German-Ukrainian Agricultural Entrepreneurs Forum

German entrepreneur and finance expert; founder of Salm‑Salm & Partner GmbH (independent asset management firm established 1989/1990) 

Extensive leadership experience as CEO/managing partner, specializing in sustainable investments, particularly convertible bonds and investments in agriculture and forestry 

Broad professional background across finance and agribusiness, including roles in banking and managing wine, agricultural, and forestry enterprises 

Strong involvement in industry associations, including Vice President of the European Landowners’ Organisation, and leadership roles in land and forestry sector organizations 

Advocate of a sustainability-driven investment approach, combining capital market strategies with real assets such as forests and agricultural land 

Chairman of the Ukrainian Agri Council (since 2015), representing medium-sized agricultural producers and advocating for sector reforms and EU integration. 

Former Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine (2014–2015), involved in post-Maidan agricultural reforms. 

President of the Association of Milk Producers of Ukraine (since 2009), leading one of the country’s key dairy industry organizations. 

Agribusiness expert and entrepreneur, with a background in agricultural consulting, investment promotion, and sector development. 

Founder of the “SaveUA” charity initiative, coordinating humanitarian and agricultural support during the war and promoting global food security. 

Ukrainian politician, business leader, and expert on agricultural and food systems, agricultural policy, AgTech, and sustainable agriculture. She earned her Ph.D. in agricultural policy from Humboldt University in Berlin. She has more than 13 years of professional experience in the German agricultural sector. After returning to Ukraine in 2016, she led a project on agricultural trade policy under the DCFTA agreement. From 2016 to 2019, she served as Deputy and Acting Minister of Agriculture. She headed Epicenter Agro, worked as a consultant on food security and trade, and served as a Special Envoy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 2024, she has led the Agrifood team at the Ukraine Facility Platform, and since 2026, she has led the APD-Ukraine project. She is actively involved in EU initiatives and institutions.

Dutch agricultural entrepreneur with over 20 years of farming experience in Ukraine, specializing in large-scale, diversified agricultural production, dairy farming, and resilient farm management under crisis conditions.

Kischenzi Agriculture is a diversified farming enterprise combining crop production, vegetable production, dairy farming, pig farming. The company employs modern technologies and continuously upgrades machinery, including innovative systems such as NEXAT, contributing to high productivity and efficiency. 

Kischenzi applies resource-efficient and circular farming practices, including manure management and energy-efficient production systems. The farm is actively exploring and implementing sustainable and decentralized energy solutions to enhance resilience in conditions of energy instability.

The Bioenergy Association of Ukraine (UABio) is a leading industry platform promoting sustainable bioenergy and the use of biomass, biogas and biofuels in Ukraine. It connects businesses, researchers and policymakers, supports market development, and advocates for modern regulations and investment in renewable heat and power. Co-founder Georgii Geletukha is a recognized Ukrainian bioenergy expert specializing in the development, management and implementation of bioenergy and waste-to-energy projects. He has 10+ years of experience across biomass and waste technologies (combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, landfill gas utilisation, liquid fuels) and has contributed to international projects with partners such as DENA, EVA and others. He has authored 50+ articles for journals and conferences.

Oleksandr Chumak is a Ukrainian agricultural entrepreneur and innovator from the Odesa region, and Founder & Managing Director of LLC “Michurina+” and LLC “Sarazhynka”. Across decades in farming, he has built high-performing operations (around 10,000 ha of grain and oilseed production) while systematically integrating decentralized energy solutions to strengthen business resilience.

In his companies, Chumak focuses on energy independence for agricultural enterprises by diversifying energy sources, implementing autonomous power backup (including modern generator sets), and upgrading to energy-efficient machinery to keep critical processes such as grain drying and storage running despite grid instability. Leveraging the farms’ substantial biomass base, he also promotes waste-to-energy and bioenergy pathways that can reduce emissions and improve local energy security. Through the involvement of the Regional Energy Company (a co-founder of LLC “Michurina+”), his enterprises combine large-scale crop production with professional energy management, linking efficiency gains with a practical roadmap toward distributed, more reliable energy supply.

Holger Kray is an agriculture economist with global expertise in agricultural policy and strategy reform, sustainable agriculture and rural development, agri-food market and regional integration, and public sector management. He has extensive working experience across Africa, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Before joining the World Bank, he served a global management consulting firm, mainly as senior expert on change management in the financial services industry and later led a development consulting firm working with international organizations. He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Kiel University, Germany.   

In Ukraine, the World Bank supports the country’s relief, recovery and reconstruction—helping sustain essential public services, mobilizing donor financing through dedicated trust funds, and financing urgent repairs and rebuilding of critical infrastructure. 

In the agriculture sector, the World Bank helps keep farms operating and strengthens resilience by expanding access to affordable finance and grants (e.g., the ARISE emergency support project for farmers) and by supporting credit-risk tools such as the Partial Credit Guarantee Fund in Agriculture (PCGF) to improve lending to small farmers. 

Dipl.-Ing. agr. Hubertus Paetow is President of the DLG e.V. and a practicing farmer based in Finkenthal-Schlutow, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Originally from Schleswig-Holstein, he trained as a farmer and studied agricultural sciences in Göttingen and Kiel. Until 2005 he managed an arable farm near Kiel; since then he has run his own business focused on arable farming and seed production. Paetow served as DLG Vice President and Chair of the DLG Test Center from 2015, and has been DLG President since 2018, contributing to bodies such as Germany’s Council for Sustainable Development and the Future Commission on Agriculture.