CEMA WebsiteVirtual CEMA Summit 2021

SPEAKERS - Plenary Session

Frans Timmermans cut

Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission

Frans Timmermans was born May 1961 and is a Dutch politician and diplomat who currently serves as the First Vice-President of the European Commission and the European Commissioner for the portfolio of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, Rule of Law and Charter of Fundamental Rights in the Juncker Commission since 1 November 2014.

Timmermans previously worked in the Dutch Civil Service (1987–1998), as a member of the House of Representatives for the Labour Party (1998–2007; 2010–2012), as Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs charged with European Affairs (2007–2010) and as Minister of Foreign Affairs (2012–2014). 1995-1998 he served as a Senior Advisor and Private Secretary to the High Commissioner on National Minorities of the OSCE, Max van der Stoel and 1994-1995 as a staff member for EU Commissioner Hans van den Broek. In 1993 and 1994 Timmermans worked as deputy head of the Minister for Development Cooperation’s EC Affairs Section, 1990 and 1993 as the Deputy Secretary of the Dutch embassy in Moscow. 1987-1990 he served as Policy Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 1984-1985 he had postgraduate courses in European Law and French Literature at the University of Nancy. 1980-1985 he achieved a degree in French language and literature, Radboud University Nijmegen. Timmermans is married with four children.

Thierry Krier, CEMA President, President & CEO of KUHN

Thierry Krier is the President and CEO of KUHN GROUP and KUHN S.A.S., based in Saverne, France. He spent his whole career with the KUHN GROUP, starting in 1990 as International Sales Manager for KUHN S.A. in Saverne, France, and successively moving to Vice President Sales and Marketing (from 1994 to 1995), Executive VP (from 1995 to 2003), President (from 2003 to 2007) of KUHN FARM MACHINERY, Inc., in Vernon, New York. In 2007 he became CEO and Chairman of KUHN NORTH AMERICA, Inc., in Brodhead, Wisconsin & KUHN KRAUSE, Inc., in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Thierry Krier holds a Master’s in International Business and a Bachelor degree of Science in Agronomy/Crop Science.

He is a member of the Board of AXEMA, the French Farm Machinery Manufacturers Association, and of VDMA, German Farm Machinery Manufacturers Association.

Since 2020 he is the President of the Board of Directors of CEMA, the European Agricultural Machinery Industry Association.

Thierry Krier cut
Wojciechowski

Janusz Czesław Wojciechowski, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development

Born in Rawa Mazowiecka, Poland, in 1954

Member of the European Commission since 1 December 2019, responsible for Agriculture, lawyer, attorney.

He has advanced legal studies: Master’s degree in law, graduated from the University of Łódź, Department of Law and Administration. He was Member of the European Court of Auditors, representing Poland, from May 2016 to November 2019. He was also a judge, President of the Supreme Audit Office of Poland, Vice-marshal of the Parliament of the Republic of Poland, Member of the European Parliament of 3 terms (2004-2016);  Member of the European Parliament's Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals in the European Parliament since his 1st term in 2004; since 2014 - its President.

Author & co-author of the comments on the Polish Penal Code (5x); author of more than 100 articles and publications on criminal law in various legal magazines in Poland and author of articles on socio-legal issues.

Pekka Pesonen, COPA-COGECA

Mr Pekka Pesonen is the Secretary General of Copa, representing European farmers, and Cogeca, representing European agri-cooperatives, which together count more than 70 national farming organisations from across Europe. Previously, he worked as State Secretary for the Finnish Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry. In addition, Mr Pesonen has extensive professional experience in lobbying at EU level on behalf of Finnish farmers, forest owners (MTK and SLC) and agri-forestry cooperatives (Pellervo). In the 1990s, he worked in the sales and marketing department of Valio, a Finnish dairy company.

Mr Pesonen has also been a member of several high level advisory groups concerning EU policy preparation. He is a qualified agronomist and is married with three teenage children.

Pekka Pesonen
von Pentz

Mark von Pentz, John Deere

Mark von Pentz is President, Agriculture & Turf Division, Small Ag and Turf, responsible for the European, CIS, Asian, and African markets as well as for the equipment solutions that provide value to small ag and turf care customers. He was named to the role in June 2020.

A champion for the ag producer, von Pentz has served as a president of Deere's Ag & Turf business for more than a dozen years, with market responsibilities spanning the globe (Europe, CIS, Africa, Asia, and South America) and product-line responsibilities that have included every ag equipment product line.

Under von Pentz's leadership, the company overhauled its flagship tractor product line. These advancements have earned the company accolades from both engineering organizations and high-tech communities. In 2019, the German agricultural society DLG awarded its only gold medal to John Deere at its biennial AGRITECHNICA show, the ag industry's leading trade show for technology and innovation.

Previous leadership assignments for von Pentz include Senior Vice President, Marketing & Product Support – Europe, Africa, and the Middle East; Vice President, North American Ag Marketing; Director, North American Ag Market Development and Customer Focus project manager. Before that he was occupied as branch, division, territory sales manager, and factory marketing manager for mid-sized tractors as well as manufacturing alliance project manager in Europe. He joined John Deere in 1990 as a financial auditor.

He is an advisory board member of the VDMA (German Equipment Manufacturers’ Association), a regional advisory board member of Deutsche Bank AG, a board member of the U.S.-Russia Business Council, and a member of the board of trustees of the Heidelberg University Foundation. In May 2020, the University in Hohenheim awarded him an honorary doctorate in agricultural science.

A graduate of Hamburg University, von Pentz has an advanced degree in business administration.

Jacob Hansen, Fertilizers Europe

Jacob Hansen has been Director General at Fertilizers Europe since 2011. The association represents the majority of fertilizer producers in Europe and is recognized as the dedicated industry source of information on mineral fertilizers. Mr. Hansen started his career working for the Danish agricultural sector in Copenhagen before moving to Brussels, where he worked for more than 10 years as Director at the Danish Agriculture and Food Council.

Mr. Hansen has a master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Aarhus in Denmark and an INSEAD certificate in Executive Management.

Jacob Hansen cut
AndreLoesekrugPietri Photo2

Andre Loesekrug-Pietri, JEDI

André Loesekrug-Pietri, French-German nationalities, held leadership positions in private equity, government, industry and as an entrepreneur. Starting as assistant to the CEO of Aerospatiale-Airbus, he then spent 15 years in private equity and venture capital, including 10 years with China, investing in European companies with global ambitions. In 2017, he paused from the private sector to become Special Advisor to the French Minister of Defence, responsible in particular for European Defense policy as well as technology and innovation. He is currently Director of the Joint European Disruptive Initiative (JEDI), to accelerate Europe’s leadership in disruptive innovations, and launched the first ‘Darpa-type’ GrandChallenge from Europe in 2020. HEC and Harvard Kennedy School graduate, he is lecturer at SciencesPo and regular columnist in several international media. He attended Sup-Aero aerospace engineering school, was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, is a private pilot, and Colonel with the French Air Force People’s Reserve. 

 Geraldine Kutas, Crop Life Europe

Géraldine Kutas has been director-general of CropLife Europe (formerly known as European Crop Protection Association ECPA) since September 2019. The organization has recently expanded its mandate representing biopesticides, digital & precision agriculture plant biotechnology alongside pesticides. Prior to that position, she was head of international affairs at the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA), a position she held since October 2007. At UNICA, she was responsible for defining and leading the organization’s international activities. Kutas has over 15 years of experience in public affairs working in Belgium, France, Brazil, Costa Rica, the U.S. and China.

Kutas holds an MA in Foreign Affairs from Georgetown University (Washington, DC) and a Ph.D. in International Economics from l’Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po).

Geraldine Kutas CropLife 
Fede Pérez

Federico Pérez, Pulverizadores Fede

Federico Pérez is the CEO and R&D Director of Pulverizadores Fede, he is also founder and Vice President in Beijing Fengmao Fede Agrimachines CO. Since 2007, when he became CEO, Fede Pérez has driven the digital transformation of the company focusing on the development of new technologies applied to the agriculture's digitization in the specialty crops sector. Under his leadership, Pulverizadores Fede has achieved great goals such as a global agreement with the multinational John Deere and important awards such as "Innovation in the Company" (Chamber of Commerce of Valencia).

He is also part of the board of directors of the Spanish National Association of Agricultural Machinery, Forestry and Green Spaces (ANSEMAT), the International Fair of Agricultural Machinery (FIMA) and the European Agricultural Machinery Industry Association (CEMA).

 

Carlo Lambro, New Holland Agriculture

Carlo Lambro is the Brand President of New Holland Agriculture, a role he has held since 2013, and CEO of CNH Industrial Italia since 2015.

He joined the New Holland Agriculture brand more than 25 years ago, and throughout his career, he gained extensive commercial experience all over the world.

Between 1993 and 2003, he assumed increasingly senior positions at international level for all agricultural brands within the Fiat Group.

In 2004, Mr Lambro was appointed General Manager of Shanghai New Holland Agriculture Machine Corporation, in addition to his responsibilities as CNH Country Manager for China.

In 2006, he was appointed Business Director New Holland Agriculture for Italy, and one year later Business Director New Holland Agriculture Europe and President of CNH Industrial Maquinaria Spain, S. A.

Mr Lambro was a member of CNH Industrial’s Global Executive Committee from 2013 to 2019 and served as Vice President of New Holland Agriculture in Europe from 2013 to 2017, and again on an ad interim basis in 2019.

Mr Lambro holds a Master degree in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Bologna.

Carlo Lambro vertical 

Samuel Masse

Samuel Masse, CEJA

Samuel is a winegrower from Southern France and, with his brother, are the 22nd generation of winegrowers cultivating the family land. They work together on what was once their grandparents’ farm and has 20 hectares of organic vines in “PDO Languedoc” and “PGI Pays d’Oc”. Samuel studied viticulture and oenology and did internships in the USA on vineyard management. He got involved in Jeunes Agriculteurs (JA), the French young farmers’ organisation, as Secretary General and then President of JA Hérault, and Treasurer of JA Languedoc Roussillon.

In 2018, he joined the national Board of JA in charge of European and international issues, the food chain and quality labels. In 2019, he was elected Vice-President of CEJA and is since January 2021 the current President of the organisation.

 
 Herbert Dorfmann, MEP

He is South Tyrolean and in the European Parliament he represents the people of the Euroregion Tirol-South Tyrol-Trentino and of the Belluno and Friuli areas.

He was born in 1969 in Brixen/Bressanone and studied Agrarian Sciences in Piacenza.

His professional career started as a professor at the Agricultural College in Auer/Ora before he became the director of the agriculture department at the Bozen/Bolzano Chamber of Commerce. Later on, he directed for nearly 10 years the South Tyrolean Farmers' Federation.

He started the political career in 2005, with the South Tyrolean People's Party, as mayor of his hometown. In 2009 he was elected for my first mandate at the European Parliament and was re-elected in 2014 and 2019 for a second and a third mandate.

Dorfmann
Lins

Norbert Lins

Norbert Lins, MEP, has been the Chair of the Committee on Agricultural and Rural Development (AGRI) since his second mandate in the European Parliament in 2019. He was first elected as a member of European Parliament in 2014, where he was a member of the AGRI Committee and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI Committee). Lins grew up on his family’s farm in Danketsweiler, hence he can relate well to the situation of farmers.

Prior to that, Lins was a consultant for promotion of broadband from 2011 to 2014 and also worked as a personal assistant to the Minister of Agriculture Rudolf Köberle in the Ministry of Rural Affairs and Consumer Protection in Baden-Württemberg (2010 -2011).

Previously, he was employed in the regional council in Tübingen, Germany (2009-2010) and was head of the office for MEP Andreas Schwab from 2004 until 2009.

Lins holds a Master degree in “European Administrative Management” from the University of Applied Sciences in Ludwisburg and Kehl, Germany.

César Cortes, Representative of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU

César Cortes, Representative of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU

Franc Bogovic

 Franc Bogovič, MEP

Franc Bogovič graduated from the Agronomy College at the University in Maribor in 1984, thus becoming an Agricultural Engineer. He was employed as an agricultural extension expert and head of the Cooperation Department in Agrokombinat Krško. He later established a family commerce business, which he successfully managed for 8 years. He became a leader in his local community Koprivnica in 1986. From 1998 to 2011, he was elected mayor of the Municipality of Krško four consecutive times (in 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010). During his thirteen-year term of office, he played a significant role in improving the relationships of the municipality as well as the state toward the Krško Nuclear Plant, and establishing a permanent nuclear waste repository. From 2004 he was also the vice president of the Association of European municipalities with nuclear facilities, GMF (Group of European Municipalities with Nuclear Facilities). He was elected member of the European Parliament on 25 May 2014 and again on 26 May 2019. He represents the Slovenian People’s Party (SLS) in the European People’s Party (EPP) Political Group in the European Parliament. Before that, he was elected member of the National Parliament of the Republic of Slovenia two consecutive times (in the fifth and sixth terms of office, in 2008 and 2011). He was the Minister for agriculture and environment in the tenth Government of the Republic of Slovenia, from 10 February 2012 to 25 February 2013. He was elected President of the Slovenian People’s Party at the electoral Congress at Brdo pri Kranju on 2 March 2013. From 2009 to 2013, he was the vice president of the SLS. He started engaging in politics as a young man during the political spring in Slovenia, and is one of the founders and creators of the Slovenian Farmers? Association ? the first democratic political party in Slovenia after World War II and the predecessor of the Slovenian People’s Party. He speaks English, Croatian and Serbo-Croatian.