Board of Directors

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Mr. Arne Cartridge


Chair of the Board

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Arne Cartridge is an internationally recognised leader in sustainable food systems, digital public infrastructure and climate-nature governance. As Chair of the Varda Foundation, he guides the strategy and stewardship of Global FieldID, SoilHive and other digital public goods that reduce fragmentation, build trust and enable more resilient, regenerative agriculture. A former senior leader at the World Economic Forum, WBCSD and Yara International, and co-founder of Grow Africa and the Africa Food Systems Forum, he is widely regarded as a systems catalyst and trusted bridge-builder.

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Dr. Leigh Winowiecki


Global Research Leader: Soil and Land Health, CIFOR-ICRAF

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Dr. Leigh Ann Winowiecki is Global Research Lead for Soil and Land Health at CIFOR-ICRAF in Nairobi, Kenya. A soil scientist, she focuses on landscape restoration, drivers of degradation and the impacts of land management on soil health. Since 2009, she has co-developed and implemented the Land Degradation Surveillance Framework in over 45 countries, generating open datasets on soil organic carbon, land degradation and ecosystem services. She co-founded the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health and serves on UN restoration task forces and the boards of IUAF, IFDC and the Varda Foundation.

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Dr. Giulia Stellari


Director at Fall Line Capital

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Giulia Stellari is Director at Fall Line Capital, leading impact initiatives in farmland and venture portfolios. Previously at Unilever, she managed global sustainable procurement programs, advancing digital agriculture, transparency, and greenhouse gas reduction programs. She co-founded AgSquared, a farm data management platform, and holds a Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Biology from Cornell and an A.B. in biology from Harvard. Giulia is also a non-executive director at SIPEF, Chair of Cool Farm Alliance, former member of the SBTi Technical Advisory Group, advisor to UNHCR on carbon removals, and an expert on the EU Expert Group on Carbon Removals.

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Dr. Andrea Porro


Secretary General of the World Farmers' Organisation

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Dr Andrea Porro is currently the Secretary General of the World Farmers' Organisation (WFO). With over 18 years of experience in development and humanitarian programs across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. In the last 10 years, he focused his work on agriculture and livestock, research and education, DRR and natural resource management, technical support and capacity building for Government and international organizations.

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Mr. Ruan Boezaart


Senior Vice President of Digital Services at Yara International

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Catherine Nakalembe


Professor at University of Maryland

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Dr. Catherine Nakalembe is Africa Program Director for NASA Harvest and an Associate Research Professor at the University of Maryland. A Ugandan remote sensing scientist, she applies satellite imagery and machine learning to crop monitoring, food security early warning, and smallholder agriculture across more than 50 countries. Her doctoral research informed a disaster risk financing program for the Ugandan Government that unlocked aid for over 80,000 households facing crop failure. She has since built operational crop monitoring systems used by multiple African government ministries. Her work has been recognised with the Africa Food Prize, the Uganda Golden Jubilee Medal, and the Al-Sumait Prize for African Development. She serves on the board of the Varda Foundation.