Matthew Hodges is the founder and CEO of GeoCertify LLC. He has worked in the coffee industry since 2006. His interest in coffee was initially sparked in Rwanda, while helping relaunch the Rwandan tourism industry after the war and genocide. At that time Mr. Hodges began working to help Rwandan coffee farmers manage risk and develop identity in the growing specialty coffee sector. As system architect of the GeoCertify Traceability system, Mr. Hodges applied cloud-based technology to directly connect farmers with consumers. He began working in Ethiopia in 2012, in partnership with Starbucks, to scale to the magnitude and diversity of the global coffee market. For the past 2 years GeoCertify has provided traceability services for the Starbucks Reserve program, tracing all Reserve coffees from 20 origin countries. In addition, Mr. Hodges has developed consumer-facing solutions such as an "interactive table" that can recognize a cup of coffee placed on it.

His background is art (B.A., Penn State), education (Ed.M. Harvard), and software engineering (Digital Equipment Corp/MIT).

Joanna Furgiuele is the Fundraising and Program Manager for the non-profit, Coffee Kids. Coffee Kids partners with communities to foster the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit needed to protect the future of coffee farming. Founded in 1988, Coffee Kids was the first nonprofit within the specialty coffee industry dedicated solely to improving coffee farmers’ quality of life. In the 27 years since Coffee Kids’ inception, they have partnered with over 200,000 coffee-farming families in over 400 communities, and a generous base of supporters from both within and outside of the coffee industry to empower farmers to improve their lives and livelihoods.

Hanna Neuschwander is Communications Director for World Coffee Research.Hanna is among the world’s foremost “explainers” of coffee and coffee science. Whether she’s explaining the impact of climate change to a room full of coffee roasters, or coffee genetics to a hedge fund trader, or coffee brewing to her mom, the intersection of coffee and science is her passion. She writes regularly and speaks globally about the future of coffee and coffee agriculture. She is the author of over 50 magazine articles on coffee, and of the book Left Coast Roast. She has a degree from McGill University. She is based in Portland, Oregon.