Speakers

Abdullah Bagersh

Panel: The Business Case for Sustainable Coffee Production












Linda Butler

Panel: Coffee, Climate Change and Gender

Linda Butler is the Coffee Sustainability Manager at Nestlé S.A. She has over 30 years of working experience in the coffee sector and has been involved in the 4C Association since its inception in 2003.

 

 

   

 

Bridget Carrington

Panel: Coffee, Climate Change and Gender

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Francis Chesang
Panel: The Business Case for Sustainable Coffee Production

Francis Chesang is a Production Manageer at the Uganda Coffee Development Authority in Kampala. As an agricultural economist, Francis focuses on the training of farmers in coffee production, value chain development and research and development.

 

Anneke Fermont 
Panel: Coffee, Climate Change and Gender

As the Sustainability Manager of Kyagalanyi Coffee Ltd., Anneke is responsible for the sustainable coffee schemes that Kyagalanyi operates in Uganda. She leads the development of service provision to farmers, among which an intensive agronomy training programme. Anneke is a member of the UTZ Standards Committee. She holds an MSc in Soil Science and a PhD in Agronomy from Wageningen University (the Netherlands) and has 17 years of working experience in the agricultural sector of various African countries.

Mr. Harrison Kalua
Welcome and Opening 

Mr. Harrison Kalua has over 22 years experience in the coffee industry, specializing in coffee production, processing and marketing. He has successfully managed the smallholder coffee industry in Malawi where he works as a CEO of Mzuzu Coffee Planters Cooperative Union. Nominated Best Business Man in Malawi for 2005, he is the president of MCCCI, SADC Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Vice President of COMESA Business Council and Chairman of AFCA.

Dr. Joseph K. Kimemia 
Panel: Coffee, Climate Change and Gender

Dr Kimemia has worked at the Coffee Research Foundation for the last 26 years, 10 of which he was the CEO/Director of Research. Previously, he has worked as a farming Systems Agronomist with ASAL and an Agronomist for the High Altitude maize program in Kenya. Dr. Kimemia is a member of the Core Team of the Technical Committee of 4C and currently the Chairman African Fine Coffee Association (AFCA) Kenya Chapter.






Neil la Croix 
Panel: The Business Case for Sustainable Coffee Production
 
As Director of Sustainable Supply Chains for Mondelēz International. Neil is responsible for the development of sustainable agriculture across Mondelēz International’s global supply base with a particular focus on coffee.Neil has been with Mondelēz International for 12 years and has extensive experience of agriculture in the developing world, including management of large agricultural estates in Africa and agricultural consultancy in Southern Africa.



 

David Muwonge

Panel: The Business Case for Sustainable Coffee Production

David Muwonge has over 10 years experience in the coffee sector. He is a star Cupper, a 4C verified coffee farmer, a 4C trainer and has a strong passion for coffee and enthusiasm for empowering fellow farmers.

David is a distinguished coffee expert and a farmer with a BSc Agriculture (Economics option), an International Coffee Diploma, a DANIDA fellowship for agricultural Innovation and Entrepreneurship, an IT certified Export Management Development expert and Financial counsellor. 

Winnie Mwaniki
Panel: Coffee, Climate Change and Gender

Winnie has BSc in Agriculture and an MBA in Strategic Management with more than 14 years of experience in Agribusiness in the East and Southern Africa Region. She has been involved in farm management and training on sustainable agriculture and the farmer field school extension approach in various crops including the tea, coffee and flowers. Between 2006 and 2008, she worked with smallholders in implementing sustainable agriculture programs through a DFID/Unilever/KTDA sponsored project.

She has worked as a consultant for the Rainforest Alliance for the last five years. She has recently taken up a full time position as the Rainforest Alliance Manager for the East and Southern Africa region.

Julius Ng’angá 

Panel: The Business Case for Sustainable Coffee Production

Julius is the Regional Representative for East Africa at UTZ Certified.

Before Joining UTZ, Julius worked as the General Manager at ECOM’s group companies Sustainable Management Services Limited (SMS LTD) and Highlands Coffee Company (HCC) which are coffee management and marketing, and coffee milling companies in Kenya. For over 8 years, Julius was charged with pioneering and developing sustainable projects with the Smallholder sector in Kenya.

Julius holds a Master’s degree in Agricultural Engineering from University of Nairobi and Bsc in the same field from Egerton University.

Francois Nkurunziza
Welcome and Opening  

Francois Nkurunzuza is Chairman of INTERCAFE Burundi and Country Manager of ARMAJARO Burundi S.U.R.L.  For 13 years, he has been the General Manager of Sogestal Kirundo-Muyinga which was wet miller company managing 28 washing stations with capacity of 250 tons of green coffee each. In this period, he worked closely with farmers associations and Federation in organizing the extension services and coffee inputs supply chain management, promoting the Burundi specialty coffee and coffee certification movement.Before Joining ARMAJARO, he has been the country Manager of Louis Dreyfus Commodities Burundi for 4 years.

 

 

Robert W. Nsibirwa 
Keynote 

Robert W. Nsibirwa is the Founder and CEO of the Africa Coffee Academy; Chairman of the 4C Association, Director of African Fine Coffees Association [AFCA]; Director of Uganda Coffee Development Authority; Vice President Uganda Coffee Federation and A Master Trainer in Coffee Sustainability Standards and Coffee Price Risk Management. 

  

Michael Opitz
Panel: Coffee, Climate Change and Gender

Michael Opitz is Chairman of the Board of Management in the Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung, a foundation promoting as an implementer sustainable development in the coffee sector.

Michael holds an MSc in agricultural economics from Wye College of London University. Before joining the Neumann Kaffee Gruppe in 1992, he has worked for the German Development Organisation GIZ. Now based in Hamburg, he steers the activities of the Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung.

Melanie Rutten-Suelz
Welcome and Opening 

Melanie is responsible for day-to-day management and strategic direction of the 4C Association, monitoring performance, assuring accountability and building relationships with stakeholders. She has more than 10 years experience in international cooperation, standards and corporate social responsibility. She worked in community development and trade aid projects in Latin America and at Fairtrade Germany before joining the 4C project in 2003. During the development phase of the 4C Association, Melanie was responsible for project management on behalf of the European Coffee Federation in Amsterdam.

 


Sarah Schach
Workshop Report: Sustainable Coffee Farming as a Family Business

Sarah has been involved in coffee for more than twenty years and is currently the Coffee Manager at W M Cahn (Pty) Limited. Sarah runs the coffee division of the business and has done so for a number of years. My experience is in green coffee; from the agricultural aspects, learned from visiting coffee. Sarah has also been on the Board of AFCA since 2011 and is currently working on the Women In Coffee project.

John Schluter
Panel: The Business Case for Sustainable Coffee Production

John Schluter worked in Eastern Africa in coffee purchase, processing and export marketing for nearly 15 years. In the early 1990s, he was responsible for the management of a family coffee trading company, and its associated companies in Africa. After handing the business on to the next generation in 2004, John started a small NGO, Café Africa, in 2006, which has the objective of supporting Africa’s coffee industry to recover both its vision and capacity to respond to growing global demand, and to improve the incomes of the many small-holder farmers involved in the sector. Café Africa was a founding member of the 4C Association. 

Rob Skidmore
Plenary: The Standards Map v. 2.0 with new modules

Rob Skidmore is Chief of the Sector Competitiveness section at ITC where he manages a team responsible for promoting sector-wide transformation in a range of goods and services sectors. The section specializes in agri-food, cotton to clothing and fibre, trade and environment and linking poor communities to global value chains and re-launched work in services exports with a focus on tourism and IT and IT enabled services.  Before joining ITC he worked at a number of US-based consulting firms including Price Waterhouse Coopers, Development Alternatives Incorporated and Abt Associates.

Paul Stewart

Panel: The Business Case for Sustainable Coffee Production

Paul Stewart has 15 years of agri-business development experience in East Africa of which the past 12 years have been with TechnoServe focused on smallholder coffee development. He currently leads TechnoServe’s Coffee Initiative in East Africa that over the past decade has supported 250,000 coffee farmers to boost coffee quality and productivity. Paul holds a Bachelor‘s degree in Agricultural Economics and Management from the Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Ted van der Put  
Panel: The Business Case for Sustainable Coffee Production

Ted van der Put is a Program Director and part of the Executive Board at the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), a Public Private Partnership agent for sustainable development that convenes front running businesses and civil society organizations in result oriented coalitions for change. Ted provides leadership to a wide variety of sector transformation initiatives for sustainable sourcing including tropical timber, electronics and aquaculture.

Catherine van der Wees

Panel: Coffee, Climate Change and Gender

Catherine van der Wees is the Programme Officer Green Entrepreneurship at Hivos. She has 30 years of experience in sustainable agricultural development. Since 2001 she works with Hivos in the field of coffee, working with producers, standards, private sector and NGOs to assist smallholder farmers improving their production and get access to quality markets. She has extensive expertise on developing sustainable coffee as a family business.