Solomon has 25 years’ work experience as a senior value chain advisor on hive-products, from production and processing to planning and programme management. He has coordinated farmer business schools, trained beekeepers and developed beekeeping training materials. He has also developed quality assurance and traceability mechanisms; and developed food safety monitoring systems for EU compliance for honey and wax. He has worked with the Ethiopian Apiculture Board in various capacities, and with bilateral programmes and NGOs, and has developed honey value chains for programmes operating in Biosphere reserves.

Cecilia is an international business development expert, with extensive experience in agribusiness and honey value chains. She has over 10 years’ experience in honey processing projects and international honey businesses, providing technical assistance and training services for commercialising and developing honey value chains in Latin America, Europe and Africa. Cecilia was the International Projects Expert for Parodi Group, one of the world’s largest honey trading companies, for nine years. She has also delivered beekeeping and honey related projects around the world for international donors (WTO, UNIDO, USAID and IDB) and the private sector.

Kashumba specialises in strengthening social networks within the beekeeping sector and using them to stimulate value chain development and joint ventures in marketing, and has launched innovative programmes to improve rural livelihoods. He is also involved in research and development within the apiculture sector, undertakes policy work, and is involved with beekeeping extension services. Kashumba is a university lecturer, the Director of Tanzania Apicultural Resource Development Initiative and CEO of a company developing and disseminating agricultural and apicultural innovations.

Muli has over 15 years’ hands-on experience working with African bees, and in processing and marketing hive-products. He also manages donor-funded community beekeeping projects for conservation and income generation in East Africa and the Near East North Africa region; and undertakes short-term consultancies providing technical support to beekeeping development programmes. He has considerable experience building the capacity of producers at all stages in the honey value chain. Muli is a research scientist and lecturer. He is an expert in bee pests, parasites and pathogens, and has published in peer-reviewed journals.

Tom is a leader in the African apiculture field, having worked for 25 years with rural communities to improve livelihoods and conserve indigenous vegetation. He is an expert in understanding and building on traditional/ existing beekeeping practices. Tom developed and ran the highly regarded Baraka Agricultural College beekeeping courses, designed and presents an e-learning course in apiculture and has worked as an apiculture consultant in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Zambia, DR Congo and Ethiopia.

Vaughan is a senior marketing and communications executive. Formerly a Board Director at the international communications agency, Citigate Dewe Rogerson, he left to set up Chili Communications which specialises in strategic counselling and brand management for UK and international clients across multiple sectors including honey. He has extensive experience in brand development, management and ongoing positioning both within domestic and international markets. This includes advising SME businesses, through to central banks and global financial companies.

Chris is an apiculture expert - designing, leading and evaluating beekeeping initiatives around the world. He also runs a commercial beekeeping enterprise - processing, packaging and marketing hive-products. Chris has more than 30 years of development experience and lived in Eastern Africa for 20 years’ working as a senior manager for international NGOs. He has extensive experience in natural resources management and rural enterprise. He has worked with pastoralists, rural and urban communities, displaced people and refugees; and written and presented agricultural training, value-chain development and product marketing courses.

Faith is an agricultural entomologist with experience in bee biology and behaviour, bee pest and diseases management, conservation biology, community mobilization, and gender mainstreaming in community projects. Her two main fields are: research in beneficial insects (commercial product producers, pollinators, sources of food/feed and natural enemies); and insect pest management. She also has experience in research and capacity building among rural communities in agricultural sciences. Faith is a university lecturer and scientific researcher, and undertakes short-term consultancies on food security and improved livelihoods.