Andréa Veríssimo

Director of International Relations and Communication, UNEM

Fernando Alberto Gomes da Costa

Sea and War Captain, Brazilian Navy, Member of the Executive Secretariat of CCA-IMO, International Maritime Organization

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Nautical Sciences (Naval School), with further training in Hydrography and Navigation, a postgraduate course in Maritime Policy and Strategy (Naval War College) and an MBA in International Relations from COPPEAD/Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Throughout his career, he has held the following positions: Commander of two oceanographic research vessels, Superintendent of Environmental Forecasting at the Center for Hydrography and Navigation, Captain of the Ports of the State of Espírito Santo and Defense and Naval Attaché in Portugal. He coordinated the Port Working Group of the Olympic Public Authority (APO) in preparation for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Since 2016 he has coordinated the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in Brazil and since October 2024 he has been joint coordinator of the Correspondence group on the review of the IMO’s Short-term GHG Reduction Measure.

Plinio Nastari

President, DATAGRO

Dr. Nastari holds M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural Economics, from Iowa State University.
Phi Kappa Phi (1983), Gamma Sigma Delta (1983).

Was Professor of Economics at FGV – The Getúlio Vargas Foundation, in São Paulo, in undergraduate and graduate level courses (MBA, Masters and Doctoral programs) from 1984 to 2001.

Member of PAPSAC, the Private and Public, Scientific, Academic and Consumer Food Policy Group, at Harvard University, in Cambridge, MA, USA, since 2012.

Professor at the MBA in Agribusiness Joint Programme established between ESPM in São Paulo and Université de Nantes, France, since 2015.

Former Executive Director and President of the Board of the Brazilian Association of Automotive Engineers (AEA), from 2000 to 2002, during the 1980s he helped the design of ethanol specifications which enabled the use of ethanol in fuel injected engines.

He has served as member of the Technical Committees of Brazil’s Interministerial Council on Sugar and Alcohol, National Energy Commission, and Commission for Reexam of the Energy Matrix. He has assisted the Brazilian government in Energy Planning (1984-86 and 1991-93), industry deregulation (1997-1999), trade negotiations (1991-2004), and trade disputes.

Representative of the Civil Society Specialist in Energy at the National Council on Energy Policy, at the Federal Government of Brazil, designated for the period of 2016 to 2018, and reassigned until 2020.

With extensive experience in trade negotiations and trade disputes at the International Trade Commission and the World Trade Organization, Dr. Nastari has acted before the Brazilian Government as Chief Economist in the trade disputes involving ethanol exports to the United States (US ITC), and subsidized sugar exports from the European Union, European Union bananas import regime, and Brazilian regime for the import of used and retreaded tires (WTO).

He is Arbitrator at the “Camara FGV de Arbitragem” (Arbitration Chamber of the Getulio Vargas Foundation), and at “Camara de Conciliação e Arbitragem da Sociedade Rural Brasileira”) and has acted as Expert Testimony in many cases, at this Chamber and at ICC, the International Chamber of Commerce, in Paris.

Lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – Second Assessment Report (2AR), and Consultant for Biomass Energy other than Wood, to the World Energy Council.

Co-founder and Member of the Sustainable Biofuels Consensus (Bellagio Consensus), Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, Bellagio, Italy, 2008, and Participant of the Bled Strategic Forum, since 2008 in Bled, Slovenia.
Dr. Nastari is Member of the World Sugar Committee, at ICE Futures (Intercontinental Exchange) in New York, where recommendations are made for improvements in contract rules and other matters related to the world trade of sugar.

Member of the Council on Infrastructure of ACSP – Commerce Association of São Paulo, in São Paulo, since 2012.
Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee, National Laboratory for Science and Technology of Bioethanol, National Research Center on Energy and Materials, Brazil´s Ministry of Science, Technology, Inovation and Communication, Federative Republico f Brazil, since 2018.

President and CEO of DATAGRO Consulting Ltd., one of the world’s leading consulting company specialized in agricultural markets, serving clients in 41 countries, since 1984.

He leads a team of 97 collaborators at Datagro, housed in seven offices (Alphaville, Sao Paulo/Capital, Ribeirao Preto, Santos, Recife, Piracicaba, and New York), assisting a host of companies in market analysis, investments in production and logistics assets related to sugar, ethanol and other agrindustrial activities, in countries in the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Throughout the years, Dr. Nastari established a fruitful cooperation between Datagro and the International Sugar Organization (ISO), jointly organizing the prestigious Sugar & Ethanol Conference that precedes the Person of the Year Award (BrazilCham) and the New York Sugar Dinner for the last ten years. He was Chairman of the 19th ISO Annual Seminar in London.

Organizer of the Sugar & Ethanol Summit – Brazil Day, for five consecutive years in London, in cooperation with Brazil’s Ministry of External Relations. Organizer for seventeen consecutive years of the traditional Datagro International Conference in São Paulo that precedes the São Paulo Sugar Dinner, and the Datagro Ceise Br Fenasucro Conference in Sertãozinho, SP, the largest equipment fair for sugar & ethanol in the world. Organizer of the Global Agribusiness Forum, in partnership with the Brazilian Rural Society (SRB), ABRAMILHO (corn producers), ABCZ (cattle producers),Citrus BR (orange juice producers) and Forum Nacional Sucroenergetico (sugar & ethanol producers) a biannual venue which has the official support of the USDA, the European Commission, and the governments of France, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Israel, Turkey and Cuba.

Dr. Nastari is a frequent speaker at energy, biofuels and agribusiness conferences around the globe, with frequent attendance in London, Paris, Brussels, New York, Washington, Delhi, Bangkok, Tokyo, Barcelona, Kyoto, Johannesburg, Bled, Orlando, São Paulo, Singapore, Amsterdam and Dubai.

Honorary Citizen of the State of Nebraska, State Assembly of the State of Nebraska, USA (1998).
Honorary Citizen of the State of Pernambuco, State Assembly of the State of Pernambuco, Brazil (2016).
Scholarship President Ernesto Geisel, by the American Chamber of Commerce in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (1978)

Prize Canassauro Rex (2002).

Keynote Speaker, New York Sugar Dinner 2013, New York, NY, USA (2013).

Prize Top Ethanol (2014), Unica, Union of the Sugar Cane Industry.

Prize Merit of Agroenergy (2018), UDOP, União dos Produtores de Bioenergia.

100 Most Influential in Energy, Full Energy (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019).

Ethanol Man of the Year, Mastercana International (2019).

Keynote Speaker, Sugar & Ethanol Dinner Brazil 2019, Bienal Pavillion Sao Paulo (2019).

Grand Official of the Order of Merit of Anhanguera, State Government of Goiás, 2017.

Commander, Order of Rio Branco, Brazilian Government, 2018.

From his contribution to the development of biofuels in the US Dr. Nastari was awarded and recognized at the White House for his contribution to the development of biofuels use in aviation (2003).

Married to Rute, the couple has three children, Francisco Guilherme (36), Louise (34) and Luiz Felipe (33), and four grandchildren, Carolina (6), José (5), Anna Sophie (4) and Francisco Luiz (3).