Annual Eastern Europe Regulatory Conference for Plant Protection Products

David has been IBMA’s inaugural Executive Director, starting in 2010. His career path has been focused on IPM, resistance management, implementation of biocontrol techniques, and systems based control of pests and diseases.

David is an entomologist by training and spent several years co-ordinating, conducting, assessing, reporting efficacy trials and supervising regulatory compliance for biological agricultural inputs. He was a key player in the formation of BPG (BioProtection Global) and works closely with international bodies including OECD, FAO and EPPO.

David is passionate about reducing the reliance on traditional pesticides through finding, developing, registering and bringing to market new solutions to feed a growing world population whilst respecting biodiversity, the environment and protecting human health.

Working today as Special Advisor to IBMA, he actively participates in promoting the biocontrol industry and ensuring that any regulation is proportionate to risk. He promotes a globally harmonised regional regulatory and product development focus and is confident that we will see more global co-ordination in the near future.

Raimonda Grigaitė is an Advisor of the Plant Protection Product Authorization Division of the State Plant Service under the Ministry of Agriculture of Lithuania. Main responsibilities of an advisor are coordination of evaluation and authorization of plant protection product, parallel trade issues and emergency authorization issues. She has previous experience in evaluation of plant protection products identity, physical-chemical properties, analysis methods, fate and behavior in environment parts. She participates in European Commission Working Group on Post Approval Issues of the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009; Northern Zone Coordinators group. Raimonda Grigaitė has MS in Chemistry from Vilnius University (1987).

Dr. Lucius Tamm is Deputy Director and Head of Department of Crop Sciences at the Swiss Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in Frick. He holds a degree in agricultural engineering from ETH Zurich and has more than 25 years plant pathology R&D experience working on cereals, potatoes, grapevine and horticultural crops. He leads FiBL’s R&D activities for the development of fungicides and inducers of resistance and has also been involved in the development of improved registration procedures for novel plant protection products. Lucius has initiated the approval system for inputs in Swiss organic agriculture in 1996, leading to FiBL’s renowned ‘European Input List’ which is based on expert evaluation and long-standing scientific expertise in the field of assessment of inputs for organic farming. Today, the input list covers a range of European countries including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Croatia, the Netherlands and Italy.

Manel Cervera is an International Business Director and has over 20 years’ experience in marketing and sales of specialty fertilizers and biostimulants, with prior roles at Sustainable Agro Solutions as Export Manager and most recently Biovert, where he served as Commercial and Marketing Director and COO. During his time at Sustainable Agro Solutions, Manel was directly responsible for the international consolidation of the company, and in Biovert he continued this role, adding additional key responsibilities in marketing as well as a deeper business involvement in different management areas.  Based in Lleida, Spain, Manel provides DunhamTrimmer a wide network and experience in biostimulants and biofertilizers.

Nicole van Straten studied chemistry at Leiden University, The Netherlands. After her PhD she worked in pharmaceutical research and development for fifteen years in line and project management positions with increasing responsibilities. In 2014 she joined the Dutch board for the authorization of plant protection products and biocides (Ctgb) as team leader human toxicology and residues. Since 2015 she is departmental head, responsible for the scientific assessment of all dossiers in the field of plant protection and biocides. In addition, as of July 2019 she is also deputy secretary/director of Ctgb.

László Bura is an organic chemical engineer, working for EFSA since 2007 at the unit dealing with risk assessment of the pesticide active substances. He is working in the field of identity, physical-chemical properties and analytical methods. Before EFSA he was working for the Hungarian Authority, in the pesticides laboratory and after that in the registration of pesticides.

Viktoria Vona is the CEO of Csernozjom Ltd. The Csernozjom provides a full spectrum of agricultural and environmental services in Hungary. These include professional agricultural advisory, especially in the fields of nutrient management, precision agriculture, nature conservation and the registration of growth regulators. Csernozjom Ltd is the landing point of Agrocares, an agritech company based in Wageningen, which provides an innovative sensor-based solution for nutrient analyses in soil, feed and leaf. Previous to her current role, she graduated as an Agricultural Environmental Engineer in Hungary adn later on as a Rural Development Engineer in the Netherlands. She worked in the Netherlands  for 9 years as a project manager of precision agriculture. Since 2017 she is back in Hungary and additionally to her work she ist engaged in PhD studies in the field of nutrient management and soil sensor technology at Széchenyi István University.

Janet Williams is the Head of Regulatory Science for the UK and Ireland at Bayer CropScience Ltd, based in Cambridge, UK and is also the current Chair of the UK Crop Protection Association (CPA), Policy and Regulatory Group. Janet has a Masters’ degree in Toxicology from the University of Kentucky in the USA and has worked for Fisons, Rhone-Poulenc, Aventis and Bayer in agrochemical regulatory affairs for over 30 years. She is in regular contact with the Chemicals Regulation Division (CRD) of UK Health and Safety Executive and the Pesticides Registration and Control Division of the Ireland Department of Agriculture. She is one of the key industry contact points for the UK Brexit policy on pesticide and biocide regulation.

Since the beginning of his professional career in 1985, Mariano has been active in the field of fertilizers. Since 1999, he has been co-owner of SILC Fertilizzanti that offers services and information on Italian and EU fertilizer legislation, among other services. During the last 20 years as a free-lance journalist, Mariano contributed to various agricultural magazines with hundreds of articles on fertilizer trading, logistics, marketing and regulation. He is author of the Guide for EC Regulation 2003/2003 (fertilizer’s laws and labelling), a Manual concerning all the rules involving the fertilizer sector and a Guide for Italian law (Dlgs 75/10) concerning fertilizers. He is also deeply involved with and has a profound understanding of the new Regulation 2019/1009.

Maria Mihaylova is the Head of Registration Department at Agria SA. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Intellectual Property from the University of National and World Economy (Sofia) and a Master’s degree in Public Relations from the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. She has worked for the AGRIA Group (the only Bulgarian producer of plant protection products) for nearly twenty years, dealing with the registration of PPPs in Bulgaria and abroad. Shortly after the Bulgarian accession to the EU, as Head of Registration Department she established and became the leader of a specialized Unit responsible for the authorizations in the European Union countries.

After graduating at Wageningen Agricultural University in 1984, Hans Mattaar joined Rhône-Poulenc Agro, in the position of Regulatory Affairs Expert for the Netherlands. From this position he moved on to the European Regulatory Team in 1992 as a coordinator for European regulatory affairs. During his career he expanded his area of interest from science to law, and from there it was a small step to the politics. He held the position of European Public & Governmental Affairs (PGA) Manager and Regulatory Strategy Manager for the last 7 years of his corporate career, while RPA merged with AgrEvo into Aventis CropScience, and then became part of Bayer CropScience. In January 2008 he left Bayer to pursue a career as Senior Advisor with Pappas & Associates, Attorneys at Law, in Brussels. In his current role he provides strategic and regulatory advice to businesses who operate in a regulated environment, both on operational and on organisational issues. In parallel to that he holds the position of Technical Director for ECCA, the European Association for the post-patent agrochemical industry, since June 2012, and for AgroCare, the Global Association for the post-patent industry since September 2016.

M.Sc. Bostjan Bozic has been working in an international environment since the beginning of his career. As a Sales and Marketing professional he has successfully performed in various industries ranging from electric appliances, telecommunications, interactive media and precision agriculture. His track record in academic and educational sphere includes a position of a teaching assistant at the University of Maribor and receiving an ICEC Kenneth K. Humphrey’s Outstanding Paper Award. He believes the Precision Agriculture in combination with Internet of Things is the opportunity the World should embrace with open arms.

Mario was born in 1966 and is currently active as researcher (full time professor) and head of the Plant Protection Department at the Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Maribor University, Slovenia. He began his professional career as crop production, protection and processing engineer, technologist and manager at an agricultural company in 1990. From 1994 ha started teaching and got engaged in other educational work with students and young researchers. During his career he was involved in   scientific research and expert work in the broad field of plant protection (weed research, entomology, plant pathology, pesticide application technologies, pesticide science, pesticide ecology, alternative methods of pest control, food contaminants etc.) and has long-lasting cooperation with chemical companies when it comes to testing and partially also  development of plant protection products.

Dr David Calvert has over 25 years of experience with developing new products and services for a number of formulations sectors such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, healthcare, food and drink, cosmetics, inks and coatings. Together with Dr Jim Bullock he formed iFormulate Limited in 2012. The company specialises in Formulation Science and Technology across all sectors and their service offer includes both consultancy and training. iFormulate has undertaken a large number of projects in conventional and bioprotection agrochemicals. They have authored three major reports on agrochemicals for Informa (most recently one on Formulation of Biopesticides) and developed both in-person and on-line training courses for ATI.

Peter Kugel is a partner at VVGB and heads the firm’s Environmental, Health & Safety Risk Regulation Practice. He has a broad EU and (trans) national regulatory and litigation experience. Peter is a specialist in the area of market access requirements concerning chemicals at large and biocides and plant protection products in particular. He advises and represents clients in various compliance strategies and enforcement procedures, data sharing negotiations or disputes, task force/consortia formation and handling etc. He also is actively involved in supporting clients in chemical control or pollution prevention procedures and advocacy projects under diverging European, international or domestic legal frameworks. Peter is member of the bar in the Netherlands and in Brussels (EU-list). He studied at Leiden University and at the College of Europe (Bruges) and also at the Institut des Etudes de Sciences Politiques in Paris.

Dr. Marchand is an organic chemist, researcher in biopesticides specializing in natural substance. His experience includes over 20 years in analytical environmental chemistry, organic synthesis of natural products analogs, and applied research on the chemistry-biology interface. His particular area of focus is on plant extract. Research interests botanicals. He has worked extensively for 6 years on the approval of low concern natural products and light substance on EU pesticide regulation.
Dr. Marchand completed his Masters in bioorganic chemistry in 1990, and his pHD in organic synthetic chemistry in 1994 from Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UMPC, Paris 6, France). He is specialized in natural substances, has focused on their synthesis, their extraction/separation and characterization by structural analysis and finally their use in crop protection.
He spent years abroad at the Institute of Biological Chemistry at Washington State University (IBC-WSU, Pullman, WA, USA) also worked in collaboration with USDA-ARS in Pullman (WA). Later he was involved in research at Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (Jena, Germany) for two years and finally a year in France with Pr. R. Robins in Nantes (EBSI) on natural products structure elucidation. After few years on environmental analytical chemistry on pesticides at CNRS, he moved to the French Research Institute for Organic Farming to work on bio protection of organic crops to realize the traditional and popular uses of natural products under the EU official phyto pharmaceutical regulation. He has also mandate for expertise at The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety.