Christian Merz is co-leading the BMZ funded program FAIR Forward – Artificial Intelligence for all that
includes the implementation of the AI based Agricultural Information Exchange Platform co-funded by
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Being with GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale
Zusammenarbeit) for more than 5 years he co-coordinated the GIZ Data Lab. Beforehand he has worked
within the Agricultural Development Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as the Senior
Program Officer for Digital Solutions. Between 2011 and 2016 he managed SAP’s research program on
ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development) covering agriculture, rural
logistics, procurement & retail, financial services etc. He received his Diploma in Physics from the Albert-
Ludwigs-University in Freiburg, Germany.