Speakers
Ms. Leisje Schreinemacher - Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands
Minister Schreinemacher is the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation in the Netherlands, serving for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She is presently a Dutch lawyer and politician of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) currently serving in the fourth Rutte cabinet.
In her early career, she served as an assistant to Dutch MPs Johan Remkes and Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert. She then went on to become an adviser at the Dutch Ministry of Defence until 2016. Between 2016 and 2019, she worked as a lawyer, specialising in construction law and contract law. Minister Schreinemacher was elected to the European Parliament in the 2019 European Parliament election, as a Member of the European Parliament for the Netherlands.
Ms. Rosmarijn Fens - Managing Director, Netherlands-African Business Council (NABC)
Rosmarijn started her career as a management consultant with Arthur Andersen where she worked in both Curacao and Buenos Aires. In Miami, she joined the Consulate-General of the Netherlands as senior economic officer where she was responsible for promoting and facilitating Dutch export and Dutch direct investment in the South-Eastern USA. In Singapore she worked as an advisor for water & the environment for the Embassy of the Netherlands.
In 2015 she decided to add the non-profit sector to her experience and she joined WaterAid in London, the largest non-profit organization that focuses on the three essentials that transform people’s lives: water, sanitation, and hygiene. Rosmarijn was part of the Corporate Partnership team of WaterAid and she joined the WaterAid Speaker Network.
Mr. Hussein Abou Bakr - Founder and CEO, Mozare3 and Chairman, Plantform Agribusiness Ltd.
As a third-generation of an agro-industrial family, Mr. Abou Bakr has more than 19 years experience in food ingredients processing and extensive knowledge on value-chain management in agriculture, production and international trading.
Mozare3 is an Egypt-based Agri-Fintech company that aims to disrupt the agricultural sector in Egypt and the Middle East region while becoming the go-to super-app for all farmers’ agri and non-agri financial needs. Mozare3’s services are based around smallholder farmers – ranging from access to market, access to finance, access to agriculture inputs and agronomy support.
Jelmer van de Mortel works for Rabobank to develop innovative, meaningful and pragmatic solutions in the Food & Agri domain as the Head of Acorn. As a former strategy consultant at Roland Berger, he has ample experience in bringing strategy into practice. During his period at World Food Programme, he experienced farmer needs in developing countries at first hand.
Acorn – Agroforestry Carbon removal units for the Organic Restoration of Nature – is a program being developed by Rabobank to unlock the international carbon market for smallholder farmers in the developing world. Acorn’s mission is to combat climate change, land degradation and food insecurity with an inclusive agroforestry solution. This solution balances competing land use demands in a way that benefits both human well-being and the environment. To do this, Acorn has built a global, transparent and technology-enabled marketplace for carbon sequestration.
Dr. Ayokunu Adedokun - Assistant Professor of Public Policy and International Development, Leiden University | Moderator of Africa Works! 2022
Prior to joining Leiden, Dr. Ayo served as the Special Adviser on Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution to the government of Nigeria. Before joining the government of Nigeria as a policy adviser, he was an Assistant Professor of politics and international relations at American University of Nigeria (AUN). Prior to joining AUN, Dr. Ayo was a research fellow and tutor at the United Nations University (UNU-MERIT) and Maastricht University Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG) in the Netherlands. He has also worked and consulted for the World Bank Group, United Nations and the British Council.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Lagos in Nigeria as a Chancellor Scholar. He completed a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) degree in international development studies at Oxford University in the UK as a Clarendon Scholar. He additionally received a PhD in public policy and governance at Maastricht University in the Netherlands as a United Nations Scholar. His research focuses on peace, security and development issues. His regional focus is sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr. Adedokun is the official moderator of Africa Works! 2022 Innovation for Resilient Growth.
