Peter Bieler graduated in 1988 as an agricultural engineer and in 1992 he completed his PhD in Natural Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. He worked for six years in West Africa as a scientist in international agricultural research centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in Niger (ICRISAT) and Benin (IITA), promoting agricultural research in the national African agricultural research institutes and farmer extension systems.

Mr Bieler joined the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in 1998 as an agricultural advisor and programme officer for East and Southern Africa, responsible for programme design and evaluation, policy implementation, and policy dialogue. From 2002 to 2006, he was SDC country director in Niger, West Africa, heading the overall programme of this SDC priority country with a focus on rural infrastructure, agricultural development, and decentralisation. He also headed the donor coordination and policy dialogue in the water sector and ran the Swiss consular agency.

From 2006 to 2007, he was Deputy Head of SDC’s UN Development Division, overseeing development-related UN activities, including Swiss contributions to UNDP, UNAIDS, UNICEF, and also the Global Compact. Seconded from SDC, he joined in 2007 the Development Cooperation Department of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to work on policy formulation in employment and labour markets, social protection, and high food prices.

In 2010, Mr Bieler returned to SDC headquarters in Berne as Deputy Head of the East Asia division. In July 2011, he was appointed Head of the Global Programme on Food Security.

Hans Rudolf Herren is an internationally honoured agricultural scientist who champions integrated sustainable development, in particular, connecting the dots between environmental and social sustainability.

From 2003 to 2008, Mr Herren was Co-Chair of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), which was approved in 2008 by 59 participating countries. Mr Herren is President of the Millennium Institute in Washington, DC, USA, which empowers governments and private sector stakeholders to inform their development strategies using a scenario simulation tool that integrates environmental, social and economic dimensions into a single dynamic simulation model. In 1995, Mr Herren was awarded the prestigious World Food Prize for his successful use of a chemical-free method to prevent mass famine in Africa due to the cassava mealybug invasion. His influence continues to be felt on farms and in villages in Africa through the work of the Biovision Foundation for ecological development which he founded in Zurich in 1998.

Since 2010, Kurt Maureder has headed up the global underwriting teams for Aviation and Agriculture Reinsurance at Swiss Re in Zurich. In addition, he serves as a member of Swiss Re`s Asia Management Team, overlooking the Group`s activities in the Asian region.

At Swiss Re, a key focus area for agriculture is to develop and establish innovative and customised financial risk management instruments for the agricultural industry, particularly in emerging markets, where these instruments are often not yet available at all. Providing the safety net for farmers to stimulate required investments into agricultural production to ultimately increase food security serves high on Swiss Re's agenda.

Mr Maureder's previous responsibilities at Swiss Re include Head of Underwriting Centre for various special lines, comprising both insurance and reinsurance. He joined Swiss Re in 2006 as a result of the take-over of General Electric (GE) Insurance Solutions. At GE, he was in charge of all model and tool developments as Chief Pricing Actuary for Specialty Lines. Mr Maureder holds a masters degree in Technical Mathematics from the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria.

Johan Stessens is Unit Manager of the Remote Sensing Department at the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) in Mol, Belgium. He is responsible for developing the Department's strategy and fitting its business to the market demands, eg in the domain of remote sensing for food security and related Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiatives.

Before joining VITO in 2008, Mr Stessens built up 13 years of research experience at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, where he obtained a PhD in Agricultural Sciences, specialising in Agricultural Economics. During that period, he worked as project manager of an interdisciplinary agricultural research project in Ivory Coast for four years and managed two regional West African research projects in the four following years. From 2002 onwards, he was working as project manager in development aid for the policy-oriented Higher Institute for Labour Studies, managing research in evaluation, policy preparation and policy support for the Flemish regional and Belgian federal governments, international organisations (WFP, FAO, FIDA, ILO) and NGOs.

Shortly after joining VITO in 2008, Mr Stessens was appointed Manager of the Environment and Health Research Unit. After a successful reorientation of this research unit, he switched to the Remote Sensing Unit in April 2012. Both units comprise around 80 staff members and yield an annual turnover of eleven million Euros.