Juha Marttila is president of the Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners of Finland since 2009, and of Food and Forest Development Finland since 2013. Juha is a farmer, an agronomist and has a doctorate in agricultural and forestry sciences.

Jutta Urpilainen oversees the European Commission’s work on international cooperation and sustainable development. She is a strong advocate for gender equality, social justice and youth participation. Before joining the Commission, Jutta served as a Member of the Finnish Parliament from 2003 to 2019. In 2008, she became the first woman leader of the Social Democratic Party of Finland. From 2011 to 2014, she served as Finland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister. During that time (2013-14), she became closely involved in development issues, joining the Development Committee of the World Bank Group and IMF and chairing the Finnish National Commission on Sustainable Development. From 2015 to 2019 she sat on Parliament’s Committee for Foreign Affairs. She also served as the Foreign Minister’s Special Representative on Mediation (2017-19) and chaired the Finnish National Commission for UNESCO (2015-18).

Anna Tibblin has a rich and valuable experience in international development, both from Sweden and other countries from over more than 30 years. Her focus is on cooperative business development together with the Swedish cooperative business sector. She has worked and lived more than 10 years in Southern Africa and Latin America and as a consultant evaluating development projects. Anna believes that Agenda 2030 is not only smart – but also possible to achieve.

Atte Penttilä has extensive experience in food systems research. Penttilä has studied, for example, the impact of banana cultivation on local communities in Belize, measures of food aid actors taken in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Florida, and situations of Ukrainian seasonal workers and their employers during the recent crises. His doctoral research in applied cultural anthropology, conducted at the University of South Florida, focused on the responses of the global development cooperation sector to the pandemic, particularly its impact on farmers' organisations. At E2 Research Penttilä’s work has focused on issues such as crisis resilience of agricultural actors, vulnerabilities in food systems, and situations of Ukrainian refugees and seasonal workers in Finland. Before entering the world of research, Penttilä worked in development cooperation in Ethiopia and Finland.

Tiina Huvio is a specialist in agriculture, forestry, and rural development. During her career, she has worked for FAO, the Finnish and Danish foreign ministries and lived several years in West Africa and Central America. Since 2013 she has worked for Food and Forest Development Finland (FFD) and from April 2022 onwards as Executive Director. At the beginning of 2018, Tiina took the responsibility to lead the climate action of the AgriCord Alliance. She is a member of Forest and Farm Facility which she chairs since 2018. She is a passionate defender of smallholders and their organizations as the backbone for food security and climate resilience.

Satu Santala is the Associate Vice-President of ERG. Satu has extensive experience in international relations and development. Prior to her role at IFAD, she served as Director General for Development Policy at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

She has held various positions at the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, including as Director for the Unit for Development Finance and at Finland’s Embassies in New Delhi and Dar es Salaam. She was Executive Director at the World Bank, where she represented Nordic and Baltic countries and she has also represented Finland in replenishment negotiations and governing bodies for MDBs as well as the Green Climate Fund. She has also worked with the Finnish Red Cross. Satu holds a Master of Political Science, International Public Law & Development Studies from the Åbo Akademi in Finland.

Kaisa Karttunen is a doctor of agricultural and forestry sciences who has created a versatile career as an expert in international food security and food systems. Kaisa has previously worked, for example, in international expert positions at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization FAO and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and as a researcher and programme director at e2 Research. Currently Kaisa is a freelance agriculture consultant working climate change, food securitity, rural income diversification and sustainable agriculture development issues.

Anne Valto is experienced in forestry, natural resources and environment with management consulting industry and financing skills. Her areas of expertise are smallholder forestry and plantation forestry, forest certification, sustainable development, public-private partnerships, corporate social responsibility and forest management.

Birgit Nevala previously worked as Development Cooperation and Communications Manager at U-landshälp från Folk till Folk in Finland mainly in teacher training and vocational training projects and agricultural projects in Mozambique, Malawi, India, and Angola. Also acted as a lecturer at Helsinki University for African-studies and as a researcher in Museum of cultures

Kastory Matembele Timbula has 26 years of working experience with multinational commercial companies, international development NGOs, development projects and farmers' organizations. Kastory has worked with Unilever, TechnoServe Inc, Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Indufor Oy, Forestry Development Trust and Tanzania Tree Growers Associations Union. His focus is on agriculture, forestry, rural development, marketing, and business development. Other areas of experience include community-based forest management (CBFM) value chains and small-scale farmers, village land use planning (VLUP), community and village level development participatory processes; training, organizing and mobilizing rural communities into commercial producer groups for joint marketing and negotiating best prices for their produce

Kati Partanen is a Finnish farmer and forest owner, and a member of the Board in the WFO (World Farmers Organisation) and in MTK (Central Union of Agriculture Producers and Forest Owners, Finland). She has studied agricultural economics in Helsinki University and has graduated as M.Sc. in Agriculture. She also works as a senior lecturer of Farm Economics in Savonia University of Applied Sciences. In their farm they produce wheat, rye, oats and barley, peas, buckwheat, and rapeseed. An important part of the farm is also forestry.