Programme 2019

Dariush Ajami, Ph.D., is the Chief Innovation Officer at Beyond Meat, a company that aims to create mass-market solutions that perfectly replace animal protein with plant protein. Dariush leads creative research and development teams from ideation to scaleup processes in the creation of new plant-based meats. At Beyond Meat, we believe there is a better way to feed the planet by replacing animal protein with plant protein. We are dedicated to improving human health, positively impacting climate change, conserving natural resources and respecting animal welfare. We want 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 (La Jolla), 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 real changes in the food industry that can be accomplished using all natural and plant-based foods.

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.

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.

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.

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.