Keynote Speakers

Global Oil Markets

Lorin DeBonte is the Assistant Vice President, Research & Development, Cargill Specialty Canola Oils Business Unit of Cargill, Inc in the USA. He is a key scientist in creating the genetic platform for high oleic, low linolenic, and reduced saturate canola oils sold under the Cargill’s Clear Valley brand. In this capacity he connects a diverse team of scientists that includes plant breeders, biotechnologists, gene engineers, and food chemists to provide new food formulations built on the specialty canola oil platform. He has worked in specialty canola oil trait and crop development since 1986 and was a founding member of the InterMountain Canola JV between DNA Plant Technology and Dupont in 1991. He is the inventor on 30 U.S patents that cover canola oil, food functionality, genetic traits, gene engineering, and plant breeding.

Safflower Marketing

Nitin Kathuria is responsible for the procurement of Safflower seed and oil for Marico Limited.  Marico is a leading FMCG company in India with annual turnover of more than US$440 million and is the largest marketer of packed Safflower oil in India sold under the brand name of “Saffola”.  He has over six years of experience in handling various commodities and supply chain roles within Marico. He is exclusively handling a team of agriculture graduates who are responsible for developing safflower crop in India. Nitin previously worked with the Economic Research Service division of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington.  He holds a MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; and a Bachelor’s degree in Food & Dairy Technology from National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal.

David Hoffsten is the Sales Manager of Adams Vegetable Oils, Inc (AVO) based in Arbuckle, California, USA. AVO's primary focus is with specialty vegetable oils production and marketing and they are a principal source for Organic vegetable oils such as Safflower, Sunflower, Canola, High Oleic Sunflower and Extra Virgin Olive oil. With offices in Rotterdam, Australia, China, and South America- their operations are truly international in scope. AVO serves export and domestic markets to a diverse client base with applications in edible, pharmaceutical, industrial, and cosmetic products around the world. David’s entire career has been concentrated in the marketing of specialty vegetable oils (both edible and industrial grades), most notably Safflower Oil. He started with PVO, the company responsible for the commercialization of Safflower Oil in the United States, Balfour McLaine, California Fats and Oils and then joined AVO in 1987. He holds a degree in marketing and business administration from Northern Michigan University

 

Safflower Agronomy

John Gilbert is from the USA, haling from the Sacramento Valley he is a native Californian. John is a graduate of the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a B.S degree in Crop Science. On graduating from College John worked for seven years as an in crop pest control advisor before joining the Adams Grain Company as a field representative a position he has held for the past 22 years. In this position John has gained extensive field experience in practical safflower husbandry in the USA, Mexico, Argentina, Australia and parts of Africa.

 

Dr. Nandini Nimbkar is the President of the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) based at Phaltan, Maharashtra, India and holds two postgraduate degrees from the University of Florida, USA. Her areas of specialization include safflower and sweet sorghum, agronomy and breeding.  She has authored 50 publications in various national and international journals and conference proceedings and has co-authored 3 book chapters, most recently a chapter on safflower in a CRC Press publication. She has participated in conducting yield maximization, methods of planting, nutrient management and sowing date trials in irrigated safflower at NARI during the last 25 years.  This has resulted in development of a package of practices for harnessing the full potential of safflower under a limited irrigation conditions.

Safflower Breeding

Dr Hans-Henning Mundel is from Canada and has been involved in safflower breeding for nearly 40 years. He holds a degree, from UBC in Vancouver in Plant Science, two Masters from the University of California, Davis and a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, in Plant Breeding, with a thesis in wheat breeding methodology. He has worked in India, Kenya, Germany, Ethiopia and Pakistan whilst also running breeding programs at Lethbridge in Canada for 29 years. He has published 90 research articles as major author, 23 of which have been on safflower, he is currently co-authoring a chapter on safflower breeding for a book ‘Handbook  on Oil Crop Breeding’ for the Springer group.

Safflower Germplasm

Dr Richard Johnson is from the USA and  holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Agronomy from Washington State University, and a PhD in Agronomy from Kansas State University. He is currently Research Agronomist at the USDA-ARS Plant Germplasm Research and Testing Unit, Pullman, Washington, USA and Adjunct Professor of Crops and Soils, Washington State University, USA.  His research has emphasized conservation, regeneration, and enhancement of plant genetic resources; molecular and phenotypic assessment of genetic diversity; and plant response to environmental factors.  Johnson’s interests have led to improved maintenance, acquisition, and evaluation of Safflower genetic resources.  Recent work includes characterization of Safflower germplasm using AFLP techniques and development of winter hardy Safflower. He is Author/Co-Author of more than 150 publications including more than 50 peer reviewed articles.

Safflower Biotechnology

Dr Sujatha Mulpuri is from India and holds M.Sc and M.Phil degrees in Plant Sciences from University of Hyderabad, India and a PhD in Genetics from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India. At present she is working as Principal Scientist (Genetics and Cytogenetics) at the Directorate of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad, India. She has 23 years of experience in oilseed crops research and her main areas of interest are genetics, reproductive biology, tissue culture and genetic transformation, crop breeding with specific reference to introgressive breeding and molecular markers in oilseed crops.