HLPDAB: Successful, Efficient, and Effective Regulatory Cooperation on Agricultural Biotechnology in APEC

Prof. Dr. James Dale AC FTSE

Distinguished Professor, Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

James is an agricultural biotechnologist working on developing the next generation of banana cultivars for the banana industry and for resource poor farmers in developing countries. He leads the Banana Biotechnology Program at Queensland University of Technology. The major outcomes include disease resistant bananas and bananas with enhanced levels of micronutrients. The “golden bananas,” developed in collaboration with Ugandan colleagues and the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have elevated levels of pro-vitamin A as a strategy to overcome vitamin A deficiency in Uganda. The program has also developed Cavendish bananas with resistance to Fusarium wilt tropical race 4 (TR4), a disease which threatens the continued production of Cavendish worldwide. The best line, QCAV-4, was developed using genetic modification and has been approved for cultivation and consumption in Australia. This is the first genetically modified bananas released to farmers in the world. James was the 2019 Queensland Senior Australian of the Year and is a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).

Dr. Alejandra Ferenczi

Biosecurity Risk Assessment Advisor and Coordinator/Plant Physiology Assistant, Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries, Uruguay

Dr. Alejandra Ferenczi is an agronomist with a Ph.D. in environmental risk assessment of transgenic crops from Michigan State University in the USA. She has twenty years of experience in teaching and research in the field of plant physiology at the School of Agronomy, University of the Republic in Uruguay and eighteen years of service at the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries (MGAP). She currently serves as the Risk Assessment Coordinator for GM plants at the National Biosafety System (SNB), a position she has held for eighteen years, and as the Biosafety Manager of the General Directorate of Biosafety and Food Safety (DIGEBIA) at MGAP, overseeing the Biosafety Area, a position she has held since its creation nine years ago. Her expertise is in risk analysis and biosafety related to agrobiotechnology products, including transgenic, genome editing, and other emerging technologies. Additionally, she actively contributes to the coordination of Uruguay’s recently approved National Bioinputs Plan, is involved in international cooperation agreements in sectors such as biosafety, biotechnology, and bioinputs, and represents MGAP in various international commissions. She also serves as a member of the Compliance Committee of the Cartagena Protocol under the Convention on Biological Diversity for the 2025-2028 period.

Ms. Florencia Goberna

Coordination of Innovation and Biotechnology, Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries, Argentina

Florencia Goberna is a biotechnologist with a strong background in regulatory affairs, biosafety, and risk assessment of GMOs and New Breeding Techniques (NBTs). She has extensive experience in policy development, international regulatory harmonization, and capacity building for government agencies. Her fields of expertise include scientific communication, public engagement, and advising policymakers on biotechnology governance. She is passionate about the bioeconomy, sustainability, and technology-driven innovation in agriculture and food security.

Dr. Andrew Roberts

Chief Executive Officer, Agriculture and Food Systems Institute (AFSI), USA

Dr. Andrew Roberts joined the Agriculture and Food Systems Institute (AFSI) in December 2009 as the Deputy Director of the Center for Environmental Risk Assessment (CERA), where he developed tools and materials for use in training and capacity building related to the problem formulation approach to environmental risk assessment and served as the coordinator for CERA’s capacity building projects under the USAID-funded South Asia Biosafety Program (SABP) and the World Bank-funded Partnership for Biosafety Risk Assessment and Regulation, in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam. He also provided technical support for capacity building work in Brazil, India, Japan, Chile, and South Africa. In January 2015, he became the director of CERA, as well as the Center for Safety Assessment of Food and Feed (CSAFF), which worked on food and feed safety assessment for foods derived from genetically engineered plants. The two centers were later consolidated under the Research Foundation, for which he became Deputy Executive Director in January 2017. When the organization became the Agriculture and Food Systems Institute in 2020, his title shifted to Vice President – Biotechnology, and he assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer later that year.

Prior to joining AFSI, Dr. Roberts worked at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in several different capacities, all related to the regulation of agricultural biotechnology. He began his career at USDA as an AAAS Risk Policy Fellow in the Office of Science of Biotechnology Regulatory Services (BRS), the group responsible for regulating genetically engineered plants at USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service. After spending a year in the New Technologies office of the Foreign Agricultural Service serving as the lead for USDA’s efforts related to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, he returned to BRS to serve in the International Affairs branch where he remained until joining AFSI.

Dr. Pedro Rocha

Coordinator for Biotechnology and Biosecurity, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Costa Rica

Dr. Pedro Rocha is a biologist from the National University of Colombia, with a Ph.D. in plant biotechnology and molecular biology from the University of East Anglia and the John Innes Centre in the United Kingdom. He currently serves as International Specialist and Coordinator in Biotechnology and Biosafety at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in Costa Rica. In this role, he supports agricultural ministries across 33 IICA member countries, offering guidance on policy, training, and communication in biotechnology and biosafety. He has contributed to developing regulatory frameworks on bioinputs, living modified organisms (LMOs), and genome editing (GnEd) in 14 Latin American nations. His extensive professional background includes postdoctoral research at the Sainsbury Laboratory in the United Kingdom, roles in Colombia as a researcher at Corpoica (now Agrosavia), Research Assistant at CIAT, Director of Biotechnology at Cenipalma, and Consultant to the National Planning Department (DNP), demonstrating a strong track record in science, regulation, and international cooperation.