North American Sustainability & Responsibility Summit

As Cargill’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Pilar Cruz is responsible for leading the company’s efforts to drive transformational change in delivering sustainable supply chains for customers around the globe, while making agriculture part of how we deliver on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. This aim is core to Cargill’s purpose to nourish the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way.

Pilar also leads Cargill’s global Communications and Corporate Responsibility functions, which includes advancing partnerships focused on accelerating progress on climate, food security, human rights, and women’s economic empowerment.

Prior to her current role, Pilar served as president and group leader of Cargill’s global aqua nutrition business. Under her leadership, Cargill launched its SeaFurther Sustainability initiative, designed to help the company and the broader seafood industry reduce its carbon footprint.

With over two decades of business and operations experience, Pilar brings a global and diverse perspective to the Executive Team. Her career with Cargill – including leadership positions across the protein and animal nutrition businesses, as well as leading the global Corporate Strategy and Development function – has brought her from the plains of the south central United States, to Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, several European countries and the United Kingdom.

Outside of Cargill, Pilar serves on the Board of Donaldson Company Inc. – a Minneapolis-based public company, and a global leader in engine and industrial air, oil and liquid filtration solutions. Additionally, Pilar was appointed to the World Food Program USA’s Board of Directors, an organization Cargill has been working with for over 20 years. Together, Cargill and WFP USA will continue to work toward sustainable solutions that end hunger and malnutrition, so every family in need has access to safe, nutritious and affordable food.

Originally from Bogotá Colombia, Pilar is the first Latina promoted to Cargill’s executive team. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Universidad de Los Andes and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

Josh Parker joined NVIDIA in 2023 to lead the company’s corporate sustainability program.  Josh studied electrical engineering and spent several years practicing IP law at a large law firm and later for the computer storage company Western Digital.  While at Western Digital, he was asked to lead the company’s ethics and compliance program in Asia and later to build a new corporate sustainability program for the company.

At NVIDIA, Josh is pursuing a data-driven approach to sustainability, believing that accurate and credible data is a prerequisite for effectively managing impacts.  Josh is also deeply persuaded that technology—especially AI—can play a critical and dramatic role in solving world-scale sustainability challenges.

Appointed to Chief Sustainability Officer in February 2021, Kristen Siemen helped lead General Motors to a future with zero emissions as the company continues to take bold actions against climate change, including GM’s commitment to become carbon neutral in its global products and operations by 2040. Under Siemen’s leadership, GM has received numerous recognitions including JUST Capital’s MOST JUST Companies, Fast Company’s Brands That Matter, ISS ESG’s top score in the Environmental and Social categories for QualityScore, and Ethisphere’s World’s Most Ethical Companies for the fifth year in a row — demonstrating exceptional leadership and commitment to business integrity.

Siemen began her career with GM in 1994 and served in a number of engineering and staff positions of increasing responsibilities. Since 2010, she has held senior leadership positions in several global engineering functions including Electrical Engineering, Thermal Engineering, Test and Validation, and Energy, Certification and Compliance.

In addition to her accomplished technical career, Siemen is also passionate about promoting inclusion and gender equality. She was instrumental in creating GM’s career reentry program, “Take 2,” as well as the GM Women Ally Program and serves as GM’s key executive for the Society of Women Engineers. Since transitioning into her role as CSO, Siemen has garnered several individual recognitions for exemplary leadership, including Crain’s Notable Leaders in Sustainability, Future 50 Tech, and Sustainability Magazine’s Global Top 100 Chief Sustainability Officers. Siemen serves on multiple advisory boards including the United Nations Global Compact USA Board, Fortune Impact Initiative, The Heritage Group Sustainability Advisory Board, the Engineering Society of Detroit Board and the Oakland University School of Engineering & Computer Science Advisory Board, where she received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering.

George Moubayed is the chief sustainability and strategy officer of Caterpillar Inc. Sustainability is an important focus area of Caterpillar’s long-term strategy for profitable growth, and this role further enhances the advancement of product solutions to support Caterpillar’s customers during the energy transition and help them achieve their climate-related objectives by geography, application, and specific customer need.

Moubayed is also a senior vice president of Caterpillar Inc., responsible for the Enterprise Strategy Division. He oversees the continued execution of Caterpillar’s strategy for long-term profitable growth, leveraging the Operating & Execution Model as Caterpillar continues introducing innovative products and services to make its customers more successful.

Prior to being appointed senior vice president of the Enterprise Strategy Division in January 2023, Moubayed served as vice president and general manager for load and haul products in Resource Industries. Before joining the load and haul products group, he was the vice president of aftermarket solutions in Resource Industries.

Moubayed joined Caterpillar in 1997 as a marketing representative and was responsible for machine and aftermarket sales and dealer support and development in Canada. He became the region manager for North America and Europe aftermarket sales and later served as Canada district manager and country manager.

Moubayed has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Over the past 30 years, Paulette has held various positions in the fields of Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) and Sustainability that has taken her from the field to the boardroom. She joined Johnson & Johnson in 1997 and previously served as Vice President, Global Environmental Health, Safety & Sustainability. She is committed to supporting diverse talent and is proud to serve as the Executive Sponsor of the youth pillar of her company’s Women in STEM²D (WiSTEM²D) initiative as well as the Executive Sponsor of our Global Operations Leadership Development (GOLD) program. She also serves as an Advisory Board member (and previous co-chair) for the Center for Business and Environment at Yale (CBEY). Paulette was honored to be selected to Entrepreneur Magazine’s 100 Women of Impact in 2021 and to be named a Top 100 Woman in Sustainability by Sustainability Magazine in 2022 and 2023.

Jerome serves as Walmart’s Head of Corporate Sustainability, where he leads collaboration with leaders and associates across the business to drive positive impact across global supply chains, nature, waste, and more.

In 2019, Jerome joined Walmart to lead international strategy. In 2022, he relocated to Mexico City to serve as the SVP of Strategy, Transformation, and Mergers & Acquisitions for Walmart Mexico & Central America.

Prior to Walmart, Jerome held various operations, finance, business development, merchandising and marketing roles at Burger King / 3G Capital, American Express, the Embassy of France in the U.S., Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, and 7-Eleven. During his time at 7-Eleven, he was responsible for expanding the company’s international footprint and leading the global operations team, supporting 36,000+ stores across 18 countries and territories.

Jerome was born and raised in France, holds a master’s degree in finance from the University of Paris-Dauphine, and has an MBA from U.C. Berkeley.

April 1, 2023, Dirk Voeste, PhD,  joined Volkswagen Group as its Chief Sustainability Officer. In this function he together with his team is responsible for the development and implementation for the Groups sustainability strategy regenerate+, all ESG-related topics as well as stakeholder relationship.

As a graduated Ph.D. in biology from University Bonn in Germany and M.Phil. from the Cranfield Institute of Technology in England he held various positions in the field of space science, biotechnology, breeding, crop protection and sustainability. For example, as a Vice President Dirk has taken the lead of BASFs corporate sustainability strategy and as a Senior Vice President he was responsible for of regulatory, public affairs and sustainability for BASFs Agriculture Solution Division.