Craig Lewis was raised on a family farm in Herefordshire and with advanced degrees in Animal Behaviour / Welfare and Animal Breeding / Genetics.

Graduating with a PhD from The Roslin Institute / University of Edinburgh and after undertaking a research position in Australia, Dr. Lewis is currently overseeing Genetic Dissemination for Genus PIC in the EMEAR region working with pig producers from developing farmers in Africa to multinational integrated food businesses.

Additionally Dr. Lewis is the current chair of the steering committee for the European Forum for Farm Animal Breeders (EFFAB). Dr. Lewis has multiple published research articles and has spoken globally on practical animal breeding.

Dr. Lewis is a strong advocate of science based decision making along the food chain with a focus on the use of new tools and methods being effectively taken from research to implementation to tackle changing societal demands and deliver ethical, nutritious, sustainable, and enjoyable animal protein.

Morten Rye is the Director of External Services and International Strategies at Benchmark Genetics, renowned for its global leadership in aquaculture genetics and breeding.

With over 35 years of experience, Dr. Rye has made significant contributions to genetic research, the design and implementation of applied breeding programs for more than 20 aquaculture species, including marine and freshwater fish, shrimp, and mollusks, all across Europe, Asia, America, and Africa.

Dr. Rye obtained his PhD in Animal Breeding and Genetics from the Norwegian University of Agriculture in 1992. Throughout his career, he has held positions at the Institute of Aquaculture Research (now Nofima) and the Akvaforsk Genetics Center, before joining Benchmark in 2015.

Dr. Rye has (co)authored 80 scientific papers and book chapters, primarily focusing on genetics and selection in aquaculture.
He is a strong advocate for the uptake of selective breeding programs in aquaculture industries globally.

Sijne van der Beek got his master and PhD degrees from Wageningen University. His Ph.D. was on the use of genetic markers in poultry breeding. After finishing his degrees, he joined the animal breeding industry. He worked 23 years for Dutch/Flemish cattle breeding cooperative CRV in various roles in research, breeding, product management and innovation.

His last role at CRV was as global manager of research and innovation. In this role he represented CRV on the Breed4Food board, the collaboration between breeding companies Hendrix Genetics, Cobb Vantress, Topigs Norsvin, CRV and Wageningen University. In November 2020 Sijne joined the EW group as Chief Technology Officer Layer Genetics. Within EFFAB he represents Lohmann Breeders GmbH, the layer genetics company based in Cuxhaven (Germany).

Sijne was born and raised on a dairy farm, married to a daughter of a dairy&poultry farmer, and has two sons that are now at university.

Clotilde Patry is Innovation Director at ELIANCE, the French and Walloon umbrella organization of breeding data recording and farmer advice organization.

Since more than 15 years, Dr Clotilde Patry is working in the field of ruminant breeding facilitating collaboration (local, European or International level), encouraging innovation, and knowledge transmission.

Dr. Clotilde Patry holds a Ph.D. in cattle genomics, complemented by advanced studies in Business Management. She is not only managing the VALOGENE company (genomic tools and service for genetic progress and herd management) but also acting as Innovation Director at ELIANCE, encouraging service development from research in the field of new genomic or phenotyping techniques.

A strong believe : from diversity comes richness and it is more than important to listen farmers’ needs, share those experiences accross countries connecting with research organizations.