Hartmut van Lengerich is a highly accomplished agricultural economist and industry leader. He has held various key positions throughout his career, including serving as Bayer Crop Science's CEO for Canada, Global Head of Cereals, Head of Fungicides, and, most recently, as SVP for Portfolio and Asset Management for the Crop Protection Portfolio of Bayer AG.

His career has been driven by a commitment to identifying and addressing growers' real problems through science, along with a belief in the power of collaboration and industry partnerships to drive positive change in global agriculture.

Caaj is a partner at Innovation Industries, a European venture capital fund that specializes in impactful deep tech investments. He began his career in 2011 in investment banking at ABN AMRO Corporate Finance. Before joining Innovation Industries in 2019, Caaj served as Vice President in the Life Sciences & Healthcare Corporate Finance team of Van Lanschot Kempen, a pan-European boutique investment bank. In this role, he was actively involved in origination and execution of M&A, capital markets and other financial transactions in the Life Sciences & Healthcare, Consumer and Agriculture sectors.

Today, Caaj is a Supervisory Board member at several Food & Agri tech companies, including Aphea.Bio, The Akkermansia Company and Protealis. Caaj holds a bachelor's degree in Molecular Biology and a master's degree in Science and Business Management from the Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

David joined Korys in November 2021, focusing on venture capital investments in the life science sector. He started his career as at PMV in the fund of fund business unit before joining the life sciences direct investments unit as a senior investment manager.

At UCB he was the Head of the Immunology R&D Insights to Impact team and acted as an independent scientific, strategic, and financial sparring partner providing insights and transversal resource reallocation challenge for the early and late-stage immunology missions.

David holds a Master in Pharmaceutical Sciences and a Master in Economics and Business Administration from the Ghent University as well as a Ph.D. in Entrepreneurial Finance from Vlerick Business School.

Barbara is currently investment manager at Agri Investment Fund, the AgTech venture capital fund of the group Boerenbond (Farmer's Union).

With a strong academic background in plant biotechnology, she combines her research expertise to drive strategic investments in innovative agricultural technologies. Barbara sits on the boards of several agri-tech companies including Aphea.Bio, Animab, Better3Fruit and Biotope.

Barbara holds a Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the University of Ghent.

Stéphane is a Partner at the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund. He brings more than a decade of experience in venture investments and in creating successful corporate & startup partnerships.

As founder and lead of VC activities at Rhodia and Solvay, he brings a vast experience in active portfolio management and profitable exits (one unicorn) with 80m€ under management and has an extensive network of trusted relationships in the industry and the VC community in Europe, US and Asia.

With a 25-year track in the advanced materials and chemical industry, he brings in-depth expertise in the Ag Tech and Aquaculture, Advanced and Bio-based Materials sector. Stéphane graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique (France) and holds a Master of Chemical Engineering.

Hendrik is a Partner at Astanor with decades of business and board management experience from the energy sector.

He founded Engie New Ventures in 2014, a corporate venture capital fund investing globally in cleantech startups.

After twenty years driving clean energy transformation, Hendrik now focuses on revolutionizing food and agriculture, a sector with even greater climate and environmental impact than energy.

Isabel Vercauteren is the CEO and co-founder of Aphea.Bio. Between 2008 and 2016 Isabel was employed at Bayer CropScience where she held different positions in R&D with a strong focus on alliance management, technology licensing and new venture management.

Before joining Bayer, Isabel worked for four years at DevGen (acquired Syngenta in 2013) as manager responsible for the plant nematology group and as a project leader for the development of Bt rice for the Indian market.

Isabel has strong expertise in plant biotechnology research, technology valuation and licensing, business development, deal making & negotiation and project management.

Isabel holds a Ph.D. in plant molecular biology and a postgraduate in Biosafety and Regulatory in Plant Biotechnology from the University of Ghent, Belgium.

Willem Broekaert is co-founder and Managing Director of V-Bio Ventures.

Before setting up V-Bio Ventures, Willem spent over 15 years working in and growing VC-backed life sciences companies as entrepreneur, consultant and executive. He was founder and CEO of Fugeia NV (now owned by Cargill), and Vice President R&D of CropDesign NV (now part of BASF). Before joining CropDesign NV, Willem was professor of Plant Biotechnology and Plant Pathology at the University of Leuven, Belgium.

Willem holds an MSc and PhD in BioScience Engineering from the University of Leuven, Belgium, and a Master's degree in agricultural economics from IGIA/ESSEC in Paris, France.

Johan Cardoen († 17 December 2025) was a distinguished life sciences entrepreneur and advisor who made significant contributions to Belgium's biotech sector. He served as managing director of VIB, a life science research organization based in Belgium, from 2012-2020. Johan was instrumental in CropDesign's successful acquisition by BASF in 2006 during his tenure as CEO, and previously held leadership roles at Plant Genetic Systems and AgrEvo Hoechst Schering/Aventis.

Throughout his career, Johan championed early-stage biotech companies through board positions at argenx and Aphea.bio, among many others. He chaired V-Bio Ventures' LP Board and led Flanders.bio from 2007-2012, helping shape the region's life sciences ecosystem.

Antonio Garcia Maldonado is an Investment Professional at the Gates Foundation's $2.5 billion Strategic Investment Fund, the foundation's venture capital, debt, and guarantee fund. He works on international investments with a focus on biotech in Europe and Israel, and tech-enabled service/product delivery in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining the foundation, Antonio worked in the investment banking division at JPMorgan. There, he worked on structuring and executing M&A, equity and debt transactions across the Technology and Healthcare industries.

Antonio obtained his Bachelor of Laws and Bachelors in Business Administration from ICADE - Universidad Pontificia de Comillas (Madrid, Spain); and his Graduate Diploma in Law and in Human Rights Law from the University of Law and the London School of Economics and Political Science respectively.

Lakshmi Manavalan is a Senior Program Officer in the Agricultural Development team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As part of the division's Crops R&D portfolio, she manages grants focused on translational research, de-risking early-stage, evidence-based crop input innovations including biofertilizers. These innovations aim to boost productivity and income for small-scale producers in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Prior to joining the foundation Lakshmi had spent more than two decades of career spanning across several public sector organizations and corporate R&D across India, the Philippines and the United

States working on product development including seeds, traits, and biologicals for better water and nutrient use efficiency in a changing climate. Lakshmi holds a PhD and M.S in Agriculture, with emphasis on Crop Physiology, from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India. She completed her PhD research at the International Rice Research Institute and postdoctoral research at the University of Missouri.

Peter joined the Federal Holding and Investment Company, SFPIM, in 2021 to further develop the impact investing practice. The impact investing portfolio consists of fund and direct investments in sustainable agriculture, resource management and social impact. Previously, Peter was an investment associate at VC fund Inventures and gained expertise in the energy sector by developing onshore wind projects at Eneco.