OUR TEAM
Where professionalism meets passion and dedication
Meet the Fair Planet family:
Dr. Shoshan Haran
Founder and President
Dr. Shoshan Haran holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in plant protection, and was awarded a Fulbright grant for post-doctoral fellowship at Rutgers University, New Jersey. Until founding Fair Planet, Dr. Haran worked for 11 years for Hazera Genetics ( an Israeli global leader in the seed industry), initialy as Head of Research Collaborations and IP, and later as Head of the Trait Exploration and Discovery Unit. Dr. Haran served as the Head of the Upstream Technologies Expert Group of the Limagrain group.
Amnon Tamir
Chairperson
Amnon holds a B.Sc. in Aeronautical Engineering from the Technion (1970), M.Sc. in Operations Research and M.Sc. in Computer Science from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey California (1979). He served 17 years in the Israeli Air Force (Lt. Col. Ret.) and 10 years in the Technion's Public Affairs & Resources Development division.
Dr. Alon Haberfeld
Operations & Technology Manager
Dr. Alon Haberfeld holds a Ph.D. in Genetics and an MBA in integrated management from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He held a research scientist position at Volcani Institute for agriculture research (Israel's national agricultural Research and Development center), and was a plant breeder at Hazera Genetics. He was until recently product manager and marketing manager at Hazera Genetics for 7 years, during which he was involved in implementing and managing the product development methodology of the company.
Dr. Orlando de Ponti
Fair Planet Advisor
Is a graduate in Plant Breeding of the Wageningen Agricultural University, where he also received his PhD. After 20 years working as a scientist and research director in plant breeding and plant protection at the Wageningen Directorate for Agricultural Research, he joined the private seed sector. From 1991 until 2008 he was the research director of Nunhems BV, today Bayer CropScience Vegetable Seeds. From 2008 to 2010 he was the President of ISF International Seed Federation). Orlando de Ponti serves as an advisor to Fair Planet and the project team.
Ir. Vincent van Bentum
Fair Planet (Netherlands) Secretary and Board member
Vincent holds a MSc degree in Plant Breeding Agricultural University Wageningen, NL. Before retirement he worked 37 years (1982-2018) for Enza Zaden, an international vegetable breeding company. First as manager seed technology & biotechnology, later as manager seed supply chain. In 2000 he joined the Board of Directors of Enza Zaden, responsible for Seed Operations (seed supply chain). Externally he was active within Plantum, the Dutch Seed Trade Association (chaired the Working Group Seed Technology, member Vegetable Board), Naktuinbouw, the Dutch Inspection Service of Horticulture (chaired the Advisory Board NAL, member Vegetable Board). ISF: co-founder ISHI ; ISTA (member Plant Disease Committee)
Prof. Kebede Woldetsadik
Advisor
Prof. kebede is a staff of Haramaya University, Ethiopia, where he has been working at different positions for more than 35 years. He holds PhD in horticulture from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. During the last ten years he has been serving his university at a capacity of vice president for Community Engagement and Enterprise Development of the University. Prior to his present position, he has served his university in teaching, and various development works, trainings, consultancy and participatory research with different stakeholders. He has advised more than 100 students (MSc and PhD) and published/co-published over 100 articles on peer reviewed scientific journals.
Yair Abrani
Chief Agronomist
Yair is the Chief Agronomist at Fair Planet. He received his B.Sc. from the faculty of Agriculture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Yair has 20 years of experience as an agronomist. His agriculture experience is diverse and includes practical knowledge of growing vegetables in open fields and greenhouses, plant propagation, hybrid seed production, and professional field management.
Yotam Bien
Coordinator Eastern Ethiopia
Grew up in Kibbutz Shomrat, was raised and educated in an agriculture environment. Yotam received his MBA degree from the Israeli College of Management and has a B.Ed. degree. Before joining the Fair Planet team, Yotam was engaged in teaching and training in various fields for about 20 years. Today he is the coordinator of Fair Planet sites in Eastern Ethiopia.
Gal Nir
Tanzania Project Coordinator
Born and raised in kibbutz Kiryat Anavim, Gal was educated in an agricultural environment. She has over 6 years of experience in training in voluntary frameworks and as part of her service at the IDF. Gal volunteered in the Fair Planet project in East Ethiopia and currently she serves as our Project Coordinator in Morogoro, Tanzania.
Guy Yakir
Volunteers Coordinator
Born in Moshav Beit Yehoshua, and raised in Australia. Guy has vast experience in the educational sector, she volunteered in the Fair Planet project in the East Ethiopia site and currently studies her Bs in economic environment and management in the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Limor is the Head of Human Resources (H.R.) at Fair Planet. She has been working in the organization for over 7 years. As part of her work she is also responsible for finance and administration.
Limor holds a bachelor degree in Industrial Engineering and Management (B.Sc.) specializing in information systems.
Mohamed Ibrahim
Research Field Operations Manager
Born and raised in a village near Hirna, East Ethiopia.
Mohamed has rich experience in field works, and about 5 years of experience managing Fair Planet's research and demonstration fields.
Bekele Kebede
Research Field Assistance
A staff member of Haramaya University. Work as an assistant lecturer and candidate MSC in Horticulture. He coordinates temperate and indigenous fruit research in the school of Plant Sciences, Haramaya University. He has co-published two articles and facilitated the release of three vegetable varieties (cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli). He has been working with Fairplanet for over seven years now as a research field assistant.
Avi Einstein
Marketing specialist
Holds a B.Sc. in Economics and Business management along with agricultural education. He has more than 30 years of experience in vegetable marketing and agricultural projects' management on a global scale.
Erez Gozan
Production specialist
Is a professional grower with 25 years' experience in Agriculture and 15 years' experience in professional vegetable production. For the last 8 years he is managing tomato variety trials for leading seed companies, with outstanding results.
Hadas Katz
Social Media Manager
Born in Binymina, Israel
Hadas is managing Fair Planet’s social media in parallel to being an engineering student at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
She served as a volunteer at the Fair Planet project in East Ethiopia and has more than six years of experience as an instructor and volunteering in the community
