Crop Care Regulatory Conference

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

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

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.