Members of the working group for primary producers

Together, this leadership team will guide the group’s work and ensure effective coordination across the sectors, driving the implementation of its action plan. They were appointed in June 2025 during the working group's inaugural meeting in Warsaw. 

John Brosnan was elected Chair of the group. He will be supported by the following Vice-Chairs, each representing a key primary field:

  • Sophie Rabeau-Epsztein and Nicolaos Lakros, representing the agricultural sector
  • David Bassett, representing the aquatic sector
  • Maria Pohjala and Carlo Piemonte, representing the forestry sector

John Brosnan

John Brosnan

Chair
Bioeconomy Executive for the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS)

My hope and expectation for this working group is that we can not only see more primary producers involved in and benefitting from future funding calls from CBEJU, but that these calls should be focused on addressing the barriers to primary producer participation. These include but are not limited to aggregation for scale, access to finance, more efficient logistics, market access, technical support, deployment of de-risked research and innovation, whilst allowing for equitable benefit sharing

John Brosnan, Chair of the working group.

Sophie Rabeau-Epsztein

Sophie Rabeau Epsztein

Vice chair
Head of the Energy and Bio-based Materials
Regional Chamber of Agriculture of Normandy

Nicos Larkos

Nicos Alexandros Larkos

Vice chair
Founder and Managing Director
Agrotech Innovations Ltd

David Bassett

David Bassett

Vice chair
Secretary General
European Aquaculture Technology & Innovation Platform (EATiP)

Maria Pohjala

Maria Pohjala

Vice chair
Finnish Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK)
Senior Forest Policy Adviser for EU and International Affairs

Carlo Piemonte

Carlo Piemonte

Vice chair
National Cluster Italia Foresta Legno
General Manager