Ahmed Elafifi is the Founder & Chief Relaxation Officer of Tranquini GmbH, introduced Tranquini as the first global natural relaxation drink brand. Tranquini’s mission is to encourage people to embrace a positively relaxed lifestyle and to help the world to de-stress. Tranquini® was created in 2014 by Mr Elafifi, who has over 25 years of experience in the FMCG and beverage industries and leads a team of beverage experts.

Amela Koluder is passionate about creativity, diversity and co-creation. "Creativity is an ability to apply knowledge in a new way, while different perspectives are driving force behind innovation." Amela works with new business development in TINE. Her field of expertise is innovation leadership, strategic category and brand development. She has experience from both global and local companies like L´Oréal, Jordan and Stokke. Amela is Master in International management from NHH, Norway and ESADE, Barcelona. She is engaged in public debate and voluntarily work, promoting diversity and integration. Amela was born in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina and came to Norway as war refugee. Learn more on her web site: http://amelakoluder.no/

Angelo joined Selerant in 2014 taking responsibilities for sales and marketing activities in Europe and APAC 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. e-mail: angelo.colombo@selerant.comNah

Barry has been active in the field of industrial automation for almost 40 years and now supports Omron’s fixed and mobile range of robotic technologies. His primary role is to develop fit-for-purpose robotic automation solutions, to meet the specific needs of customer projects. Barry has worked for Omron for 26 years, in a variety of roles including sales, product management and application development of automation systems, bringing a wealth of experience to support customer applications. Barry began his career as an apprentice at Dunlop tyres and followed on to work at LC Automation, which was followed by a move to Omron.

Founder and CEO of Mr Lee’s Pure Foods - Damien Lee is no stranger when it comes to starting innovative business. A long time UK resident Australian of Singaporean-Australian-English heritage, Damien is a serial entrepreneur. Self defined as ‘unemployable’, he has always applied creative thought to a vast network of start-ups with results, including a successful financial recruitment firm and one of the world’s largest maritime communication companies. As a cancer survivor – told he “only had weeks” to live, Damien is a fervent believer in the role of food in health. Mr Lee's Pure Foods were born from Damien’s passion to bring us all healthy, tasty, convenient and affordable food. This seminar will detail Damien''s concept generation process, demonstrating how a budding entrepreneur needs to be unafraid in their product development in order to see results. Join us to find out how his latest endeavour is using new vending concept to give people a healthier cup noodle

Dave joined Diageo in 1991, in the Guinness Brewing Worldwide Research Centre, where he held roles in Analytical, Sensory, Product Development and Applied Science before joining Diageo’s Global Brand Innovation Group as Marketing Manager. In this role he covered much of the world - Europe, Asia and North America - working on a range of innovations that included Guinness, Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker. He then went on to lead the Guinness Global Product Development team in Dublin and from there he held a number of roles leading innovation for Diageo Global Supply in Europe, Africa and Global Travel before taking up his current role.

I am a motivated and purpose-driven Pharma professional, currently working in Medical Nutrition in Sensory and Behaviour Science, with over 22 years of experience spanning Business Development, Alliance Management, Market Understanding (Market Research & Business Insights), Competitive Intelligence, Business and Marketing Strategy, and New Products Management. I present a successful record performing these complementary tasks in leading firms as Danone Nutricia Research, Takeda, Nycomed, Roche and Aventis, with extended responsibilities for a wide portfolio of products including new therapeutic areas: Oncology, Immunology, Diabetes, Hypertension and Respiratory. My key expertise: Experience as interface with consumer, patients and HCPs: Bringing their voice into the organization. Decoding insights from consumers into R&I (product development) to ensure superior product experiences in medical nutrition. Proficient in commercial operations: KPI identification & monitoring. Experience in patient journey mapping, as a catalyst of a consumer centric organization.

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.

Jim Painter earned a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois and is currently an Adjunct Professor at University of Texas, School of Public Health. His current areas of research include reducing risk of heart disease through phyto-nutrient and dietary intervention, mindless eating and stealthy calorie intake to control calorie intake. Jim has been a Registered Dietitian since 1980 and has served as the Director of Nutrition research for the California Raisin Marketing Board, and nutrition adviser for Sun-Maid Raisin Growers of California and Paramount Farms Wonderful Pistachios. He consults for the National Dairy Council. He currently serves on American Heart Association’s Healthier Diet Business Committee and is a member of the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. He worked for Marriott Corporation in the 1980s, taught nutrition at the University of Illinois during the 1990s and Chaired the School of Family and Consumer Sciences at Eastern Illinois University until 2013. Jim has more than 100 peer reviewed publications and presentations to his credit and has authored the text book, Nutrition You Can Use and his latest book Let’s Eat Mindfully! He and his wife Rosemary live in the United States and have two sons, two daughter-in-laws and four grandchildren.

Kjell is delivery manager from the EMEA MOM (Manufacturing Operations management) team in Belgium. He has a master degree in Bio Engineering focusing on Food Sciences and he obtained a Ph.D. in Applied Biological Sciences from the University of Ghent. After being a quality manager for a food company, Kjell joined Siemens in 2005 having different positions in the organisation working in the consumer products, food and Bev and pharmaceutical industry. Over the years he collected knowledge in different Manufacturing Operation Management areas such as Quality Management, Specification Management, Product Lifecycle Management and Process Analytical Technology.

As a UN SDG Advocate, Global Food Reformist, and Sustainable Futurist, Marc is on a mission to empower billions of global citizens to live an adaptive lifestyle of health and sustainability within planetary boundaries. His aim is to reform the agriculture, food and beverage industry with impactful projects and moonshot companies. For example, he teaches and speaks worldwide on climate change and food reform. Marc has also taught entrepreneurs how to build and grow resilient, sustainable, and profitable businesses. The most prominent examples are ANJA GmbH & Co. KG and the ALOHAS ECO-Center (www.adaptive-nutrition.com), which he co-founded and where he serves as Chief Executive Officer. The ALOHAS ECO-Center is a sustainable food and beverage production company that creates renewable energy and resources without fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions, or waste. He is and has been involved in many companies as well as several international family businesses: indeed he comes from five generations of Germanys largest organic farmers and three generations of European Hydroponic Agronomists.

43 years old: wife, mother and manager, with experience in different IT enterprise management companies. General Manager of Sinfo One - A System Integrator emerging company, widespread all over the world. Sinfo One has significant skills in the processes and challenges of the Food & Beverage sector. A woman proud of her team and of the reality she built in recent years. However, she is still full of ambitions, dreams and abilities of leadership. Project management expert working with national and international teams. Paola is expert in business processes, especially in the production and distribution sectors. She is an expert ERP systems’ implementation (Enterprise Resource Planning), PLM (Product Lifecycle Management), BI (Business Intelligence). Her expertise is also in studying the appropriate custom and innovative solutions for companies, either in the domestic or foreign markets. Paola has a consolidated sale experience of complex national and international projects, with a strong innovative connotation, in terms of technology, implementation and market methods. Her great ability is to understand needs and establish relationship with customers.

I am a passionate curious professional that has developed over the past 20 years an effective attitude to connect the dots, creating new innovation approaches & delivering stretch results such as the coffee bio-waste valorisation concept for boutiques and the launch of culinary sauces’ range in Europe (best sellers 2006) . My broad experience in operation (leading the design and deployment of new lines/plants in Brazil, Israel and Indonesia) combined with the strategic role in R&D across businesses allow me to understand / focus on consumer benefit offers and customer needs solutions (such as Nestlé Professional dry sauce in 2011 with 30% less fat, improved sensory and convenient preparation). In my global role of Strategic Innovation Partnership, I drive growth across businesses (from cereals to confectionery) and models (from boutiques to health care), by creating and leveraging existing internal and external know-how (scientific, technological and business) on product / process / services. Motivated by diversity and changes (I worked across 5 continents and for more than 10 different businesses), independence, eagerness for mastery (Master at SIK institute in Sweden, PhD at ETH Zurich, Nestlé technology expert and MBA graduate), I select / develop / protect around me high performing working team around the world.

Pascal‑Xavier has held roles at Ketchum in corporate and brand communication and worked on data driven marketing solutions at Google. His passion for food brought him to Foodpairing where he started in business development before taking up his current role as marketing lead.

Pinar Hosafci is the Head of Packaged Food at Euromonitor International, driving he quality and evolution of Euromonitor’s global food industry research. As the content head of the industry, Pinar provides insight into the consumer trends, key markets, competitive landscape and growth opportunities in the global food and nutrition space to help organisations make strategic business decisions. Pinar has a keen interest in innovation and plant-based nutrition. She is frequently consulted by global media and is a high profile speaker at leading events and forums. Prior to this role, she worked as a Consultant in United Nations and researcher at London School of Economics. She holds a bachelor’s degree from McGill University and a master’s degree in Development Economics from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African studies.

Richard is a leading expert and scientist in the fields of neuroscience and the use of consumer psychology in marketing, in particular on large-scale modelling of personality and intelligence and in predicting consumer behaviour. Starting with his academic work under Professor Stephen Hawking at Cambridge University, Richard has spent his career dedicated to using a blend of mathematics and psychology to describe and predict how individuals and social groups make real world choices. He works with leading academic organisations on ground-breaking research into how consumers make purchasing decisions and he is the architect of Scalable Consumer Psychology, a scientifically driven insight and communications framework for brands. Ultimately this journey has led him to develop Scalable Psychological Profiling, the ability to profile large groups of people which as part of commercial framework Scalable Consumer Psychology (SCP) is now utilised by some of the world’s biggest brands in understanding their audience. SCP has been used to deliver more than 10,000 campaigns to date and has shown extraordinary increments in campaign performance solely by delivering a deep understanding of the audience and the ability to accurately target communications.

Roberto holds a PhD in Chemistry and Food Technology from Parma University. He started his career with Barilla in 1992 and has over 25 years' experience in R&D, innovation and food processing. Roberto has held several Research and Development management positions at European and Glbal level within Barilla Group, such as RD&Q Director in Kamps/Lieken in Germany until 2008, Vice President Product Development Bakery at Group level until 2014, Vice President R&D Region Italy and VP for the Center of Expertise Bakery at Global level until 2017. Roberto is currently Vice President Global Quality and Food Safety for the Barilla Group.

I am born in Istanbul- Turkey, I am 37 years old, I am married and have a son. I graduated from university as a food engineer, and I still continue my master degree MBA training. I have been working in the food industry for 15 years in innovation and product development expertise. And in addition I have been working in Domino's Pizza Turkey for 8 years. I am responsible for all the processes from new products and innovations to suit the company's strategy until the life of the entire operation. Food, restaurants, innovations also my passion. I am one of the lucky people who can turn hobby into work.

Shane Durkee is Chief Innovation Officer at Swanson Health, overseeing product innovation and development, research and regulations, and product quality. Previously, Shane was Senior Vice President, Research and Product Development, Maximum Human Performance; Director, Global Innovation and New Technology at Bayer Consumer Care AG in Basel, Switzerland; and held R&D leadership roles for Bayer’s U.S. nutritional business. Shane has a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Weber State University, a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix. He’s served on the Senior Scientific Advisory Council for the Council for Responsible Nutrition and science advisory board of Virgo Publishing.

Simon Mitchell (naughties DJ, events and catering expert, father of one and street food enthusiast), joined KERB as Managing Director in 2016 after 15 years of owning and running his own Events company - Impulse Events - an award-winning bespoke events agency. He was always a long-standing fan of KERB and the amazing food and talent they bring to the streets of London and is now leading their ever-growing team and continuing to professionalise street food, put on brilliant events in London's public spaces and disrupt the catering industry.

Sture Nicolaysen has a strong branding and marketing background. Proven track record of success from product launched within FMCG. Several years working with media planning, innovation and brand management from some of the strongest and leading brands in the world. Extensive experiences from both large international and domestic company such as Kraft Food, Gillette, Procter & Gamble and TINE, with several years with line manager responsibility. He has a master’s degree in Economics and Business Administration from BI Norwegian School, specialized in Marketing.

My special interest areas are frontier science and impact innovations. I am passionate about the creation of social fiction and societal impact by applying purpose-driven tech innovations to the world’s biggest challenges. I see my role in the transformation of business excellence into the non-profit sector and in the connection of pioneering ideas to power, knowledge and funding. My dream: turning mega challenges of our times into opportunities for future progress and prosperity in society by creating novel value chains capable to bring better lives for the billions. Also I’d love to change public perception about the capabilities of the earth by using the disruptive power of innovation. From background I am holding master degrees in Business Management and Genetic Engineering from Kitakyushi University (Japan), Bloomington University (USA), and the University of Greenwich (London, UK).

Tom Hollands is the Innovation and Technical Director at Raynor Foods, he is an accomplished Food Scientist who has worked in both government (Food Standards Agency) and private sectors. Tom is a true innovator at heart and has won many national and international accolades in recognition of this, including the prestigious (and inaugural) FDF Food and Drink Scientist of the Year (2013) and the inaugural BSA Technical Excellence Award in 2012 and again in 2015. Tom’s innovations are focused around sustainability and has particular interest in meta food systems and the complex links that join them.

I have been involved in the wine and spirits business in various positions for more than 15 years. The last five years at Enjoy Wine & Spirits, Sweden, where I have been a part of the team that launched the non-alcoholic wines under the Barrels & Drums brand in 2014. Today one of the fastest growing brands in its category in Europe. Driven by passion, curiosity and green technology I am always looking for new ideas and innovations that could benefit our business. Looking forward to seeing You at my presentation and perhaps share some ideas.

Dr. Valentina Stojceska holds PhD from University College Dublin. She has been employed as a senior lecturer at Brunel University London (BUL) since 2013 and involved as a co - investigator in the Centre for Sustainable Energy in Food Supply Chain, RCUK. She is a MSc Course director and a Module leader on a number of Modules taught on undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Her research interests focus on development of innovative food products and solutions for sustainable food process development (food waste minimisation, energy and resource efficiency enhancements). She has led and managed a range of projects in excess of £1M supported by Innovate, UK, DEFRA, TSB, Welsh Assembly, British Council, EU projects and a large number of industry supported projects.

Varun Khanna joined Chobani in 2012 During his stay at Chobani Varun has driven numerous, extremely successful and innovative platform launches, including the Kids, Drinks and Flips. He has been part of the Chobani journey to become one of the most innovative companies in the world, as indicated by Chobani being named one of the Top 10 most innovative companies of 2017 by Fast Company. Varun has 11+ years of global work experience that he gained working on four continents (North America, Asia, Europe and Australia). His education includes a Bachelors in Dairy Science, Masters in Food Technology and MBA. At Chobani, In his specific Director role, Varun analyzes new flavor trends, new technologies, identifies gaps in the portfolio, manages product portfolios, and coaches the junior scientists. Varun is passionate about giving dairy consumers more healthy choices and bringing to market delicious, nutritious, natural and affordable food.