I'm finishing out 2023 with the amazing Christain Schmitz, we talk about passion, impact, collaboration and The Earthshot Prize, from an official nominator perspective.

Founder at PDIE Group | Official Earthshot Prize Nominator | Investor | CEO at Aventa - Smart Marketing & Lifestyle | CMO at DCX - Rice Exchange and Fertilizer Exchange

I started my career in the agrochemicals divisions of Bayer and BASF becoming a rice crop expert. While holding numerous global and local management positions my work on high-level development projects brought me to almost every rice-producing country in the world.

Visiting local farmer communities and research facilities in developing and developed countries gave me a thorough image of all facets of rice production. After ten years in the agrochemicals business, I became marketing director for Henkel and Japan country manager for the German furniture brand hülsta. Since 2009, I have been managing my boutique consulting firm Aventa providing services for international and Japanese corporations. I also took part in a social media venture called Quchy and invested in two startups by myself. At the moment, I represent the World Innovations Forum/Society3 in Japan. This organization aims to build a global innovation ecosystem to help entrepreneurs and corporate intrapreneurs succeed in bringing their ideas to market.

I am fascinated by the new possibilities of blockchain and joint Rice Exchange as CMO and Head of Asia. This company will create a global trade platform for rice and will bring more transparency, efficiency and liquidity to the 450 bn USD global rice market.