Panelists
Discussion Panel No 1 Big data
Panel Moderator
Hirbod Assa, Assistant Professor, University of Liverpool
After
completing his PhDs in mathematics and economics at the U of Montreal and
Concordia University, respectively, Hirbod started working as an assistant
professor of financial and actuarial mathe-matics at the University of
Liverpool in 2013. He is now the direc-tor of the masters program in financial
mathematics and supervis-es PhD students in risk management and machine
learning. Hir-bod's research covers topics in hedging, pricing, optimal
insurance design, agricultural finance/insurance and machine learning. He
constantly works with the industry in the UK and Canada, specifi-cally, on
projects in agricultural insurance, where he helped de-signing and pricing
agricultural risk management tools. PPT download
Invited Panel Discussants
Robert Finger, Chair of Agricultural Economics and Policy, ETH Zürich
Robert
received a PhD in Agricultural Economics from ETH Zurich in 2009 and stayed as
PostDoc till 2011. Before returning to ETH Zurich, he was Assistant Professor
in the Agricultural Economics and Rural Policy Group at Wageningen University
(2012-2013) and Head of the Production Economics Group at the Rheinische
Frie-drich-Wilhelms-Universität of Bonn (2014-2015). The research fo-cus of
Robert is on risks and risk management in agriculture, evalu-ation and design
of agricultural policies, sustainable farm-environment interactions and agri-environmental
measures.
Dr. Joseph M. Russo, President and Senior Research Scientist, ZedX, Inc
Dr. Russo is responsible for research and development
at ZedX, Inc., an information technology (IT) company in the United States
specializing in decision-support algorithms, models, and data visu-alization
tools for the agricultural industry. He is active in the de-sign and
development of interactive, web-based decision-support platforms, and
application programming interface (API) data ser-vices for different
agricultural sectors. These platforms and ser-vices utilize deterministic crop,
pest, and management models to complement field observations and to provide
forecasts.
In 1978, Dr. Russo received his PhD in Agricultural Meteorology from Cornell University.
Joshua Woodard, Assistant Professor of Agribusiness and Finance, Zaitz Family Ses-quicentennial Faculty Fellow, David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future Fac-ulty Fellow, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell Universi-ty
Joshua
Woodard, PhD is an assistant professor of Agribusiness and Finance in the Dyson
School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. His research
focuses primarily on data ana-lytics and policy in agricultural finance, insurance,
& risk manage-ment.
Discussion Panel No 2 International experience regarding imple-mentation of crop insurance
Panel Moderator
Lysa Porth, Assistant Professor and Guy Carpenter Research Chair in Agricultural Risk Management and Insurance, University of Manitoba
Invited Panel Discussants
Pierre Rolland, Director, GEOSYS Europe
Pierre
Rolland is Director of GEOSYS Europe, the fourth subsidiary of GEOSYS Group,
created in 2015 and based in Switzerland, Mor-ges. Pierre joined GEOSYS in
2005, bringing 10 years of innovation and experience in Agriculture business
and sales development in Europe. He significantly contributed to the growth and
sales organ-ization in Europe, and now leads the Regional Sales team,
oversee-ing local sales in Europe, Africa & Middle East regions (EAME),
Aus-tralia, North America and Brazil. Pierre holds a Master's degree in
Agriculture from Ecole "d'Ingénieurs de Purpan" in France and a M.B.A from
Paris X University. He started his agriculture career with Monsanto, selling
crop protection and seeds in France. Then, Pierre joined Eurofins Scientific,
an international group of laborato-ries providing a broad range of testing and
support services to the pharmaceutical, food, environmental, consumer products
indus-tries and government leaders. PPT download
Leah Soroka, Program Manager for Eastern Europe and Central Asia Agri-Financial Services, IFC/World Bank
Leah
works with her teams to improve the access to finance to the agricultural
sector by improved banking practices and evaluations, development of risk
management tools such as crop insurance, and the development of crop receipts
to extend financing based on future crop production. In the last 20 years, Leah
has worked in many countries developing the agriculture sector including most
of the former Soviet republics, Afghanistan, Congo, China, and other regions.
She has previously worked with IFC in Ukraine in Land Pri-vatization and Agri-Business
Development. Leah has worked with agricultural equity funds and new
opportunities funds to invest in agricultural processing and diversified
agriculture new ventures in bio-energy, composites, and waste management. Ms
Soroka also has experience in mining development particularly the start-up of
the Kumtor Gold Mine in Kyrgyzstan. PPT download
Andrew Trotter, Founder and CEO of Latevo Pty Ltd
Andrew
is a highly experienced farmer, agronomist and advisor who, along with creating
Australia's first agricultural income pro-tection insurance for dryland
farmers, has been assisting his father managing the 1000-hectare family farm in
the highly productive Wimmera district of Victoria.
The Latevo agricultural income protection model is unique in the Australian market as it offers high-level cover for all natural perils affecting broadacre crops and also enables farmers to mitigate their own risk whilst maximizing yield potential.
Latevo has been on the market for three years, has a 100% claims payout strike rate and is currently harnessing technology opportu-nities to enable more farmers complete the due diligence process-es effectively to maximize their coverage offers.
It made news in 2014 when the first claims payout of $944k was made to a Queensland grower and after a period of trading in a difficult climate, Latevo now boasts to have received more premi-ums than payouts during its start up phase.
The current model provides an efficient balance that ticks all the boxes for both insurers and farmers.
Not only is Andrew continuing to grow and develop the Latevo model, he is frequently engaging with the Australian government.
By engaging with the government he is looking to garner support for farmers through rebates that will enable them to protect them-selves against natural disasters such as drought, flood and frost.
Not only do these natural perils cripple farming enterprises, they create mental carnage for many farming families who are risk-adverse.
Andrew is focused on working closely with all stakeholders to en-sure every Australian farming family has access to the Latevo agri-cultural income protection product so they can sleep at night knowing the crops they have heavily invested in are protected. PPT download