Abbas is a regionally acclaimed Marketer with experience in Pakistan and across MENA markets. He is known for his passion for growing brands and businesses while leading capability development for his team as well as entire industry. He is one of the most awarded marketers at Coca-Cola Company having won 3 Global Innovation Awards from the Board of Directors over last two years. Currently he leads marketing for Pakistan which is among top 20 markets for Coca-Cola globally. He is leading development of core brands about unique purpose, establishing new ways of experiential and digital marketing and inspiring the organization for exponential 10X thinking. Under Abbas's leadership, Coca-Cola became Marketer of the Year at the Effies in 2018, and had won 10+ awards previously in Campaign Asia, Dragons Asia and PAS. Abbas led campaigns such as Coke Studio which is the largest digital asset of the Coca-Cola Company globally with 7B+ minutes of watch time. He also designed Coke Fest, which is the largest experiential marketing platform in Asia. He has been leading innovation agenda with brand launches of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Dasani water, Roar and Cappy over last 3 years. Abbas is committed to developing capability of his team and the community he lives in. He is marketing capability lead for Coca-Cola Middle East North Africa, with responsibility for 50+ marketers across 24 countries. He is also General Secretary for Pakistan Advertising Council which leads Media Monitoring standards, advertising trainings and government relations on behalf of entire industry. He is also on the board of LUMS (his Alma Mater) Alumni, which provides industry perspective on recruitment of new MBA students as well as providing industry knowledge to graduating MBA classes.

Andrea (32) was exposed to entrepreneurship for as long as he can remember. He grew up seeing his family’s businesses active in the furniture space, going through both highs and lows, and ultimately closing following the financial crisis of 2008. Andrea’s family invested then in a restaurant, where he started working as handyman while being a full-time student at University. During his second year of University, Andrea launched FAB. In 2014 he founded ComLab, a qualitative research firm in the food sector, that still exists today. With these combined experiences, Andrea gained extensive knowledge of the HO.RE.CA and L.O.D. sector and collected relevant data on customers’ needs and preferences. This is when he started thinking of ways on how to bring a new paradigm to the food business by making operations easier and more efficient for professionals. In June 2015, Andrea beta-tested the concept with a small rented facility and a few friends who owned restaurants, as his first clients. 3 years later, he rebranded the company as Soul-K and began to serve ready-to-eat meals and high-quality semi-finished ingredients, which cost on-par or lower than customers purchasing and working the raw materials themselves. This ultimately eliminated the variability normally linked with food cost calculations. Furthermore, the solution enabled the shift from fixed CAPEX (e.g. personnel costs) and OPEX (e.g. inventory, machineries) into on-demand variable costs, with a positive impact on margins and no cap on scale. As of today, Soul-K is the only player worldwide able to provide the HO.RE.CA and L.O.D. sector with such a comprehensive offering due to its strong tech component and lean manufacturing processes.

Daniel is a Professor of Practice at Hult, London Undergraduate campus. He is a leading consultant and remains research active with interests in Strategy and Innovation. His corporate experience with companies like TNT, FedEx and DHL provide the complex link between corporate strategy, innovation and the academic world. Current areas of interest include- Innovation in uncertain times;  Reframing and Future Proofing growth opportunities for business and how to drive high engagement for customers.  Daniel also lectures at the graduate level at the University of Chester where he works with students to co-create alongside corporate firms on prevailing challenges.

Graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in International Business with Spanish. After working for a year in PwC, I quickly decided it wasn’t for me and so I joined fast growing FMCG business Pip & Nut as the second employee there. Experiencing the hugely fast and successful growth of the company spurred me on to want to do a company of my own, and it only seemed fit that it be in an industry I have always loved… Food and Drink!

Erika Ollen’s experience ranges from strategic marketing to brand consulting and design, always for the food related industries and very often with a health/nutritional and/or educational focus. Erika is a skilled chef with insights in product development and communication. She has more often than not ran her own projects and initiatives. For the past four years she has been part of running the innovative beverage company Caliente Beverages, being head of Marketing. Their drink range has received great international recognition, incl. “Best New Adult Drink” at World Beverage Innovation Awards. Extensive dialogue with the market made the team identify the gap for NA spirits early on, thus developing Gnista – launched Autumn 2019.

Glenn Mathijssen is the co-CEO & Co-Founder of Alberts, leading a Belgium-based team focusing on food robotics and AI. The result is Vending 2.0 solutions for personalized smoothies & soups as well as personalized nudging solutions for food service providers looking for options to offer healthier snacks and meals. Alberts joined EIT Food as a Rising Food Star. Glenn holds a double degree Ph.D. in Electro-Mechincal Engineering with specialty in Robotics from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) and the University of Pisa (Italy). In 2019, Glenn was chosen as Belgium's FITCE Young ICT Personality.

With more than 25 years of experience in the food and beverage industry, Johan has dedicated his career to providing the industry with innovative new ideas and offerings to help companies of all sizes grow their business. As Chief Product Officer, Johan is responsible for Dawn’s R&D and Category marketing globally, prioritizing innovation efforts within Dawn to provide customers with the best bakery products in the business. Since joining the team in 2012 as vice president of R&D in Europe, Johan has led the research and development of multiple Dawn product launches, specifically the Dawn Balance Line, which contains clean label, vegan and better-for-you products. In addition to his focus on product development, he also drives global technology projects to keep Dawn at the front of introducing new industry capabilities both for bakers and within the walls of the company. Prior to joining Dawn, Johan was the Innovation Director at Sara Lee and also previously held various R&D roles across food product categories at Unilever in the Netherlands and the UK. He holds a masters and a PhD in Molecular Science from the Agriculture University of Wageningen, and an MBA from Rotterdam Erasmus University.

A native of Northern Germany, Jörn Gutowski spent most of his young adulthood abroad. After studying marketing at Emerson College in Boston and a one year stint at a PR agency, he worked for an international non-profit organization. While travelling the world, he was exposed to many new cultural and culinary experiences. His passion and appreciation for food was so deeply affected that in 2013, he decided to put his 10+ years background in marketing and business into his new venture TRY FOODS. Following the slogan „feed your curiosity“, TRY FOODS has been helping people to expand their knowledge of and their palate for high-quality food products. In 2018, he co-founded another food startup, called Zeevi Kichererbsen GmbH. Zeevi is the first European company producing and selling a chickpea tofu, called Kofu.

As the founder of Eatable Adventures back in 2015, José Luis pioneered the nascent Food Entrepreneurship movement in Europe; which resulted in an emerging ecosystem of new companies that are improving the way we eat. He also led the launch of Gastroemprendedores, the largest global network of Food & Beverages Startup founders and entrepreneurs, reaching well over 25.000 individuals; similarly launched Food Business Angels, the first global network of early stage investors in early stage phases of F&B startups. Prior to his involvement in the Food Space, he has been active in the innovation and new technologies industry for almost 30 years, working with such international corporations as Cisco, Oracle, BBVA and Unisys as EMEA and LATAM new markets and emerging sectors development business director. Educated as a Computing Engineer at Extremadura University, José Luis completed his tech studies with business and culinary studies at Stanford University —Graduate School of Business' Executive Program – Le Cordon Bleu at Francisco de Vitoria University in Madrid — Diplôme de Cuisine – Reims Champagne- Ardennes University – Diplôme Universitaire DUGGAT – and Haas Business School Berkeley University – Venture Capital Executive Program.

Karine Dussimon is a Senior Consultant in Food and Nutrition at Euromonitor International with a specialisation in snacks. Karine is responsible for the content and quality of Euromonitor’s snacks data and analysis and is a regular speaker at international conferences and trade shows such as ISM Sweets and Snacks in Cologne and the London Chocolate Forum in London. Euromonitor International is a leading independent global provider of strategic market intelligence, with analysts in over 100 countries and with 15 offices across 6 continents including London, Chicago, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Sydney, and Cape Town.

Leah Lambrakis is the Vice President of Research & Development, Nutrition and Scientific Affairs at Simmons Pet Food. In this role she leads a team of 25 scientists across Simmons’ wet and dry pet food, and pet treats divisions. Leah has a life-long passion for nutrition, health and wellness, innovation and consumer insights for pets and pet parents. Leah is a University of Guelph (ON, Canada) Alumna, with undergraduate and graduate degrees in Animal Science and Animal Nutrition. As a Nutrition Research Assistant for the Toronto Zoo during her graduate program, she performed research on the nutritional evaluation of diets for exotic animal species and participated in diet management for species in reintroduction programs. In 1999, Leah moved into the field of Companion Animal Nutrition with Menu Foods Limited, which was later acquired by Simmons Pet Food. During her career, Leah has developed deep knowledge and expertise in pet food nutrition, formulation and food science, palatability and feeding behavior, as well as product safety and manufacturing processes. As a result, her work spans major categories such as pet specialty, private brands, organic and veterinary formulas. In her career, Leah personally created, commissioned and launched over 1,000 pet food products into the market, today continuing this work by driving forward new innovation with her team.

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 trigged!

An experienced, international business leader, Liliana has been leading transformational growth across brands and portfolios to drive step changes in business results for over 20 years. She is a leading expert on innovation, communication and business strategy within the FMCG and luxury industries, working with top blue-chip companies: Unilever, Tata, on world-class brands and portfolios. Her sector experience covers Consumer Goods, Personal Care, Home Care, Foods, Refreshments and Luxury, as well as driving disruptive innovations projects. She holds a Master’s in Marketing & Communications and an Executive MBA. With extensive marketing and leadership experience gained across multi-category, multi-brand, and multi-cultures, Liliana has a track record of shaping and unlocking opportunities, accelerating and leading incredible business growth with her trademark energy, drive and possibility mind-set. She is passionate about inspiring possibility: growth for people and business. Liliana is Professor of Practice at Hult International Business School, teaching on Trends and Innovations and Brand Management subjects. She has also lectured as a keynote speaker around the world on Marketing, Omnichannel and Digital customer experience, Change Management and Disruptive Innovation topics.

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.

After graduating in Brand Management at IULM University in Milan, Maria Rosaria started her professional career in management consulting in MC Crescendo. In 2010 she joined Barilla in the Marketing team where she covered roles of increasing responsibilities both on local and global business and took part in many relevant innovation projects. Since 2014 she has been Branding & Communication Manager in CucinaBarilla Italy and then became Strategy & Transformation Manager in 2018.

After graduating in agriculture science and receiving his ph.d in plant genetics, Maroun Atallah started his career leading projects in plants biotechnology, biodiversity and hybridization. He joined Barilla in 2007 as a scientist, leading research on durum wheat within R&D. A couple of years later, he took the lead of the ingredients research and applications unit working on innovative projects for new product development and value for money. In 2015, he was in charge of the R&D strategic initiatives and processes in Europe Region, covering pasta, sauces and bakery products under Barilla Brand. Currently, with base in Chicago, he has been leading the sauces development and upgrading for the US market. During his speech at the World Food Innovate Summit, Maroun will go through the product design and the innovative approach behind the tomato sauces strategy and the recent sauces re-launch in the US.

After the graduation in Economics at Università Bocconi and a Master of Science in International Public Policy at UCL (University College London), Matteo joined The Monitor Group, a strategy consulting firm, supporting companies' business development in EMEA. He joined Barilla in 2008 and moved from Marketing to Innovation in 2012 to develop and launch CucinaBarilla, which he led as the CucinaBarilla Managing Director. In 2018 he was appointed Global Marketing Director at Barilla, leading of the most dynamic and vibrating product categories of the company with a global footprint. He is passionate about Food, business modelling, trends and innovation. He will be chairing the Food Innovate Summit for the second time and attending it for the third time.

FMCG experience in Sales and marketing with Vita Coco, Siberri and Jealous Sweets. Private Wealth Management with Barclays private wealth.. Endurance athlete, Swimming cycling and running. Campaigner for the Tribe Freedom Foundation.

Carole is a Technical Specialist working in the Product and Ingredient Innovation Team at Reading Scientific Services Ltd (RSSL). During her time with RSSL, she has undertaken both ingredient evaluation and product development projects for food manufacturers and ingredient suppliers across a wide range of food categories. Recent projects include development of dairy alternatives and vegan meat alternatives based on plant proteins. Carole has also worked extensively on sugar reduction evaluating both high potency sweeteners and bulking agents in beverages, confectionery and baked goods.

With over 25 years’ experience in a variety of senior roles and acting as Head Global FSQ Management- Supply Chain & External Factories as part of The Kraft Heinz Company, we are once again very honoured to have Rachid Hassairi as our Chairman. He brings his strong commitment to excellence through improving organisations, teams and people at the highest level. Kraft Heinz is the fifth largest food and beverage company in the world, with eight $1 billion+ brands. To deliver on their trusted brand status, Kraft Heinz has implemented consistent, comprehensive Global Food Safety & Quality Management and Improvement Processes across their supply chain. Kraft Heinz’s vision is: To be the best food company, growing a better world! Rachid is responsible for Supply Chain & External Factories with a team distributed across the globe to mitigate Food Safety & Quality risk, lead various improvement initiatives, govern various global processes, manage change and trouble shoot where required cross functionally. As some of you may already know, Rachid is skilled at making events he chairs interactive while working closely with the audience to stimulate conversation and enhance learnings. We look forward to having Rachid back with us. Get ready for some exciting conference days!

Bart Ingredients supply a wide range of ingredients including herbs and spices from origins around the world. These products are widely considered to be at risk from adulteration and contamination. Bart Ingredient’s Food Defence Team focusses on the Integrity of Ingredients throughout the global supply chains. Gideon has worked in the UK and overseas in primary food production and technical management for 15 years, with experience of the challenges of emerging ingredients and new technologies.

My experience in quality assurance, commercialization and supply chain roles working in cross functional teams and multicultural environment, in close collaboration with R&D, bottling partners, marketing, finance, scientific and regulatory affairs, legal, procurement, and market leaders helped me shape myself as a rounded technical professional with sound understanding of the entire supply chain in beverage industry.