Debisi Araba

Debisi Araba

Debisi Araba (Panellist) is currently the managing director at the AGRF, the premier catalytic, multi-partner platform for food and agriculture transformation in Africa, and member Malabo Montpellier Panel.

Previously, Dr Araba was the Africa region director at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, a member of the CGIAR, where he led strategy and business development in Africa. He has also served as the technical adviser on environmental policy to the minister of agriculture and rural development in Nigeria, where he recently co-authored Nigeria’s National Agricultural Resilience Framework and led global and national partnerships in the development of climate-smart strategies for the agricultural sector.

He has a doctorate degree from the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, a masters in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, a masters in clean technology from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne and a bachelors degree in physical geography from the University of Ibadan.

Jonathan Barnow

Jonathan Barnow

Jonathan Barnow (Panellist) is a vice president at TechnoServe and runs the strategic initiatives team, which works with multinational corporations to build the business case and operating models for incorporating smallholders into commercial supply chains. Since joining TechnoServe in 2012, he has overseen more than 70 projects on local sourcing and sustainability investments in emerging markets with companies that include The Coca-Cola Company, Walmart, Syngenta, Kellogg’s, Nespresso, JDE, Cargill, AB InBev, Anglo American, Danone, and Visa. His primary area of expertise is the design and implementation of inclusive business models that drive both impact and commercial value.

Beyond his work with corporations, Jonny is a strategic advisor to the CASA program, where his work focuses on scaling inclusive business models through the provision of technical assistance alongside impact investment.

Before joining TechnoServe, Jonny was a strategy consultant with L.E.K. Consulting for seven years, first in London, before helping open their New York office. He has a BA in modern history from the University of Oxford.

Lorenzo Cotula

Lorenzo Cotula

Lorenzo Cotula (Panellist) is a principal researcher in law and sustainable development at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), where he leads action-research and policy work on land governance, commercial agriculture and natural resource investments. Lorenzo has 20 years of experience working with civil society, governments, the private sector, donors and multilaterals, and extensive country experience in Africa and Asia. He steers IIED’s work on legal tools for citizen empowerment – a collaborative initiative to strengthen local rights in the policy arenas where natural resource governance meets the global economy. Lorenzo is the project director of the Empowering Producers in Commercial Agriculture (EPIC) project, and has co-authored EPIC research on producer agency in agricultural value chains and on contracts for commercial agriculture.

Alice Chapple

Alice Chapple

Alice Chapple (Moderator) is an economist and a specialist in impact investment and impact assessment. She is CASA’s investment adviser and she established Impact Value in October 2012. Alice previously worked as director of sustainable financial markets at Forum for the Future. She also worked as a financial analyst, fund manager and social and environmental advisor for the CDC Group. Alice’s current roles include chair of Investor Watch, independent chair of the CDC Plus (technical assistance) committee, trustee of the Shell Foundation, and member of the advisory boards of Sainsbury’s Foundation, Frontier Finance Solutions and Connected Asset Management.