baruch.bartel@gmail.com

Mr. Baruch Bar-Tel is a citizen of Israel who studied and obtained his Ms.C. in plant breeding, genetics and phytopathology from the Agricultural University at Wageningen, Holland.

Mr. Bar-Tel is an active expert of UPOV, the international organization which promotes and approves new varieties and breeders' rights (an organization parallel to the WIPO which deals with patents).

Mr. Bar-Tel is affiliated with the Scientific Service of the Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, at Bet-Dagan. He conducts variety testing for registration of Plant Breeders’ Rights in Israel, Europe, Latin and Central America, South Africa and other countries, as well as for the U.S. Plant Patents and Trademark Office.
 

vhhollan@volcani.agri.gov.il

Dr. Doron Holland is an Israeli scientist who obtained his Ph.D. in Israel from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.

Dr. Holland is at present a Senior scientist, heading the Fruit Tree Sciences unit at the Newe Ya'ar research center. The center belongs to the Agricultural Research Organization of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Israel.

Dr. Holland's main research interests are Molecular Genetics of Deciduous Fruit Trees, Control of Dormancy, Breeding of Almonds, Apricots and Pomegranates and Regulation of Color Production (anthocyanin) in Pomegranates.
 

gary@stepac.com

Dr. Gary Ward, a citizen of Israel, who obtained his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Faculty of Agriculture in 2002. His research was conducted under the supervision of Prof. Yitzhak Hadar and Prof. Carlos Dosoretz. After a brief postdoctoral position at the Technion, he joined StePac in May 2004 as a part of their global technical support team, working together with customers to ensure that they obtain maximum benefit from the company’s wide range of modified atmosphere packaging products and complementary postharvest solutions.

 
He also taught Bioremediation and Fermentation technology course at Tel Hai Academic College. Since 2006, he serves as StePac’s CTO which, among other responsibilities, involves leading an innovative R&D program which will lend to further growth of the company in years to come.

Dr. Mohammad Ghous is a horticultural expert from Afghanistan. He serves as a fruit tree expert and manages the Perennial Horticulture Development Project under the auspices of the European Union in Kandahar, Afghanistan. They promote the pomegranate industry successfully and their most significant achievement is having convinced the farmers to replace their poppy crops with pomegranate orchards.

To our regret Dr. Ghous underwent an accident a few weeks ago and will not share with us personally his presentation on the pomegranate industry in Afghanistan; he sent us the presentation and wishes us to present it in his absence.