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!

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 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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.