Paul Adamson is chairman of Forum Europe and founder and editor of Encompass, an online magazine dedicated to covering the European Union and Europe’s place in the world.

Paul is a member of the Centre for European Reform’s advisory board and Rand Europe’s Council of Advisors. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Policy Institute, King’s College London, a patron of the University Association of Contemporary European Studies (UACES) and a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences.

In 2012, Paul was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) “for services to promoting understanding of the European Union” and in 2016 he was made a Chevalier in the Ordre national du Mérite by the French government.

Patrick Child is currently Deputy Director-General in DG Environment at the European Commission with particular responsibility for the EU’s zero pollution strategy, chemicals legislation, research and innovation for environment and communication.

From 2016-2021, he was Deputy Director-General in DG Research and Innovation (R&I) at the European Commission. As member of the Board of DG R&I, he followed in particular research and innovation in clean energy and climate technologies as well as the R&I dimension of the post-COVID recovery and resilience strategy and Horizon Europe mission on Cancer. His international roles included Commission representative and chair of the steering committee of Mission Innovation (a coalition of 24 countries and the EC working to accelerate global clean energy innovation) and lead co-chair of the Group of Earth Observations (GEO).

Until April 2016, Patrick Child was Managing Director of the European External
Service with responsibility for administration and finance, covering human resources policy, security and the budget. Before he took up this post in 2011, he was director in the EC External Relations Directorate-General in the responsible for managing the network of Commission delegations. He has previously served as head of cabinet for External Relations Commissioners Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Chris Patten.

With a background in the UK Finance Ministry, he joined the European Commission in 1994, where he started in the Economic and Monetary affairs Directorate General before becoming Commission press spokesman for economic and monetary union from 1995-1999. Mr Child studied mathematics at Cambridge University. He is married with two children.

Rod is the Global Director of the Forests Program, with oversight of Global Forest Watch, the Forest Legality Initiative and the Global Restoration Initiative. He is responsible for the Forests Program’s overall leadership, management, outreach, and fundraising.

Before joining WRI, Rod worked as the Forests Director at WWF International. In earlier roles at WWF, he coordinated the World Bank/WWF Forest Alliance and led WWF’s forest work in the Asia Pacific region. Prior to his time with WWF, Rod worked as a forest policy adviser in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Rod began his career as a lawyer in Australia and has a Master’s Degree in Environmental Law from the Australian National University.

Rod likes getting outdoors and is a keen surfer, snowboarder and cyclist.

Rodrigo C A Lima is Partner-Director of Agroicone Ltd, a leading organization on key agriculture and renewable energy agendas related to trade, environment and sustainable development. He has 15 years of background on international negotiations such as the World Trade Organization, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Nagoya Protocol and on regulatory environmental issues like the Forest Law in Brazil. He coordinates projects aiming to promote the sustainable development across different agricultural chains, comprising the engagement of producers, industry, banks, NGOs and public stakeholders based on a continuous approach. He published a book about Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures at the WTO, holds a PhD in International Law at Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo and a Masters of Art Degree in International Law at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.

Yara has a Bachelor’s degree in Agronomy and a Masters in Crop Production and Physiology, along with a Masters in Human Resource Management. She worked as an agronomist in Brazil and then went to the US to study. She worked 9 years in research on crop genetics in Hawaii. The past 4 years she has come back to Brazil to farm.

Dymphnus farmed rice, soybeans, wheat and corn while raising pigs, beef cattle and dairy cows in southern Brazil. In 1995 he sold his farm and bought new land in Maranhão State. As a pioneer farmer in the area, he used technology and conservation to achieve high yields. He farms about 2,000 hectares and is involving his daughter.