AGIC India 2025 speakers
Suzanne Meiklejohn, Partner, HFW Singapore – MC for AGIC India
Suzanne, a Partner in Singapore since relocating from HFW’s London office in 2013, specialises in advising clients involved in the international trading, transportation and financing of a wide spectrum of commodities.
She handles complex multi-jurisdictional disputes in international arbitration and national courts, representing and advising various entities including commodity traders, shippers, ship owners, banks, insurers, and end-users. Suzanne has broad experience in diverse dispute resolution fora such as the English High Court, Court of Appeal, and Supreme Court, as well as EU Courts of Justice, as well as in several arbitral institutions including the SIAC, ICC, LCIA and in trade body arbitrations such as GAFTA and FOSFA.
Pat O’Shannassy, CEO, Grain Trade Australia
Grain Trade Australia is a leading trade organisation in the Australian grains industry, and provides an industry driven self-regulatory framework to the grains industry. Pat has vast industry experience in trading, risk management, policy and government relations, having spent more than 25 years in the grains industry in Australia and USA. He has a diverse experience across the entire value chain, gained from working for trade houses, financial institutions as well as customer service and information businesses.
He currently serves as President of the International Grain Trade Coalition and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture from University of Melbourne, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).
Ambassador Nicholas McCaffrey. Deputy High Commissioner to India
Mr McCaffrey commenced as Deputy High Commission to India in December 2023. Nicholas is a career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He has previously served at Australian missions in Manila, Buenos Aires, and Madrid. He also served in Honiara with the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands, as a Ceasefire Monitor in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, and as Ambassador to Peru, with non-resident accreditation to Bolivia. In Canberra, Nicholas has worked in a range of roles, including in the Latin America Branch and as Director of the Department’s Crisis Management Section.
Kiran Karamil, Agriculture Counsellor, Australian High Commission in New Delhi
Kiran Karamil is the Agriculture Counsellor at the Australian High Commission in New Delhi with responsibilities for South Asia. He has over a decade of experience working on agricultural trade, market access, and free trade agreement negotiations. Mr Karamil was previously posted to Washington DC and holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Masters in International Relations from Macquarie University.
Khalid Khan, Vice President and Head – Procurement & Supply Chain, ITC Limited
Khalid Khan is Vice President and Head of Procurement & Supply Chain at ITC Limited and a member of the Agri Business Management Committee. With over 19 years at ITC, he has led large-scale operations, business turnarounds, and strategic growth initiatives. He played a key role in scaling ITC’s Aashirvaad brand, India’s leading whole wheat flour brand.
Known for his strategic leadership, Khalid fosters a customer-centric culture and drives supply chain optimisation through data-driven decision-making. He holds a B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering and an MBA from IIFT, New Delhi. He is also a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) – National Trade Policy Council.
Josh Marks, Pulse Trader, Viterra
Josh Marks, has been with Viterra Australia since 2010. He has trading experience across the five major Australian pulse crops since 2018 and currently specialises in Lentil, Faba Bean and Field Pea markets focusing on exports to the Indian Subcontinent and Middle East.
Josh has comprehensive supply chain experience thorough prior roles in logistics, grower services and operations. From a family farming background in South Australia, Joshua values the part played in connecting growers with our customers.
Ben Tiller, Head of Trading, CBH Group
Ben Tiller was appointed Head of Trading for the CBH Group in August 2019 after leading the CBH Grain Accumulations group since 2016. Prior to joining CBH, Ben held senior trading and trading management roles with Cargill, Inc., Cargill Australia Limited and CHS Inc.
Ben is also a Director of Agribusiness Australia, an Approved Arbitrator for Grain Trade Australia (GTA), a member of the GTA Commerce Committee and member of the South East Asia Regional Trade Committee for the Grain and Feed Trade Association (GAFTA).
Ratna Sahni, Director of Indian Operations, GrainCorp India
Ratna has over 20 years of experience in the agriculture sector and is the Lead for GrainCorp in India. GrainCorp is a large agribusiness dealing in grains, pulses and oilseeds fulfilling nutrition and energy needs. Ratna has been with GrainCorp in India since 2019. Ratna’s experience includes working with companies like Viterra, ADM, Louis Dreyfus in different businesses like grains, pulses and oilseeds. She has a deep understanding of trade and market access in India. Her current role includes International trade, government policy, and agtech.
Gaurav Jain, Founder & CEO, AgPulse Analytica
Gaurav brings over 15 years of experience in providing market intelligence to physical, hedge, and derivative trading desks across various geographies. Specialising in fundamental research for agricultural commodities, Gaurav has developed a keen expertise in analysing the factors influencing the prices of pulses, grains, and oilseeds. Gaurav has extensively travelled for crop tours, conferences, and exhibitions, leveraging his global insights to offer precise, actionable analysis.
Gaurav is passionate about enhancing transparency in the agricultural sector, he works closely with clients to improve their research capabilities and add value to the industry.
Sadhvi Mohindru, Senior Associate, HFW Singapore – MC for AGIC India
Sadhvi is a Senior Associate in the Commodities group at HFW in Singapore. She has substantial experience of representing clients in complex disputes administered by major arbitral institutions and trade associations, and she regularly acts in commodities trading and charterparty disputes, and contract of carriage claims.
Sadhvi’s broad range of skills includes advisory services at the contract drafting stage, as well as providing pre-arbitration and dispute resolution strategy and guidance. She caters to international clients across Asia and Europe and her diverse portfolio of clients includes commodity traders, shippers and ship owners, whom she has represented in a variety of disputes, including quality disputes, in respect of both, hard and soft commodities.
Yemee Fernandes, Founder & Executive Director, Four Pillars Trading
Yemee has held senior commercial roles in a number of publicly listed companies such as Fairfax, Universal Music Australia and LexisNexis. Over 15 years Yemee has worked across maintaining and creating partnerships with a range of industries from FMCG to digital innovation. Some of her clients in the past included American Express, McDonald’s, Unilever, Virgin Mobile and Coca-Cola.
Born In India, Yemee moved to Australia in 1998 and has detailed insight into the Indian business landscape. She co-founded Four Pillars Trading Australia with a team in Australia and Mumbai to support Australian businesses navigating through the complexities of the Indian market and deliver on-ground operational and marketing support. She continues to work with the likes of the Australian Macadamia Society, Australian Wines and Australian Summerfruit to name a few in developing and executing their India market program.
Ajay Goyal, Chairman, Wheat Products Promotion Society (WPPS)
Ajay Goyal is the Chairman of the Wheat Products Promotion Society (WPPS), a membership organisation committed to promoting the consumption of traditional and non-traditional wheat foods in India. With over 38 years in the flour milling industry, Ajay is also the Director of Indo Bakels and Managing Director of Shivaji Roller Flour Mills.
Through his leadership at WPPS, Ajay has championed initiatives aimed at raising awareness about the nutritional benefits of wheat products, advocating for healthier food options, and fostering innovation within the wheat-based food industry. Ajay’s expertise spans flour milling technology, quality control, and business development. Through WPPS, Ajay advocates for the nutritional benefits of wheat products and drives innovation in the sector.
Manek Gupta, CEO, Viterra India
Manek Gupta is the Country Head of Viterra India, overseeing the Indian arm of a leading global agri-commodity trading company. With 20 years of experience in commodity trading across sectors like Cotton, Grains, Oilseeds, Pulses, Coffee, and Sugar, Manek has held executive roles internationally in Singapore, Dubai, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Netherlands, and has been with Viterra since 2010.
Manek holds an MBA in International Business from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and a degree in Commerce from Shri Ram College of Commerce, New Delhi.
Sunil Kumar Singh, Fmr Additional Managing Director, NAFED
Sunil Kumar Singh has rich experience in the Pulses, Oilseeds and Grain Trade for more than 30 years. He is credited with successfully implementing the Price Support Scheme of Oilseeds, Pulses, Copra and Cereals for the benefit of farmers ensuring Minimum Support Price.
His proposals for the creation of Buffer of Pulses in 2015, discounted Pulses scheme, distribution of Pulses under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) have been the game changers. He has extensively contributed to the Policy framing by the Govt.of India for Pulses and Oilseeds.
His initiatives in development of cohesive bonding with Global Pulse Confederation (GPC) and other International Associations are well known, including Pulse Australia and Grain Trade Australia.
John Ackerman, General Manager Trade and Market Access, Grains Australia
John has over 30 years’ experience in the agriculture sector, focused on all aspects, including research, policy development, and industry representation, covering domestic and international elements, including trade and market access matters.
John spent 16 years in Indonesia where he developed a thorough understanding of the many complex factors that drive trade and market access. His various roles included founding Director of PT Mitra Asia Lestari, a company focused on producing sound research, sustainable business development, and increasing leadership capacity within Southeast Asia’s agriculture and fisheries sectors. John was also the Regional Manager of Meat and Livestock Australia’s SE Asia office where he implemented and managed programs to improve animal welfare matters and to ensure the reopening of the live cattle trade to Indonesia He headed up the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry office within the Australian Embassy in Indonesia and successfully achieved recognition for Australia’s food safety systems, minimising trade barriers for Australia’s billion-dollar grain and horticulture industries.
Kathy La Macchia, General Manager, GLNC for AEGIC
Kathy is an Australian Dietitian who has 20 years’ experience in the food industry globally. Her passion is to support companies in making the best foods that deliver high-quality nutrition in the most sustainable way for the better health of all people and our planet.
Kathy is the General Manager at the Grains and Legumes Nutrition Council, whose focus is exploring evidence-based nutrition research and market insights to promote more wholegrains, legumes and plant-based foods in our diet. Kathy is a member of the International Wholegrains Initiative policy working group, Standards Australia Food Standards committee, the Australasian Grains Science Association council and Grains Australia, pulse council.
Prior to this Kathy worked in the food industry globally, of late being Kraft Heinz company based in the Netherlands where she led the Food Sustainability, Nutrition & Health agenda internationally to improve the product portfolio.
Kathy has been on the Rise Against Hunger Corporate committee since 2021 a global movement to end hunger.
Peter Breguet, Senior Manager, Trade and Market Access, Grains Australia
Peter has broad experience in international agricultural commodity marketing, grain quality and a long-time participant in the Australian grains industry.
Peter has most recently worked with a grain processor (Unigrain), in cargo export certification (ASC) and previously with a number of agricultural commodity storage and trading companies in both grains and sugar.
He is well-versed in fostering relationships with growers, industry, government and international partners.
Peter grew up in a mixed farming business near Geelong in Victoria and he is now back based in country Victoria.
Rosemary Richards, Principal, Browman & Richards Associates
Rosemary is the principal of Bowman Richards & Associates, a consulting firm specialising in providing strategic support to the agribusiness, food and technology sectors. Rosemary is a passionate senior executive, communicator and industry advocate. Her experience in project management, trade policy and strategic development extends across all facets of agri and food businesses and covers work with public and private companies, industry organisations and government.
Rosemary undertakes a range of strategic planning, market analysis and trade policy activities for the grains and food industry and has led work on non-tariff trade measures for both sectors. She also has extensive experience across innovation and sustainabilit,y including frameworks, impact evaluation and advocacy.
Rosemary assists Grain Trade Australia (GTA) on trade and market access matters. She represents GTA on the International Grain Trade Coalition policy groups covering biotechnology and innovation. She has undertaken projects for GTA and the Australian Government as part of APEC and ASEAN activities in particular in relation to non-tariff measures and MRLs, and value chain case studies, including participation in APEC meetings. Rosemary is Chair of the Australian Oilseeds Federation, Chair of Sustainable Grain Australia, and a director of Sugar Research Australia.