in Africa.

Margaret Catley-Carlson

Board of Directors, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture

Margaret Catley-Carlson has served for over 20+ years on multiple boards of organizations with a focus on improved water resource management, agricultural productivity, and rural development. She currently serves as PAC chair of the International Commission on Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and vice-chair Canadian Water Network Board.

Jessica Francisca Colaço

Director of Growth, Brave Venture Labs

Jessica Francisca Colaço is a TED fellow and cofounder of Brave Venture Labs. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Brave is a talent sourcing company that focuses on building talent pipelines of people for full-time tech roles in emerging cities across Africa. Colaço cofounded iHub with Erik Hersman in 2010 and served in various leadership positions including director of partnerships and community and founding manager.

Bob Corker

United States Senator, Tennessee

Ertharin Cousin

Distinguished Fellow, Global Food and Agriculture

Prior to joining the Council, Ertharin Cousin served as executive director of the UN World Food Programme where she led the world’s largest humanitarian organization from 2012 to 2017. She also previously served as US ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome. Cousin is founder and CEO of Food Systems for the Future.

Ivo H. Daalder

CEO, Chicago Council on Global Affairs

Ivo H. Daalder served as the US ambassador to NATO from 2009 to 2013. He joined the Council as president in 2013 and took on the new role of CEO in 2023. Previously, he was a senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution and served as director for European affairs on President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council. He is the author or editor of 10 books.

Mitchell Davis

Founder and Principal, Kitchen Sense, LLC

For almost 30 years, Mitchell Davis helped steer the James Beard Foundation to the forefront of food in America. At Kitchen Sense, LLC, a multi-faceted consultancy for food, Davis draws on vast experience and a global network of world-class professionals to evaluate, analyze, research, conceive, create, and solve food-world needs.

Fabrice De Clerck

Science Director, EAT

Caitlin Dewey

Food Policy Writer, Wonkblog

Caitlin Dewey is the food policy writer for Wonkblog. She previously covered digital culture and technology at the Post.

Kelsey Ducheneaux

Youth Programs Coordinator, Intertribal Agriculture Council

Beth Dunford

Assistant to the Administrator, Bureau for Food Security, USAID; Deputy Coordinator for Development, Feed the Future

Zippy Duvall

President, American Farm Bureau Federation

Donna Etiebet

Head of Corporate Finance, Babban Gona

Donna Etiebet is a dedicated finance professional with over a decade of experience in both the investment banking and asset management industries. She is well versed in generating successful investment ideas supported with qualitative analysis and quantitative databases, and dealing on complex transactions with no margin for error.

Rikin Gandhi

CEO, Digital Green

Rikin Gandhi is the CEO of Digital Green, a global development organization that empowers smallholder farmers to lift themselves out of poverty by harnessing the collective power of technology and grassroots-level partnerships.

Dan Glickman

Distinguished Fellow, Global Food and Agriculture

Dan Glickman is a distinguished fellow in the Center on Global Food and Agriculture, having co-chaired the Center for nearly a decade. Currently, he's a senior counselor and chair of the International Advisory Board at APCO Worldwide; senior advisor to the US Global Leadership Coalition; and lead director of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group).

Asha Gomez

Chef and Cookbook Author

Asha Gomez is an award-winning chef and a published author. She's been showcased in feature stories in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Conde-Nast Traveler, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Her recipes have appeared in Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Country Living, and Garden & Gun. In January 2012, Gomez launched Cardamom Hill Restaurant in Atlanta which became an instant success.

Christine Gould

Founder & CEO, Thought For Food

Caleb Harper

Director and Principal Investigator, OpenAg Initiative, MIT Media Lab

Caleb Harper is the principal investigator and director of the Open Agriculture (OpenAg) Initiative at the MIT Media Lab. He leads a diverse group of engineers, architects, and scientists in the exploration and development of future food systems. His research focuses on control environment design, actuated sensing, control automation, and data-driven resource, energy, and biologic optimization.

Tanja Havemann

Director and Founder, Clarmondial

David Hong

Global Policy Manager, One Acre Fund

Sarah Hunter

Directory of Public Policy at X, The Moonshot Factory

Niamh King

Nonresident Fellow, Global Cities and Women and Global Development

Niamh King is a nonresident fellow on global cities and women and global development at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. King previously served as the Council's Vice President for Programs and Strategic Content. Prior to joining the Council, she held positions with Intel, the European Commission, FÁS, and the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Katharine Kreis

Director of Strategic Initiatives and International Development, PATH

Gawain Kripke

Policy Director, Oxfam America

Linda Kwamboka

Cofounder and Director, M-Farm

David Lane

President, The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands

Over the course of his career, David Lane has been a leader in both nonprofit and governmental sectors, including serving as US representative to the United Nations Agencies in Rome. Previously, Ambassador Lane served as president and CEO of the ONE Campaign, a global advocacy organization focused on extreme poverty, especially issues of global health, economic development, and effective governance.

Ben Lovett

Founding Member, Mumford & Sons; Cofounder, Communion Music

Ben Lovett is a founding member of Mumford & Sons, and has enjoyed nearly a decade in one of the globe’s most successful bands. He has shared most of that time by forming, nurturing, and developing a renowned independent record label and live music promotions company, Communion Music. Lovett is both an entrepreneur and a musician, working as much in the background as he does from the stage.

Mercy Lung’aho

Head of Nutrition in Africa, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)

Mercy Lung'aho is a research scientist for the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) with expertise in nutrition-sensitive agricultural programming. Her research includes a landmark study documenting evidence that eating beans biofortified with iron can reduce iron deficiency in women of reproductive age.

Ted McKinney

Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, US Department of Agriculture

Ted McKinney leads the development and implementation of the USDA’s trade policy, facilitates foreign market access, and promotes opportunities for US agriculture through trade programs and high-level government negotiations. In 2014, he was appointed by then-Governor Mike Pence to serve as director of the Indiana state department of agriculture, a position he held until joining USDA in 2017.

Trent McKnight

Founder, AgriCorps

Gouri Mirpuri

Cofounder, The Learning Farm

Paul Newnham

Director, SDG2 Advocacy Hub Secretariat

Paul heads up the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 Advocacy Hub, an initiative bringing together NGOs, advocacy groups, civil society, the private sector, and UN agencies to coordinate global campaigning and advocacy to achieve SDG2. Paul seeks to generate change that will impact food systems, people, and the planet.

Elizabeth Nsimadala

Regional President, Eastern Africa Farmers Federation

Elizabeth Nsimadala is the regional president of Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF) and board member of Pan Africa Farmers Organisation (PAFO). She's received specialized training in agricultural marketing and logistics management for cooperatives, public administration and management, and fruit winemaking.

Joseph Ogutu

Director, Strategy and Innovation, Safaricom

Joseph Ogutu joined Safaricom as chief corporate affairs officer in May 2005 and was appointed director, strategy and innovation division in October 2012. In this role, he works closely with the CEO in formulating strategic direction for the business focusing on developing Safaricom’s position as an industry leader in driving innovation in products and services.

Femi Oke

International Journalist and Moderator, NABJ

Femi Oke is an international journalist, broadcaster, and moderator. Since the 1980s, she has worked for BBC television and radio, Sky TV, all UK terrestrial television networks, CNN, and US public radio. Oke’s reporting has been recognized by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Communications Agency, and InterAction.

Marc Oshima

Cofounder and Chief Marketing Officer, Aerofarms

Bobby J. Pittman

Managing Partner, Kupanda Capital

Elizabeth Riordan

Divisional Vice President, Global Supply and Dairy Operations, Abbott Nutrition

In her role at Abbott, Elizabeth Riordan is responsible for defining, developing, and executing a robust global dairy supply network for Abbott Nutrition (AN) for all brands and plants inclusive of China and India. Additionally, Riordan is responsible for global supply planning and developing long range supply chain capacity and capability strategies.

Marie Rumsby

Senior Manager, Food Security, Hunger, and Nutrition, Global Citizen

Papa Amadou Sarr

Delegate General for Entrepreneurship, Office of the President Republic of Senegal

Papa Amadou Sarr serves as delegate general for entrepreneurship for youth and women in the office of the President of the Republic of Senegal. In that capacity, he is in charge of a newly established fund of $50M/year entirely dedicated to promote entrepreneurship and job creation with a particular focus on youth and women.

Parmesh Shah

Global Lead, Rural Livelihoods and Agricultural Jobs The World Bank

In addition to his global lead role, Parmesh Shah also leads the rural livelihood and development cluster in South Asia region of the World Bank and is involved in designing and supporting rural poverty reduction and inclusive growth programs in the region. Prior to this position, Shah worked as coordinator of the Bank wide Community of Practice on "Participation."

Jazzmin Sharp

Student, Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences

Jazzmin Sharp is a junior at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences and is part of the Food Science pathway. During her high school career, Sharp has demonstrated leadership in activities such as FFA, debate, academic decathlon, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences, and the Louder Than a Bomb poetry team.

Chetna Sinha

Founder and Chairperson, Mann Deshi Foundation

Chetna Sinha is an activist, farmer, and banker. In 1996, she founded the Mann Deshi Foundation in Mhaswad with the aim of empowering rural women. In 1997, she set up the Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank, India’s first bank for rural women. Since its founding, the Bank has acquired 90,000 account holders and creates new financial products to support the needs of female micro-entrepreneurs.

Gayle Smith

President and CEO, ONE Campaign

Gayle E. Smith is one of the world’s leading experts on global development. Previously, she served as special assistant to President Obama and senior director for development and democracy at the National Security Council. She also served as special assistant to President Clinton and senior director for African affairs at the National Security Council.

Jocelyn A. Songco

Principal, Soros Economic Development Fund, Open Society Foundations

Jocelyn A. Songco joined the Soros Economic Development Fund with the Open Society Economic Advancement Program in 2008. Prior to joining Open Society, Songco worked in reorganization services with Deloitte Financial Advisory Services and as a credit analyst for MBIA Insurance Corp in structured and public finance portfolio management and restructuring roles.

Roger Thurow

Former Senior Fellow, Global Food and Agriculture

Roger Thurow spent three decades at The Wall Street Journal as a foreign correspondent based in Europe and Africa prior to joining the Council in 2010. His coverage spanned the fall of the Berlin Wall, the release of Nelson Mandela, the end of apartheid, and humanitarian crises. He is the author of three books.

Ginya Truitt Nakata

Director, Lands, Latin America, The Nature Conservancy

Ginya Truitt Nakata is the Latin America region director of lands for The Nature Conservancy. She leads the development and implementation of regional strategies that address systemic barriers to sustainable agricultural production and their impact on habitats critical to long-term growth and the planet's health.

Paul Weisenfeld

Executive Vice President, International Development, RTI International

Paul Weisenfeld is the executive vice president for international development at RTI International, an independent nonprofit research institute dedicated to improving the human condition. He leads RTI’s international development practice which designs and implements programs to help lower- and middle-income countries and communities address complex problems

Tunde Wey

Cook and Writer

Tunde Wey is a Nigerian immigrant chef/writer working at the intersection of food and social politics. His work engages systems of exploitative power, particularly race, globalism, and imperialism, from the vantage point of the marginalized other. Wey’s food work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR.

Felix Kwame Yeboah

Nonresident Fellow, Global Food and Agriculture

Felix Kwame Yeboah is a nonresident fellow of global food & agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Currently he's an assistant professor of international development and a member of the Food Security Group at Michigan State University. In this role, he conducts agricultural and food policy research and advises various development-related initiatives in Africa.