Crop Care Regulatory Conference

Mónica is the President of the European Crop Care Association (ECCA), and member of its board since 2019.

She joined Ascenza in 2017, at that time Sapec, where she is member of Ascenza Board with the responsibility of Product Safety, Regulatory and R&D.

She started her career in 1912 in the Ministry of Agriculture in the Plant Protection Directorate, where she was for 7 years, followed by 18 years as Regulatory Affairs and Stewardship Manager in Syngenta.

Monica is Agronomic Engineer by the University of Lisbon, have always been dedicated to the plant protection sector with special focus on registration and stewardship.

Paolo is General Manager at the European Crop Care Association (ECCA).

Pankaj is Vice President of the European Crop Care Association (ECCA).

Manuel Duarte is an independent consultant on PPP’s regulatory and, in parallel, holds the position of Regulatory Director for the European Crop Care Association (ECCA). His background is agronomy with a master in crop protection (1988). All his professional career was on the PPP field, mainly focused on regulatory area. After passing through several positions as field trials manager, regulatory manager and marketing project manager in a local Portuguese company, he joined Sapec (now Ascenza) in 2004. In 2007, he moved to Sapec’s Technical Department, becoming its director since 2010, until he left the company. In January 2019, he founded his own independent consulting company.

Christian Prohaska is Head of Department for Residue Behaviour, Physchem Properties and Analytical Methods for the Institute for Plant Protection Products at the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES).

Christian studied Food and Biotechnology at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna from 1984 to 1993. From 1994 to 2000, he worked for various public institutions, including the Federal Institute for Food Control and Research, the Federal Chancellery, the Department for Toxicology, and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management. During this period, [his/her/their] work focused on a range of risk assessment issues related to plant protection products, including consumer risk assessment, evaluation of residue behavior, and the environmental fate of such products with regard to drinking water contamination.

In 2000, he completed a postgraduate program in toxicology at the Institute for Cancer Research, Medical University of Vienna. In 2002, he began working in the field of toxicology at AGES as deputy head of the Department of Toxicology. Responsibilities included risk assessment for operators, bystanders, and workers, as well as evaluation of plant protection products in terms of toxicology and classification and labeling.

By 2005, Christian became head of the Department of Residue Behaviour at AGES. he is a member of the EU Commission Working Group on “Post-Approval Issues” (serving as chair since 2019) and of the Central Zone Steering Committee.

Lawrence Middler is Senior Analyst at AgbioInvestor

Lawrence has 15 years of experience in the crop protection industry, covering a range of roles from conducting pre-clinical studies in support of the registration of ag-vet AIs at a major CRO, through to ten years working in senior analytical roles within Phillips McDougall and now AgbioInvestor.

At AgbioInvestor Lawrence leads the biologicals analysis vertical, including the AgBiological multi-client report which covers the global biopesticide and biostimulants industries, and is powered by ABI’s proprietary biologicals market research.

Kostas Markakis is Technical Director at the European Crop Care Association (ECCA).

Max Schulman is a Farmer and Senior Advisor at Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK), attending on behalf of COPA COGECA.

Max, born 14.03.1966, grew up on his family’s farm which he took over in 1986. Stor-Tötar Gård, is an old farm that combines arable land and forestry in Southwestern Finland that has been in the family for around 400 years. Continuity that hopefully will go forward since Max is raising three boys together with his Spanish wife Marta.

Before taking over the full responsibility of running the farm and having taken a degree in agricultural economics, he became a grain trader for the Finnish Grain Board. After that Max worked in the agricultural machinery sector from 2003 until 2008. This job took him all over the world from America to China.

For the last 18 years he has been working in the Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK) as the Senior Advisor for cereals, oilseeds, and protein crops.

Max was Chairman 2013–2019 of the Cereals Working Group in Copa-Cogeca based in Brussels. He is a member of the EU Arable Crops Market Observatory and 2018-20 Chairman of the Civil Dialogue Group, Arable Crops. From 2020 –. Owner of Farm-XPort Ltd, grain trading company for special consignments. Co-founder and member of the board of Grain Sense Ltd, the portable protein and quality analyzer for grains. Chairman of VYR the Finnish Grain Committee, 2018 – 2021. Chair of the Agri Food Chain Round Table on PPP 2020 – and Chairman of the Copa Cogeca Phytosanitary WG from 2023 -, vice chairman of the Seeds WG 2023 -, member of the EU Fertilizer Market Observatory.

Glauco is an Agricultural Attaché at the Brazilian Mission to the European Union in Brussels.

Glauco is an Agronomist with a postgraduate degree in fertilizer technology as well as in data science with over 20 years' experience in the field.

At the Ministry of Agriculture, Glauco worked in various areas (plant inspection, agricultural inputs, crop protection and international surveillance) and held positions as head of service, Federal Superintendent and Director of the Department for the Inspection of Products of Plant Origin.

Internationally, he was a Brazilian delegate to the International Wine Organization (OIV) and one of the Brazilian delegates to the OECD's Fruit and Vegetables Group. Member of the CCFICS of the Codex Alimentarius and expert of the Brazilian delegation to UN/CEFACT. Also at the OIV, he was coordinator of the working group on electronic wine certification.

Euros Jones is a Partner in Environmental Resources Management (ERM) based in Brussels. He joined ERM in December 2017 having previously held the post of Regulatory Affairs Director in the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA - now CropLife Europe).

Within ERM, he is involved in a range of crop protection and chemical projects, in particular providing policy and technical advocacy input to support the regulatory submission and evaluation process. Euros also has significant experience in managing a number of crop protection Task Forces and REACH Consortia.

Euros currently holds the role of President of the European Association of Regulatory Consultants and Contract Research Laboratories (EACL). Established in 2024, EACL aims to represent the collective interest of Contract Research Organisations and of Regulatory Consultants in Europe and now has over 50 company members.

Herbert Dorfmann is a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the European People's Party (Christian Democrats).

Herbert Dorfmann is a politician from South Tyrol, a German-speaking region in Northern Italy and is currently serving his fourth term as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP).

After having completed a degree in Agrarian Sciences in Piacenza, Mr. Dorfmann started his professional career as a professor at the Agricultural College in Ora/Auer. He then became the director of the agriculture department at the Chamber of Commerce of Bolzano/Bozen and went on to direct the South Tyrolean Farmers’ Federation (SBB) for nearly ten years. Dorfmann’s political career started in 2005 when he became the mayor of his hometown, Velturno/Feldthurns. In 2009, he was elected for his first mandate at the European Parliament and was subsequently re-elected as a MEP for the European People’s Party in 2014, 2019, and 2024. In his fourth term as MEP, he is a member of the AGRI Committee, a member of the FISC Subcommittee and a substitute member in the ECON Committee. Mr. Dorfmann is also Vice-Chair in the European Parliament’s Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly, and he is a member of the Delegation for relations with Mercosur and with the People’s Republic of China.

Gijs Schilthuis is Director ‘Sustainability’ at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) since December 2024. Since 2008, he has worked in different capacities on agricultural policy reform in this Directorate-General, including as head of unit for Policy Perspectives from 2019-2024.

He first joined the European Commission in 2005 at the Directorate-General for Health and Consumers. Prior to joining the Commission, he worked at the European Parliament as a parliamentary assistant. He earned a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Wageningen University in 2000. He is a Dutch national.

Mark Williams has worked in the Pesticides and Biocides Unit at DG SANTE for more than 10 years. Mark is working primarily on the implementation of Regulation 1107/2009, focussed on the policy and decision making for active substances, co-chairing the Post Approvals Issues Group and working on the development of new guidance. Before joining the Commission he worked at the Health and Safety Executive in the United Kingdom and has a background in biochemistry and biomedicine.

Hendrik studied Biology at Technical University Braunschweig, with a focus on Cell Biology and Genetics. In 2022, Hendrik completed a PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) at Technical University Braunschweig and the Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH. His doctoral research focused on the analysis of plant stress granules in response to plant viruses.

Since joining BVL in 2022, Hendrik took over the responsibilities of the Secretariat of the CZSC, izSC and PAI as well as DCG and HLM. Hendrik was one of the main organisers of the ZAPID workshop in December 2023 in Braunschweig.

Maryse is co-owner and Managing Director of the European Consulting Company (ECCO), the leading European consultancy specialised in food regulatory affairs and the management of associations in the food ingredient sector.

Since joining ECCO in 2004, Maryse has served the interests of a variety of trade associations and food companies, notably as Secretary General of a leading European umbrella association in the food ingredient sector. Maryse has advised clients on food ingredient regulations and food policy in Europe and has provided guidance on regulatory processes for technical developments in food science within the EU framework, including engagement with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

Having graduated as a food microbiologist engineer, Maryse started her career in the R&D department of a French food company developing innovative ingredients. Maryse then held various leadership roles in a number of companies in the food sector within the departments of marketing, communications and crisis management, before moving to the field of food regulatory affairs.

Bruno Menne is the Director of the Commodities team at Copa and Cogeca, an agricultural umbrella organisation representing over 65 national farm organisations and cooperatives in Europe. In addition to the Commodities team, his portfolio includes more specifically arable crops and the sustainable food systems. Bruno holds a master degree in International Public Management from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, and a master in Public Administration with a specialisation EU affairs from the Université Catholique De Louvain La Neuve. Prior to joining the Copa-Cogeca Secretariat in Brussels in 2020, He worked as a Policy Officer for three years at the organization Safe Food Advocacy Europe, a Brussels based organization defending consumers interests in all EU legislation related to food.

Donal grew up on a mixed livestock farm where he is still actively involved in the day-to-day management. He graduated from University College Dublin in 2002 with B.Agr.SC (Hons.)(Animal Science). Donal joined the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in 2004 and has been working in the Pesticide Controls Division (PCD) since joining. Prior to his current role as head of PPP authorisations, Donal has held various roles within the division including enforcement, cross compliance, SUD policy and head of biocide registrations.

He actively participates in various expert groups of the EU Minor Use Co-ordination Facility where he was chair of the Horizontal Expert Group from 2017 to 2021. Donal currently represents Ireland at the SCoPAFF legislation meetings and regularly contributes to the Post Approval Issues Working Group and Interzonal Steering Committee discussions.

Angelo Di Mambro has covered EU agriculture and food policy in Brussels since 2011. Between 2019 and 2024, he covered the EU Green Deal for ANSA, Italy's leading news agency. He has been the editor at Euractiv's Agrifood Desk since January 2024.

Athos Pappas is a Partner at the Brussels-based law firm Pappas & Associates. He advises clients on a wide range of EU regulatory matters, with a focus on the plant protection industry. His practice covers the entire lifecycle of product compliance, including approval and authorisation procedures, mutual recognition, parallel trade, data sharing and protection, and access to documents under EU transparency rules.

Athos has extensive experience representing companies and industry associations before the European Commission, EU agencies, and national competent authorities, both in relation to policy formulation and in ensuring regulatory compliance during implementation. He also appears regularly before the EU Courts in Luxembourg and frequently handles negotiations and disputes concerning regulatory data access and compensation.

Prior to founding the law firm Pappas & Associates, Spyros Pappas held a number of senior positions in Greece, the Netherlands, and the European Commission.

Admitted to the Athens Bar in 1976, he was appointed to the Greek Supreme Administrative Court (Conseil d’État) in 1978 and became Maître des Requêtes in 1983. In 1985, he was appointed Secretary General of the newly established National Centre for Public Administration, which he was responsible for setting up.

In 1988, he joined the European Institute of Public Administration in Maastricht as Associate Professor of European Law, and was subsequently appointed Professor in 1992. He served as Director-General of the Institute from 1990 to 1995.

From 1995 to 2001 he held several Director-General posts within the European Commission. He was first appointed Director-General for Consumer Policy (DG XXIV), where he was responsible for establishing and developing the Directorate-General, which subsequently evolved into the Directorate-General for Health and Consumer Protection (SANCO). He later served as Director-General for Information, Communication, Culture and Audiovisual Policy (DG X), and finally as Director-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC), a Directorate-General he also proposed and established.

Since returning to private practice in 2001, he has been a member of both the Athens and Brussels Bar Associations. He is the author of books and articles on administrative, constitutional, and Union law and policy.