Adam heads up the Cocoa Innovation team at Hotel Chocolat covering Bean sourcing through to chocolate making and café range development. He has worked in the food industry in a variety of technical roles since graduating in food science. With a career starting in research at Leatherhead Food, then Reading University and finally moving to manufacture and retail. Over the last ten years and since joining Hotel Chocolat in 2007, his role has evolved to the more creative and ethical side of food manufacture.

Alla is one of the co-founders of Two Chicks. She and Anna Richey launched Two Chicks in Selfridges in 2007 to introduce the first liquid egg white into retail in the UK. Two Chicks egg white is now available in every multiple in the UK in the UK, as well as having listings in France, Holland, UAE and Hong Kong. The Two Chicks range also offers an ambient egg white, a liquid whole egg, a fresh pancake mix, and a healthy snacking product – Chirps – high protein bites made with egg whites. In 2016 Alla and Anna won the Entrepreneurial Spirit Award at the Variety Catherine Awards, set up to celebrate inspirational women in business. Just one year after the company launched they made the national finals of the HSBC Start-Up Stars Awards, the UK’s premier competition for young businesses. Born in Russia, Alla moved with her family from St Petersburg to the UK at the age of nine. She studied Economics at University College London. Alla is a keen sportswoman having played tennis and golf from a very young age. She also enjoys long distance running and skiing. She has a 10 year old son and a 7 month old daughter, who keep her very busy!

Angelo joined Selerant in 2014 taking responsibilities for sales and marketing activities in Europe proposing DevEX PLM software solution to support NPDI processes in chemical, food&beverage, cosmetics and pharma industries. He has a long experience in ICT consulting and sales. He’s managed for more than 10 years international ICT projects before moving his career to marketing and sales management. Angelo has broad experience in business management, sales and customer account management, project management, BPR, IT Strategy, IT corporate systems implementation, marketing and business development. He has been in the board in different consulting companies and has been reader in different university courses about ICT topics. Angelo has an Electronic Engineering degree.

Anna is one of the co-founders of Two Chicks. Anna and Alla launched Two Chicks in Selfridges in 2007 to introduce the first liquid egg white into retail in the UK. In 2005 Anna had taken a trip to the US and was instantly stuck by the popularity of egg white as a fat and cholesterol free, lower calorie alternative to whole eggs. Aware that they didn’t have such a product in England, she and her friend Alla identified a gap in the market. Two Chicks egg white is now available in every multiple in the UK, as well as having listings in France, Holland, UAE and Hong Kong. The Two Chicks range also offers an ambient egg white, a liquid whole egg, a fresh pancake mix, and a healthy snacking product – Chirps – high protein bites made with egg whites. In 2016 Anna and Alla won the Entrepreneurial Spirit Award at the Variety Catherine Awards, set up to celebrate inspirational women in business. Just one year after the company launched they made the national finals of the HSBC Start-Up Stars Awards, the UK’s premier competition for young businesses. Prior to founding Two Chicks, Anna worked in television news, journalism and PR. She holds a Bachelor of arts in English Literature from the University of York and a Masters degree in Broadcast Journalism from City University of London. In her spare time, she enjoys horse riding and writing poetry. Anna grew up in London where she continues to reside.

Charlotte is GAIN’s representative in Denmark and responsible for GAINs collaboration with Nordic partners, public, private and NGOs; A concrete example of this is the GAIN Nordic Partnership, a multi-sector platform collaborating on innovations to improve value chains in developing countries to deliver safe and nutritious food for all. This partnership is currently implementing project is Ethiopia and Zambia taking a value chain approach for innovation. Charlotte is also leading GAINs global initiative “Project Disrupt” identifying top innovations to transform the food system ensuring availability and safety of nutritious foods in emerging markets, on a shorter-term horizon, 5 years, as well as on a horizon 2030 when commitments have been made to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Before being responsible to the Danish office, Charlotte managed GAINs office in the Netherlands, where she was leading business development with Dutch partners from various sectors and industries. Prior to joining GAIN in 2011, Charlotte worked for more than 10 years for Accenture as a management consultant responsible for various project and programs for major Dutch multinationals in the chemical and natural resources industry. Before joining Accenture in 2000, she worked for 10 years for a leading agricultural crop seed producer where she was responsible for researching programs to improve plant breeding methods using bio-technology. Charlotte holds a MSc and a PhD in agricultural sciences from the Royal Veterinarian and Agricultural University in Copenhagen, Denmark, and an MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management, the Netherlands.

Dariush Ajami, Ph.D., is Chief Innovation Officer at Beyond Meat, a company that aims to perfectly replace animal meat with plant meat. Dariush leads creative research, development and process teams from ideation to scaleup processes in the creation of new plant-based meats. At Beyond Meat, our belief is that there is a better way to feed the planet by replacing animal protein with plant protein in food. We are dedicated to improving human health, positively impacting climate change, conserving natural resources and respecting animal welfare. Our mission is to make the world a better place and we’re starting one delicious plant-based meal at a time. Prior to joining Beyond Meat, Dariush was Assistant Professor of Molecular Assembly at the Scripps Research Institute and the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, where he worked on fundamentals of molecular assembly, natural products and their applications in drug discovery. Dr. Ajami has published over 150 scientific publications, several book chapters and has given lectures at universities and research institutes in the United States and internationally. He is a strong advocate that scientific and technical innovations can effect major changes in food and society that can be accomplished using all natural, plant-based foods.

Fabio Ziemssen is Director Food Innovation NX-FOOD at METRO AG. With $40 billion in sales, METRO is the leading European wholesale store chain selling into restaurants, hotels, and food stores across Europe and Asia. NX-FOOD focuses on emerging food tech and food innovation trends. On Fabio’s initiative, METRO was the first retailer to install vertical farms inside the supermarkets. Fabio was also the first to introduce insect-based product — Plumento Foods Pasta — to the German food retail sector. NX-FOOD Start-up Shelf Program launched in 2017 allows start-ups to validate their products by offering them a test listing at the dedicated METRO wholesale and Real retail stores as well as a chance to become a part of onboard retail offering on all the Eurowings flights. Program participants can reach more than 2 million customers monthly. So far, over 400 start-ups applied for the program. Fabio organised numerous meetings for the German food start-up scene: German Food Start-up Meetups, Next Generation Food Think Tank, Start-up Food Market etc.) In 2017 he co-founded the Think Tank Project FOODnext. He is dedicated to building a food tech eco-system and bringing together start-ups and retailers from the European industry. For this purpose, he has established several communities for food and retail entrepreneurs, such as Rising Spoon and Innovation in Retail. Fabio shares industry insights on his E-food blog which has been a valuable source of information for both professionals and food enthusiasts since 2012. As a keynote speaker, Fabio talks about the innovation in retail, food trends and consumer behaviour, the future of the food industry, its challenges and possible solutions.

Filip Schiettecat is working for Siemens since 2002, predominantly in the fields of industry software and manufacturing automation. Filip spent more than 15 years with customers in the Food & Beverage, Chemical and Pharmaceutical industry, mainly in the domains of product R&D, production execution, scheduling and quality testing. Filip is Head of Industry Management for the CPG, Process and Medical Device Industries; and is globally responsible for Siemens MOM product portfolio in these industries. Prior to his current responsibility, Filip held various positions in sales management, product management, delivery services and product development. Prior to joining Siemens in 2002, Filip worked for 5 years in the analytical software industry with a focus on pharmaceutical, finance and telecom industries. Filip holds a Master degree in Computer Science from Brussels Free University, and a MBA in General Management from Vlerick Business School.

Halak Parikh is Head of Centre of Excellence Technical Insights within Britvic’s R&D. Halak has over 10 years’ experience in food industry & sensory science from Quality control, Product Assurance through to R&D. Her role at Britvic over 6 years has been to lead a cutting edge sensory science function to drive consumer-centric innovation.

Heidi (M.Sc.) is an experienced customer insight and brand strategist on a mission to live the change. She has worked with retail and FMCG brands for over 15 years and the past years she has been a part of the team transforming the K retail brands towards more customer centric and purposeful paths. In her work she focuses on the emerging customer needs and possibilities of the future combined with design thinking and observational research.

Ivan Petyaev is a medical doctor, researcher and inventor of new technologies for pharmaceutical, nutraceuticals, functional food, personalised diagnostics and cosmetic industries. He has wide experience in driving his innovations from lab and clinical validation to the market. Ivan founded biotech company Lycotec Ltd based in Cambridge UK. Eight of his inventions are already on the market. Three of them are functional chocolate, including the World’s First Beauty Chocolate, ESTHECHOC www.esthechoc.com. Five others are best-in-class nutraceuticals. His projects have been supported by Cambridge University, the British Heart Foundation and the UK Department of Trade and Industry.

Stephanie Johnson and Kristina Komlosiova are the co-founders of Pollen + Grace - a disruptor brand creating innovative, healthy ready meals and snacks. Stephanie is a trained chef with extensive knowledge and experience in the restaurant industry, whilst Kristina specialises in business management. Having met whilst working in event management in the European coffee and foodservice industry, they harnessed their in-depth knowledge of the FMCG sector to build Pollen + Grace. Passionate about revolutionising an outdated industry, and putting fresh, nutritionally dense food on the shelves, Pollen + Grace is pioneering a new approach to food.

Leif has worked all his life in the food & drink industry in the Nordics and Baltics. A total of +20 years in the Foodservice Sector, both fine-dining companies as well as the catering-giant Fazer for 15 years. Since 2015 Country Manager OOH Finland as well as Business Development for the OOH (Foodservice) Business Area within Löfbergs Coffee Group – a Swedish coffee roaster since 110 years, active in 10 markets in the Nordics, Baltics, UK and Canada. Leif is extremely interested in how, why and where we consume food & drink and the changes in our consumption, occasions and places – this is where many innovations are triggered!

Luis Carlos Chacón leads the BusinessCase team, global boutique consultancy that works with multinational FMCGs identifying emerging and future business opportunities. Also, has been a columnist for Forbes Latin America for several years (being nowadays top-rated) and currently finishing a postgraduate degree in Global Business at the University of Oxford (where previously graduated in Strategy and Innovation), his educational background includes studies in Design Thinking at Stanford, and Futures at The University of Manchester, and Houston. In business, he has worked for more than nineteen years for the operations of Fortune 500 Companies such as Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, LVMH, Diageo, Kellogg’s, Unilever, Dannon, AbInbev, among many others. Behavioral economics enthusiast (understanding the cross between needs and contexts) and believer in connecting the distant (linking the disconnected but inseparable) under the influence of socio-cultural changes in industries and consumption.

Mads head creation of new cheeses for Arla Unika, the luxury brand in Arla Foods portfolio. The mission of Arla Unika is to take dairy to new heights, with taste as core value. Mads has twenty years of experience, in the area of new product development, in Arla Foods. That experience, plus a fire of curiosity burning in the belly, comes in handy, on Arla Unikas journey of learning. Graduated from University of Copenhagen in 1997, and holds a master’s degree in dairy science and technology.

With the emergence of new categories in the food industry (like functional food, vegan food etc.), this has opened an opportunity window for new companies and new products, but also requires a more technical approach. Marius is a part of the company’s product innovation team, is responsible to connect between market demands and the company’s innovations.

Roel de Hoop is Sales Director for SpecPage AG in the Benelux Countries. SpecPage is a leading vendor of innovative Product Life Cycle Management solutions for the recipe-based manufacturing industry. In his role Roel is active in initiating projects to improve data management and company-wide processes that are connected with the development, production and launch of food products. Roel de hoop, Dutchman and originally educated as a chemist, has a wide international experience in the deployment of informatics solutions for the manufacturing industry. Strong background in systems for quality control and product lifecycle management including LIMS en PLM.

Siet Sijtsema works at Wageningen University and Research and holds a PhD about Consumers’ perception of Health in the perspective of consumer oriented product development and an Msc in Sociology and Bsc in Food technology. She has 20 years of experience in conducting consumer research in the food and sustainability domain as part of Circular Food Design approach. She participated in projects on consumers perceptions about fruit and vegetables, bio-based products and packaging, food waste, food safety and confidence. She has experience with quantitative and especially qualitative consumer research methods such as focus groups discussions. She developed Circular Food Design model which represents the multidisciplinary and users oriented approach she applied in her research last decades.

Stephanie Johnson and Kristina Komlosiova are the co-founders of Pollen + Grace - a disruptor brand creating innovative, healthy ready meals and snacks. Stephanie is a trained chef with extensive knowledge and experience in the restaurant industry, whilst Kristina specialises in business management. Having met whilst working in event management in the European coffee and foodservice industry, they harnessed their in-depth knowledge of the FMCG sector to build Pollen + Grace. Passionate about revolutionising an outdated industry, and putting fresh, nutritionally dense food on the shelves, Pollen + Grace is pioneering a new approach to food.

Tim believes that we can no longer separate our food choices from their impact on our health and the environment and that we need healthy new proteins with a low environmental impact as an important tool to help assure a sustainable food future. Tim’s focus is to understand how diets rich in mycoprotein can make important contributions that advance overall understanding supportive of this ambition. Tim is a Ph.D. graduate of the Food and Biosciences faculty of the University of Reading and has held innovation roles in UK government food research, Kraft General Foods, APV, RHM, AstraZeneca and Premier Foods. Tim designs and directs fast-paced and profitable scientific research and innovation through high performing teams. Tim has been instrumental in the product and technology innovation programs that have helped to establish Quorn Foods as the world’s leading sustainable protein business. Joining Quorn™ as a Food Technologist in 1990, Tim spearheaded scientific and food innovation and pioneered the beneficial environmental impacts of mycoprotein, becoming a holder of business patents and publications. Tim has experience of driving industrial and academic R&D collaborations that work alongside key opinion leaders who all are passionate to understand the challenges of sustainable nutrition, the importance of dietary choice and increasing understanding of the potential for Quorn Foods and its unique fermentation technology. Tim has assumed an increasingly public role and often speaks on the international food and biotechnology innovation circuit. He has also been responsible for the creation of research collaborations supported by Innovate UK and European research funds. He has sponsored and co-authored a number of publications and is the Quorn Foods representative within several prominent NGO research collaborations as well as APPG’s and pre-competitive industry alliance.

Trishna Shah is Euromonitor International’s expert on sustainability trends in FMCG industries, with in-depth knowledge of the performance of ethically-positioned products and sustainability-centred marketing strategies. Trishna leads the development of our ethical marketing and sustainability trends content, with a special interest in the growing role of technology in responsible business practice. Recent areas of analysis include: the future potential of lab-based meats as sustainable protein alternatives and the market potential for sustainably-positioned products in packaged food, hot drinks and soft drinks.