The Food Sovereignty Agenda: Capital and the Intelligent Factory

03 Nov 2026
Foodtech Summit
Global Leaders Series
The world's food system is being redesigned around three forces at once: business models that create value for society as well as shareholders, capital that rewards long-term resilience, and intelligent technology that makes manufacturing smarter, safer and more productive.
Few places are better placed to bring these together than Dubai, a global food trade hub investing in local manufacturing capacity, advanced industry and the talent to run it. Food sovereignty here does not mean closing borders. It means building capability: the ability to make more of what a nation eats, at scale and profitably.
This roundtable brings together the CEO who redefined purpose-led business at Unilever, the thinker who gave the world the language of sustainable business, and one of the world's leading roboticists. Together they set out the terms of a new food compact: what the food factory of the next decade looks like, who will fund it, and why the Gulf can lead rather than follow.
Speakers
Paul Polman
Paul Polman, Business Leader, Investor, Philanthropist - Former CEO of Unilever
Ken Goldberg
Ken Goldberg, William S. Floyd Jr. Distinguished Professor of Engineering at UC Berkeley AI Research Steering Committee - Chief Scientist I Ambi Robotics
John Elkington
John Elkington, Executive Chairman - Volans