Agriculture and the Global Food Crisis Plenary
Hear from our inspirational delegate speakers
Speakers
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Diana VirgovicovaCEO & Co-founderDiana Virgovicova
CEO & Co-founder
Diana Virgovicova was born and raised in a small village in Slovakia, Eastern Europe. At fourteen she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, traced to agricultural activity and the pesticides that had ended up in her town's water. She survived it, and it set the direction of her life.
That summer she persuaded her mother to take her travelling. In the suburbs of Mumbai she saw black rivers and young women falling ill from the water they washed in. She came home, wrote to a professor at a local university, and spent three years teaching herself quantum chemistry software. By seventeen she had modelled a photocatalyst that destroys contaminants under ordinary visible light, with no UV reactor required. It earned her a Diploma of Excellence at the Stockholm Junior Water Prize, presented by Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden. She came to Canada on a Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship and founded Xatoms in 2023.
Xatoms uses AI and quantum chemistry to design photocatalysts, materials that destroy contaminants in water using nothing but light. The company has discovered 88 new photocatalysts, eight of them patent pending, and treated over 3 billion litres of river water. Its work spans four countries. In South Africa it is removing E. coli from a contaminated river with the University of Stellenbosch, in Kenya it supplies safe drinking water to a community without a reliable source, and in Canada it works with Indigenous farmers on pesticide removal.
Diana is the youngest advisor to the World Economic Forum's CEO Alliance for Nature, serving alongside chief executives of Fortune 500 companies. She is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree, a winner of the Forum's UpLink Water Resilience Challenge, and represented Canada at Davos in 2026. In May she received Global Citizen's Cisco Youth Leadership Award.
She has committed to reaching one million people with safe water by 2030.
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Faith Naome AwuorFounder & CEOFaith Naome Awuor
Founder & CEO
Faith Naome Awuor is a social entrepreneur and climate innovator from the Nyando Basin in Kenya, where she founded FloodGuard Bioballs to solve a problem she grew up living inside: a region that floods every year, then dries out, losing its rice harvest both times. FloodGuard combines early-warning river sensors, floodwater disinfection and storage, and precision irrigation to turn floodwater into a dry-season resource, with over 133,000 litres captured and reused so far.
Through Nyando Rice, the venture's fair-trade rice brand, Naome also buys directly from women farmers at above-broker market prices,mills, packages and provides online retail nearly tripling their dry-season income . Her work has been recognized by beVisioneers: The Mercedes-Benz Fellowship, the African Union through the Africa Climate Summit 2, FAO and PAFO's Empowering Youth in Africa programme among others. She is currently part of the NewNow Young Leaders cohort with One Young World and Virgin Unite. Her goal is a world where farmers in climate vulnerable regions are prepared for the climate, not afraid of it.
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Emmanuel TwesigyeCo-founder and CEOEmmanuel Twesigye
Co-founder and CEO
Emmanuel is a former administrator at an NGO, a former agricultural credit banker and now the Cofoundeer and CEO of Everlend AgriTech Ltd.
H equit his well paying job to pursue his dream of supporting smallholder farmer women and the Youth with unsecured credit disbursed as quality seeds and organic fertilizers to help bridge the financial inclusion gap while increasing farmer yields, improving soil health and creating more jobs in the Agricultural sector -
Daria BalatskyCofounder and CTODaria Balatsky
Cofounder and CTO
I am currently the CTO and a CoFounder of Alga Biosciences, a company established in 2021. Alga Biosciences makes products to reduce methane while making animals more efficient. Prior to Alga, I was a PhD Candidate at the University of California, Berkeley studying physical chemistry. My background includes working at OpenEye Scientific using computational chemistry, at Chinook Therapeutics for manufacturing drugs for rare kidney diseases, and at one of the Max Planck Institutes. I graduated with an Honors in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia. As a part of my studies I received the Chemical Industry Merit Prize, the Faculty of Science International Student Scholarship, the International Community Achievement Award and the Outstanding International Student Award. In 2026, I was awarded Forbes 30 Under 30 for Energy and Green Technology with my work at Alga Biosciences. My current aspirations are to continue building Alga Biosciences into a provider of enteric methane products globally.
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Jabra DukmakCo-founder and CEOJabra Dukmak
Co-founder and CEO
Jabra Dukmak is the CEO & Co-Founder of EarthWise for Green Technology Solutions, a startup based in Palestine working to fight food insecurity and reduce food waste through the mobile app Laheq Halak. The app connects local vendors with consumers to offer surplus and near-expiry food at affordable prices, supporting both families and the environment.
He also works with TEA Group in Florence, Italy, contributing to the development and deployment of AirQino, a smart air quality monitoring system used across Europe and the MENA region. With a background in civil and environmental engineering, Jabra is passionate about sustainability, innovation, and creating practical solutions for real-world challenges. He has received several international recognitions and awards for his work in green technology and social impact.
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Rosie Allen-HerringInterim President and CEO, United Way WorldwideRosie Allen-Herring
Interim President and CEO, United Way Worldwide
Rosie Allen-Herring is the Interim President and CEO of United Way Worldwide (UWW), leading a global network serving 48 million people in 1,100 communities in over 30 countries. Rosie brings more than 30 years of experience in corporate finance, strategic leadership, partnerships, philanthropy, and business strategy to the role. With deep institutional knowledge from her service on the United Way Worldwide Board of Trustees and in multiple national advisory positions, she has led transformative initiatives at UWW as well as at the United Way of the National Capital Area to reduce health, education, and economic disparities.
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Gary Shaughnessy CBEChairGary Shaughnessy CBE
Chair
Gary worked in the Insurance and Investment sectors throughout his professional career, most recently as a member of the Group Executive Committee at Zurich Insurance Group, as CEO for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region as well as having global responsibility for Bank partnerships. Having been a Trustee of the Zurich Community Trust in the U.K., Gary took on the role of Chair of the Z Zurich Foundation, a global corporate foundation funded by various members of the Zurich Insurance Group. He has overseen the increasingly positive impact made by the Z Zurich Foundation team and Zurich people to the vulnerable in our societies worldwide. Gary was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2015. Gary became a Trustee of Parkinson’s UK in 2018, was appointed as Chair in 2019. He took on a further role, as Chair of England Athletics in 2021. In support of his community involvement and as part of his approach to managing his Parkinson’s, Gary has taken on numerous challenges including wingwalking, abseiling, kayaking, cycling across Europe, and swimming from Nevis to St. Kitts. He has now completed over 50 marathons including 10 in 10 days recently. In 2022, he became only the 47th person to complete the challenging “Arch to Arc” triathlon. He is also now a double Guinness world record holder: having recently broken the records for the furthest distance run 3 legged over 24 hours and 12 hours with a friend, Andy Tucker. Together they completed over 117.1km. They also broke back the 12 hour record. These sporting challenges have helped raise over £1/2 million for Parkinson's awareness, research and support together with funding for numerous local, national and international charities since 2015, with a focus on mental wellbeing, social equity and crisis support. In 2023, Gary was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to business and to charity from His Majesty the King.
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Ozzy NelCEOOzzy Nel
CEO
Ozzy leads with a deep belief in the collective ensuring that everyone, from donors to communities, plays an active role in shaping food security. He champions the idea that SA Harvest is not the hero, but the conduit, enabling collective goodwill to reach communities with dignity.
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Dries LagerbergChief Sustainability OfficerDries Lagerberg
Chief Sustainability Officer
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Vuyokazi HendaGroup Chief Marketing Officer at Spur CorpVuyokazi Henda
Group Chief Marketing Officer at Spur Corp
Vuyo holds a Bachelor of Business Science degree from the University of Cape Town, a foundation that underpins her strong business acumen. Before joining Spur Corporation as Chief Marketing Officer in May 2022, Vuyo honed her expertise at Unilever, where she played a pivotal role in driving sustained revenue growth, strengthening profitability, and leading successful brand turnarounds for some of South Africa’s most iconic brands. At Spur, Vuyo oversees the marketing strategy with a sharp focus on enhancing customer engagement and elevating brand performance across the Group’s diverse portfolio of 10 restaurant brands – a responsibility that demands innovation, insight, and dynamism.