2023 Speakers

Discover the amazing speakers behind The Future of Protein Production Summit

Aditi Basu

Aditi Basu

Head of Marketing

Future Market Insights

Alan She

Alan She

Alex Coghlan

Alex Coghlan

Portfolio Director

Alzbeta Cardova

Alzbeta Cardova

Business Development Manager

Amy Huang

Amy Huang

Associate Director of Scientific Ecosystems

Good Food Institute (GFI)

Anne Lemore

Anne Lemore

Forward Fooding

Aviel Even

Aviel Even

Basak Oker

Basak Oker

Marketing & CSI Director Europe

Basak Oker has more than 15 years of experience in marketing, innovation, digital business and consumer insight generation. She joined Givaudan Taste & Wellbeing division in 2015 as the Category Manager for Beverages; she was named Head of Consumer & Sensory Insights in 2020 and was appointed Marketing & CSI Director Europe in April 2022. Prior to joining Givaudan, she held various marketing and innovation roles in FMCG companies within the personal care and toy industries.

Basak holds an MBA from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and a BA in Business Administration from Koc University in Istanbul.

Björn Örvar

Björn Örvar

Co-founder & CSO

Björn is a co-founder of ORF Genetics. He served as the CEO of the company from 2006 to 2013 and the Executive V.P. and Chief Scientific Officer of ORF Genetics since 2013. Björn received his Ph.D. in plant molecular genetics in 1997 from the University of British Columbia, Canada, and was a post-doctoral fellow at McGill University, Montréal for three years before moving back to Iceland.

Bosco Emparanza

Bosco Emparanza

Biochemist at the University of Navarra. MBA in biotechnology companies, CESIF.
5 years of commercial and business development experience in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and food industry. Since 2018 being part of the commercial area of AINIA Centro Tecnológico. Previous start-up of Biotech Service: Marketplace for biotech services

Chanthy Thor

Chanthy Thor

Global Accounts Director

Chanthy THOR has over 26 years of experience in project management, business development, and key account management. Since 1996, Chanthy has worked with Clauger in various roles, from project manager to managing global business units. Today, he is Clauger's Global Key Account Manager and Director of Clauger's Alternative Protein business. He graduated from the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers with a specialization in biological and living products. He also holds an MBA with a specialization in international business. Clauger's culture, expertise, and his background have made it possible for Chanthy to be a key driver for the company's development and innovation.

Chris Landowski

Chris Landowski

Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer

Chris Landowski is the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Onego Bio, a company producing animal-free egg proteins with precision fermentation. Chris is a cellular agriculture trailblazer and the scientific mastermind behind the technology. The chosen method for producing egg white protein is based on harnessing the microflora Trichoderma reesei for protein production and Chris believes this technology is superior because of its efficiency and productivity. Prior to co-founding Onego Bio, Chris spent 15 years developing breakthrough precision fermentation platforms at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. He has extensive experience in recombinant protein production and translating this knowledge to enable commercial scale production of animal-free proteins.

Daniela Rabinovici

Daniela Rabinovici

VP of Marketing

Daniela has over 17 years' experience in FMCG, both B2C and B2B and worked in multicultural and international business environments with global teams. She brings solid expertise in Strategy formulation, Business and product development as well as Communication. Daniela holds a Bachelor Degree in Foreign Languages and Literature.

Debra Syme

Debra Syme

Chief People Officer

Debra Syme is the Chief People Officer of leading cultivated meat company Ivy Farm, a disruptive food-tech start-up on a mission to create the best guilt free, real meat - to tackle one of the world’s biggest climate polluters, industrial agriculture, and to help the world reach its net zero goals. Debra is a Human Resources leader with over 20 years experience in large, private sector organisations, leading teams and supporting complex client groups globally. Her people mission is to inspire growth and talent development through motivating people to improve their and the Ivy Farms’ performance. Debra can often be found running with her reluctant vizsla in tow.

Diana Rucinschi

Diana Rucinschi

EIC Fund Investment Advisor

European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA)

Diana works as investment advisor in the European Innovation Council Fund (EICF) sector, coordinating the deployment of investment component to a portfolio of EICF selected companies and the expansion of the network of investors. Prior, Diana worked in project management and business acceleration services in EIC pilot and SME Instrument and in the financial services on various EU programs and, in a previous life, she was journalist in written media. Diana holds degrees in Economics and European Economic Integration and economics.

Divya Murthy

Divya Murthy

Senior Investment Manager

ProVeg Incubator

Divya Murthy is the Senior Investment Manager at the ProVeg Incubator based in Berlin. ProVeg Incubator runs the world’s first and leading accelerator programme for plant-based, fermentation and cultivated food startups. ProVeg Incubator's 70+ alumni startups come from all over the world, have raised over €230 million and are available in over 15,000 points of sale. Driven by the need to make our food system more sustainable, Divya joined the ProVeg Incubator and is leading ProVeg’s investments in alt-protein companies. She has over eight years of experience in working with companies on strategy evaluation, due diligence, and financial modelling. She also mentors startups during the accelerator programme. Before joining the Incubator, she worked across roles in mergers and acquisitions consulting, corporate credit rating, and risk advisory.

Doug Grant

Doug Grant

Atlantic Fish Co

Elijah Mojares

Elijah Mojares

Elise Kern

Elise Kern

SVP Data and Insights

Eric Schulze

Eric Schulze

VP Global Scientific and Regulatory Affairs

Eric Schulze, PhD is a professional molecular biologist, genetic engineer, and former federal biotechnology regulator. He is currently Vice President of Product and Regulation at UPSIDE Foods, where he leads both design and development of the company’s meat products as well as its regulatory-, policy-, and government affairs. Dr. Schulze also serves in a company spokesperson capacity. He previously served as Senior Scientist for UPSIDE Foods where he led the cell line development efforts. Before that, he served as a U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulator, handling a portfolio of novel food and drug biotechnology products. As a civil servant, Dr. Schulze also served as a federal STEM education policy capacity within the National Science Foundation and currently works with the National Academy of Sciences on undergraduate STEM education transformation. He holds a doctorate in genetic, cellular, and molecular biology with a specialty in embryonic stem cell engineering and is trained in broadcast communication, speechwriting, and risk assessment.

Eugene Wang

Eugene Wang

Co-Founder & CEO

Sophie's BioNutrients

Eugene Wang grew up immersed in the vegetarian food business. Since 2010, his vision for launching Sophie’s Kitchen, the first Plant-Based Seafood Alternative, has manifested into a viable category innovation lauded by the press and social media thought leaders. Sophie’s Kitchen had won numerous recognitions from companies like PepsiCo and Chipotle. In 2019, Eugene took the alternative protein to the microorganism level and started another venture - Sophie’s BioNutrients. The Singapore-based company, which grows microalgae in bioreactors and has recently expanded to Europe. The company created the world’s first allergen-free microalgae-based dairy alternatives and microalgae-based burger patties with its microalgae protein concentrate.

Floor Buitelaar

Floor Buitelaar

Founding Partner

Bright Green Partners

With a background in several commercial roles in (non-)food retail, and having been vegetarian since she was 12, Floor is one of the co-founders and founding partners at Bright Green Partners. BGP is the global leading consultancy on the future of meat & dairy alternatives, advising corporates, governments and investors all across the supply chain of alt proteins.

Gautam Godhwani

Gautam Godhwani

Managing Partner

Gautam Godhwani is a Managing Partner at Good Startup, a Singapore-based venture capital firm investing in the alternative protein sector. He is an entrepreneur and investor with 25+ years of experience in the technology industry. Previously, he was Co-Founder & CEO of Simply Hired, a recruitment platform serving 300+ companies in the Fortune 1000. Simply Hired was acquired by Recruit Holdings. Before Simply Hired, he was Co-Founder & CEO of AtWeb, a Web tools company with one million small business customers, which was acquired by Netscape/AOL. Gautam also co-founded India Community Center, an NGO operates several facilities in the San Francisco Bay Area, serving the community with 500+ programs and events annually. Gautam has previously held positions at Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Microsoft.

Geoff Bryant

Geoff Bryant

Chief Technology Officer

Geoff is Chief Technology Officer at Calysta. Prior to joining Calysta, Geoff led Quorn’s R&D and technical teams in fermentation science, new product development, innovation, quality, regulatory and process technology. He also spent 16 years with Mars Inc in several regional and global roles, during which time he was assigned as the Global Specialty Petfood R&D Vice President.

Geoff Dance

Geoff Dance

Senior Field Application Specialist

Hanah Tran

Hanah Tran

Founder, Chief Strategy Officer

Hanah Tran is a Founder, Venture Builder and a Goldman Sachs veteran. Her expertise is AI-driven NeuroInvesting & Financing Strategies. Her main role is to monitor a boutique Venture Studio, FHH Ventures, which invests, incubates, commercializes startups and takes them to exit. FHH's work focuses on building ventures from 0 to 1, with performance on average in both Private side adn Public side is from 30% - 500%, with exceptions around 10x-20x. The portfolio's mission is Sustainability and Health Equity, where 50% of the Portfolio is Food-related. Hanah also monitors the Asia-Pacific Food Accelerator of Founder Institute, with the goal to produce 20 - 30 startups per year.

She currently serves as Expert Mentor for New York States Biodefense Commercialization Fund, CUNY Public Health Accelerator, CUNY Tech Incubator at Queens College. She served as Instructor in Crowdfunding and Fundraising Strategies for Columbia University’s Female Founders Initiative.

She sits on Advisory Board of Entrepreneur & Practitioner of the Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Emerald Publishing Group, USA.

She co-authored the Technology chapter in the "Handbook on the Future of Work and Entrepreneurship for the Underserved", among 25 expert authors, published in April 2020.

She is a frequent speaker about the topics in her field at various International Conferences, Global Summits, U.S. Small Business Administration’s forums from 2018 to date.

The topic that she frequently discusses with her broad audience is "How AI & Smart Financing can Accelerate the Future of Work". The "Future of Work" could specifically be about one vertical such as Food or Agriculture, Solar or Renewable Energy, Mobility or EVs. For targeted audiences who are founders and entrepreneurs in Startup and Venture Capital sectors, she often discusses on how founders can use Smart Financing and/or AI to design their venture, commercialize and fundraise to reach their Endgame.

As an example, her next speaking engagement will be "How AI & Smart Financing can Accelerate the Future of Sustainability" at The 2022 Global Sustainability Conference in New York in October 2022, with about 2,000 attendees as of now. Details is here: https://www.linkedin.com/events/1sustainability-2022globalsusta6958108952504983552/about/. She is also invited to speak at the NYC AI Summit in Javits Centre in New York in December.

Hanah's goal of speaking to different audiences is to share her experience in Venture building business, help founders and entrepreneurs to understand investor's perspective, so as they could navigate their venturing path successfully.

Hannah Lester

Hannah Lester

Principal Consultant & Head of Regulatory

Amgen Consulting & Gourmey

Hannah has +15 years’ experience developing veterinary, animal feed & food products for regulatory approval in the EU & other global markets. She has worked on cell-cultured products, plant proteins, fermentation products & traditional foods. She is passionate about alternative proteins & helping companies navigate the complex regulatory requirements needed for regulatory approval. Hannah is Head of Regulatory at Gourmet and CEO/Principal Consultant for Amgen Regulatory Consulting.

Itai Cohen

Itai Cohen

Co-founder & CEO

James Petrie

James Petrie

CEO & Co-founder

Nourish Ingredients

Dr. James Petrie, Co-Founder & CEO of Nourish Ingredients, is a world-class scientist with decades of experience in synthetic biology. Since 2019 James has been using his expertise to revolutionize the plant-based meat and dairy space. Through cutting-edge science and their process of precision fermentation, Nourish has made a significant breakthrough in the taste and experience of alternative proteins. Nourish builds real animal fats that make alternative proteins cook, smell and taste as delicious as the real thing, but animal free. Their fats are set to make a transformative impact and are key to creating a smarter, more sustainable, more diverse food system.

Prior to founding Nourish, James spent 14 years at CSIRO, Australia’s premier research institute. James was a part of the team who spearheaded the creation of omega 3 canola, the world’s first plant based and sustainable source of omega 3.

Jason Dietz

Jason Dietz

Senior Policy Analyst

Mr. Dietz coordinates cross-cutting biotechnology-related activities in FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). In this role he regularly provides technical and policy input to CFSAN and its interagency partners on food biotechnology issues related to food safety and regulation, food labeling, genome editing and media and scientific communication. Most recently, he has served as a technical consultant to FDA’s “Feed Your Mind” consumer education initiative on food biotechnology. Mr. Dietz is also the US focal point for the FAO GM Foods Platform. Mr. Dietz has been with the FDA for more than 20 years.

Jennifer Stojkovic

Jennifer Stojkovic

Vegan Women Summit

Jennifer Stojkovic is a General Partner at Joyful Ventures, an early stage VC fund focused on sustainable protein, and the founder of Vegan Women Summit (VWS), a platform of over 50,000 women professionals in the future of food. In 2022, Jennifer published her debut award-winning book, The Future of Food is Female. Prior to her career in food technology, Jennifer built her career in Silicon Valley under Ron Conway, Founder of SV Angel, and worked with the world's largest tech companies including Google, Meta, and Microsoft.

Joanna Lepore

Joanna Lepore

Global Director Foresight & Exploration

John Gray

John Gray

Managing Director EU

Jonathan Berger

Jonathan Berger

The Kitchen Hub

Jonathan is one of the pioneers of the Israeli FoodTech and has led The Kitchen the first Israeli FoodTech incubator since it's inception in 2014. The Kitchen, owned by the Strauss Group and supported by the state of Israel, has been investing in early-stage Israeli FoodTech startups aiming to support Better Industry, Better Food, Better World.
Since Jonathan has been leading The Kitchen activity, the portfolio grew to 22 startups who have raised capital of over $ 222 million.
Jonathan brings a unique combination of experience in Hi-Tech and food businesses serving in leadership positions. He is a co-founder and a director in Copia-Agro, an early stage AgTech fund. He also served in various executive positions in food companies including as a CEO of $100M edible oil company. Jonathan is a board member in IATI (Israel Advanced Technology Industries), representing all Hi-Tech activities in Israel and an evaluator at the Horizon European Fund. Jonathan holds a BSc in Industrial Engineering & an EMBA from Kellogg and Tel-Aviv University. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanberger/

Justyna Pałasińska

Justyna Pałasińska

Regulatory Affairs Director, Human Nutrition

Pen & Tec Consulting

Justyna is Pen & Tec’s regulatory expert in human food and nutrition, specialising in novel food product registrations, foods for special medical purposes, food supplements and has extensive experience in the registration of feed additives in the EU and other jurisdictions. Justyna has an MSc in food technology and nutrition as well as a degree in biomedical engineering. For over 8 years, Justyna has been supporting Pen & Tec’s clients by managing product approvals, providing regulatory advice and designing training sessions for regulatory teams. Justyna has also presented at industry leading conferences on topics such as the novel food approval process in the EU and has delivered live webinars on cellular agriculture and dossier submission to the UK FSA.

Karyn Knox

Karyn Knox

Chief Development and Partnerships Officer

Educated Choices

Kerem Erikci

Kerem Erikci

Kevin Benmoussa

Kevin Benmoussa

Kevin is currently the CFO of Aleph Farms - a food company that grows high-quality animal products that are good for people, the planet and animals. Kevin was previously Chief Financial Officer at The Vita Coco Company, where he was responsible for expanding the company’s global finance functions before leading the company’s initial public offering in 2021. Prior to that, he held numerous corporate leadership positions at Nestlé Waters North America, Inc. and PepsiCo Inc. where he drove growth and profitability through M&A, strategic alliances and business development.

Leo Wein

At Protenga, we Make Insects Work For You. We develop data-driven Insect Technology that enables a circular, regenerative, economy all along the food supply chain and produces best-in-class, sustainable Insect Products for pet food, animal feed and plants.
Prior to Protenga, Leo led product and software engineering in a Singapore data science company. Inspired to realize a vision of food in balance with nature, Leo shifted from software bugs to real bugs, combining data-driven systems engineering with biology through Protenga's Smart Insect Farm. He holds degrees in both science and business from Amsterdam University College and the Free University of Amsterdam.

Leonard Chong

Leonard Chong

Scientific Fellow

Big Idea Ventures

Leonard is a Scientific Fellow at Big Idea Ventures, performing technical due diligence and mentorship to hundreds of early stage alternative protein companies in the plant-based, fermentation-enabled and cultured meat and dairy categories. Prior to joining BIV, he worked as a research assistant at the Department of Food Science and Technology in the National University of Singapore for 3 years, focusing on novel food technologies, food safety and food quality. He is currently holds a Master’s Degree in Food Science and Technology from the National University of Singapore.

Leonardo Paradisi

Leonardo Paradisi

Head of Research & Data

Forward Fooding

Leonardo is the Head of Research & Data at Forward Fooding, where he leads the company's research and consulting projects as well as oversees all analytics. In his role, Leonardo leads on qualitative and quantitative analyses across a range of consulting projects for global Fortune 500 F&B companies. Prior to this role, he worked for over three years in London as a Business Intelligence Analyst for the leading auction house Sotheby's.

Louis Magaldi-Charles

Louis Magaldi-Charles

Five Seasons Ventures

6 years of experience as investor in consumer and software.

Mandy Hon

Mandy Hon

Managing Director

Marcel Nusser

Marcel Nusser

Head of Technology Development

Albert Handtmann Maschinenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG

Margot Stern

Margot Stern

Reagenics Research Ltd.

Mariano Di Rubbo

Mariano Di Rubbo

Senior food scientist & engineer

As a food engineer and part of the Molecular cuisine research group at the National University of Quilmes, I was always focused on R&D, formulation, and sensory analysis since the beginning of my career. Also, I could specialize in beverage production and enology gaining expertise in industrial microbiology while working in Catalunya's based company, De Muller, and in product development and innovation supported by Tec Monterrey and its Marketing and consumer behavior programs.
I am part of Michroma since mid-2019. I am in charge of the iterative process of ingredient development from the detection of an unsolved need in the market, the design of a proof of concept, its optimization, purification, scaling up, applications, and stability studies. All of this harnessing fungal as the best biotransformation organisms and submerged fermentation. At Michroma, being part of San Francisco-based Indie bio and Mista food-tech accelerator, we are part of an incredible environment of disruptive startups that produce cutting-edge technology, working side by side with the biggest companies to provide innovative solutions to the future of food production.

Marion Bazille

Marion Bazille

Program Manager

Big Idea Ventures

Martijn Bekker

Martijn Bekker

Expertise Leader

Wageningen Food & Biobased Research

Martijn is currently active as an Expertise Leader at Wageningen Food and Biobased Research. Here he leads projects that focus on optimization of microbial production processes ranging from food fermentation to probiotics production for a wide range of companies. He has worked in various roles as both Scientist and Team Lead at The Coca-Cola Company, a Contract Research Organization called NIZO and has led the initiation and scale-up of a start-up company called Photanol. Thanks to these roles Martijn has extensive experience with process optimization of microbial processes and in scaling these from the lab to industrial scale.

Mathilde Do Chi

Mathilde Do Chi

Food law consultant specializing in alternative proteins

- VP of Regulatory Affairs of the Vegan Society of Canada
- VP of Regulatory Affairs of the Vegan World Alliance
- COO of BeVeg International
- Food law consultant specializing in global alternative protein regulations

Mathilde is a food law consultant that has gained experience in 6 countries (France, Germany, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Japan, and Italy). She brings a global outlook as she has supported companies scattered across the world which she couples with an acute knowledge of the food industry as she has worked in both the private and public sectors.

She chose to specialize in alternative proteins whose pillars resemble very much values defended by veganism, namely animal welfare, public health, and food sustainability.

Matt Anderson-Baron

Matt Anderson-Baron

Michał Tracz

Michał Tracz

Senior Associate, Attorney-at-law

Mohammad El Hajj

Mohammad El Hajj

Co-founder & CEO

Märt-Erik Martens

Märt-Erik Martens

Co-founder & CEO

Märt-Erik Martens is the co-founder and CEO of Gelatex Technologies. Märt-Erik has MSc in materials science and has devoted his whole scientific career to nanofibers and bio-based materials. Besides that, he has ample experience in mechanical engineering and product
development having engineered robots, satellites, and automotive accessories. Märt-Erik is the main inventor of Gelatex's proprietary nanofiber production technology.

Neha Poddar

Neha Poddar

Neha Poddar is a Principal at Good Startup, a Singapore-based venture capital fund investing in alternative protein companies globally. She has 12+ years of experience in financial markets spanning private equity, fixed income, credit, and public equities. Previously, she was a director of investments at JI Capital Partners, a Southeast Asia focused impact investment Private Equity fund based in Singapore. Before JI Capital Partners, Neha was an equity derivatives trader at Bank of America Merrill Lynch covering Southeast Asia and India. Neha started her career at Lehman Brothers and rose to become Vice President, fixed income structuring, at Nomura after it acquired Lehman’s Asia operations. Neha holds an MBA (High Honors) from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay. Neha is a recipient of the prestigious Siebel Scholarship.

Nick Bradley

Nick Bradley

Editorial Director

Future of Protein Production

Nick Piggott

Nick Piggott

Nutrition Technologies

Nick is a co-founder and Co-CEO of Nutrition Technologies, an industrial-scale BSF manufacturer based in South East Asia. With a background in Life Sciences, Nick was exposed to the challenges of food security whilst working for the UN in West Africa, and the company has since developed insect-based feed-ingredients for the livestock and aquaculture industries to address this issue. Nick is the industry-side face of Nutrition Technologies, overseeing the product, regulatory, & client side of the business, ensuring that the organization maintains constant awareness of the competitive & regulatory landscape, market trends, technology developments and industry standards.

Nicolas Morin-Forest

Nicolas Morin-Forest

Nicolas Morin-Forest is GOURMEY's CEO and co-founder, a pioneering cultivated meat company based in Paris, France, creating sustainable meat delights from state-of-the-art cell cultivation techniques combined with culinary arts. Nicolas has a background at the crossroads of consumer goods companies (L'Oréal) and the nonprofit sector (several environmental organizations) as he was involved in several development aid missions, particularly in Latin America around the promotion of sustainable agricultural practices. Nicolas is a Science Po Paris graduate.

Noreen Hobayan

Noreen Hobayan

Director of Quality and Regulatory Affairs

Olivia de Talancé

Olivia de Talancé

Food Engineer by training.
Worked 10 years on the traditional side of the Food Industry, in Chile, the UK, France (Unilever, Sensient, Bakkavor).
In 2016: was hired by Impossible Foods to lead the design, construction and launch of their 1st burger factory (in California). I was then appointed to build IF's PMO.
I joined VitalMeat in 2021 as COO.

Owen Ensor

Owen Ensor

Originally from Edinburgh Owen started out consulting with Bain & Co in the UK and South Africa. He then joined Sanergy, a Nairobi-based start-up, creating a zero waste system by using insects as animal feed. He scaled their insect protein business creating pilot production, passing regulation, conducting initial sales, and raising funds for what is now East Africa’s largest waste processing facility. While working at Sanergy Owen became vegan and recognised rearing insects did not align with his values any more. Since leaving Sanergy Owen has worked in six different countries either starting companies or advising corporates. He has previously been funded by US VCs including Lightspeed Ventures and Pear VC, and has advised global food companies, governments and investors on their plant-based food strategies.

Owen has been vegan for the last eight years and believes that moving away from animal agriculture we can create a more peaceful, healthier, sustainable world.

Pamela Barroso

Pamela Barroso

Luyef Biotechnologies

My name is Pamela Barroso, and I am the Chief Business Officer of Luyef. I’m a business administrator with vast knowledge in customer experience, innovation project management, and information technologies. I possess remarkable skills to identify customer insights and turning them into strategic actions inside the company. My key roles and responsibilities are: management of investment received, market research and customer analysis, the voice of the customer study, review of financial status, and allocate financial, administrative, and operational resources to achieve strategic and financial goals. I have knowledge in customer experience and industrial marketing, so I think I could apply these skills to position Luyef as a relevant player in the alternative protein and cultured meat industry, a key supplier, and then as a producer that offers technology for creating products that exceed the expectations of consumers. My most significant driving force in life is the vegan style; therefore, I am committed to bringing cultured meat to the next level in Luyef and removing animals from the equation.

Panagiotis Vlachogiannis

Panagiotis Vlachogiannis

Junior Specialist Cell Nutrition

Panagiotis is the Junior specialist in cell nutrition at Nutreco. He dedicates his time to develop the scientific and technical capabilities to supply future customers (or business partners) with media samples and relevant QA services and exploring business opportunities for Nutreco as cell feed supplier to the cultivated and fermentation-based protein industry. He is also the co-founder of Cellular Agriculture Greece and the Wageningen Alternative Protein Project.

Parendi Birdie

Parendi Birdie

Head of Brand Strategy

Food System Innovations

Parendi Birdie has been at the forefront of the cultivated meat industry since 2013. She has contributed to the industry’s growth as a scientist, investor, and volunteer. She is currently the Head of Strategic Partnerships at Mission Barns, a leading cultivated meat company based in San Francisco. Previously, she worked as a Cellular Agriculture Research Associate at JUST. She has a degree in Biochemistry from the University of Kansas.

Kris is the Founder of the Cellular Agriculture Society. CAS is a nonprofit working on public education of CellAg, including cultivated meat (meat made from cells instead of farm animals). CAS has developed award-winning educational material and is currently creating the world's first textbook on cultivated meat. Kris was one of the early pioneers of the concept, involved in the cultivated meat space since the early 2010s. He has been fortunate to give the first talks on cellular agriculture at places like Google, Harvard, Stanford, City University of London, Texas A&M, and MIT; likewise, Kris and his work have helped to establish the field of CellAg, being featured and quoted in the Financial Times, Washington Post, Science, Harvard Innovation Lab, MIT Tech Review, Forbes, San Francisco Chronicle, ABC Australia.

Paul Bevan

Paul Bevan

CEO & Co-Founder

Paul Bevan is the founder and CEO of Magic Valley - an Australian food company developing healthy and delicious cultivated meat products. Paul previously held senior roles at ASX100 listed companies, TABCORP, NAB and ANZ. He was also the co-founder of Absolute MMA (Melbourne’s biggest martial arts gym) and founder of Boss Finance (an award-winning finance brokerage). Paul was also previously the National Treasurer of the Animal Justice Party and holds a Bachelor of Economics (Monash University).

Pelle Sinke

Pelle Sinke

Researcher / consultant

Pelle is an LCA specialist at CE Delft environmental consultancy. He has been extensively working with companies and researchers in the cultivated meat field to conduct environmental assessments. With increasing amounts of primary data from this fast-developing field, these assessments represent a new stage in understanding life cycle impacts of cultivated meat

Pernilla Westergren

Pernilla Westergren

Founder & Pet food revolutionist

Peter Mortimer

Peter Mortimer

Community Manager

Future of Protein Production

Peter Rowe

Peter Rowe

CEO & Co-Founder

Peter Rowe is the CEO of Deep Branch, a carbon recycling biotechnology company using microbes to clean carbon dioxide into sustainable, high-value food and feed ingredients to support a more sustainable food system. The company’s proprietary gas fermentation platform uses carbon dioxide and hydrogen as clean and renewable carbon and energy sources to deliver next-generation bio-based products. Passionate about the nexus of technology and business, Peter has worked in technical and commercial biotechnology roles in the UK, Spain, and the Netherlands. He holds a PhD in Molecular Microbiology and is a certified AgTech consultant and Innovation Management expert. Forbes 30 Under 30 for Manufacturing & Industry.

Peter Yu

Peter Yu

Program Manager

APAC-Society for Cellular Agriculture

Peter Yu is the dedicated manager to the APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture – an association and coalition of 10+ cultivated meat and seafood companies across the APAC region. Through the society, Peter works as a drive-force to both promote the industry as well as to encourage the establishment efficient and transparent regulations and policies. Peter is actively engaging towards creating a harmonized cultivated food industry, and have experience in driving various of industry moving projects across the globe. Peter holds an MBA and a MSc in Bioengineering while pursuing an LLM.

Pierfrancesco Mazzolini

Pierfrancesco Mazzolini

CEO & Co-founder

Po Bronson

Po Bronson

General Partner

Indie Bio & SOSV

Since 2018, Po has been Managing Director of IndieBio. He is passionate about reconceptualizing complex challenges into more elegant forms in order to broaden understanding and highlight priorities. Po is a longtime science journalist honored with nine national awards, and author of seven bestselling books that are available in 28 languages worldwide. His work has been cited in 185 academic journals and 503 books. His background is in Economics. He learned finance at Credit Suisse and consulting at a division of Arthur Andersen. Prior to IndieBio he spent four years as a Futurist with Attention Span Media, consulting corporate innovation efforts for globally recognized brands. Most recently, Po is the author of Decoding the World: A Roadmap for the Questioner, published by Twelve Books, a division of the Hachette Publishing Group.

Rebecca Bradley

Rebecca Bradley

Chief Marketing Officer

Terra Bioindustries

Rieks Smook

Rieks Smook

Agricultural schooled, corporate finance groomed and an absolute sucker for efficiency and sustainability. Rieks is the bridge head for cooperation, dedicated to more sustainable food production.

Robert E. Jones

Robert E. Jones

Cellular Agriculture Europe

Robert is Head of Public Affairs for Mosa Meat, the Dutch food startup that pioneered the first cultivated beef in the world. He also serves as President of Cellular Agriculture Europe, a Brussels-based industry association that represents 14 companies making beef, pork, chicken, fish, milk and foie gras using cellular agriculture technology. He has over 24 years of experience working in advocacy and government affairs and is a classically trained chef from the Culinary Institute of America with a Master's in Business & Entrepreneurship from the London School of Economics and a Master's degree in Political Management from The George Washington University.

Robin Simsa

Robin Simsa

Robin Simsa is the CEO and Cofounder of the company Revo Foods, the leading European plant-based seafood producer. With their innovative 3D Food Printing approach, Revo Foods is developing fully structured products such as salmon fillet or tuna steak.

Roman Laus

Roman Laus

Roman is an entrepreneur and has built or co-founded several companies: Global DTP, Global E-learning, Home Institute, and also invested in several startups. He has been a founding member as well as a Program Director at Future Port Prague, the largest international futuristic event in the heart of Europe. He has also studied exponential technologies and organizations in the US. Thanks to his network and knowledge gained through Future Port journey, he decided to not only organize events about future technologies but to take action. Thus, in 2020, Roman founded Mewery, the first European cell-based food-tech startup developing cultivated pork on a microalgae base with the potential to change the entire cultivated meat industry.

Ryan Kromhout

Ryan Kromhout

Manager Global Industry Division F&B

Ryan brings a diverse set of process instrumentation and automation in terms of experience, working in demanding flow applications over hygienic valves through the physical layer for signal transmission and a uniform access to device intelligence.
After his engagement with Emerson Process Management, Brooks Instrument, GEA Tuchenhagen GmbH and Turck, Ryan leads the Global Industry Division Food for the KROHNE Group.

Sebastian Sbuttoni

Sebastian Sbuttoni

Conference Director

Future of Protein Production

Seronei Chelulei Cheison

Seronei Chelulei Cheison

Sinonin Food Innovations

A certified Full Professor of Food Biotechnology (German Habilitation). I am a passionate and experienced food enzymologist and protein innovation expert with over 7 years in academia at Associate Professor level (TU München) and 8.5 years in petfood industry (MARS Petcare) leading alternative proteins innovations and application in petfood as well as and palatant development. I founded Sinonin Biotech UG Ltd and my daily work is to help food and petfood businesses scout for sustainable proteins, test protein functionality for meat analogue application, develop enzyme hydrolysates and flavour solutions for both petfood and human food applications and work on a validation journey. I talk about #FoodEnzymology, #InsectProteins, #Mycoproteins, #Nucleotides, #Palatants and #MeatTechnology as well as #Extrusion. Follow me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/matelong/) and the business portal (WIP, https://www.SinoninBio.tech).

Shigeki Sugii

Shigeki Sugii

Shravan Shah

Shravan Shah

Senior Associate

Synthesis Capital

Shrav Shah is a Senior Associate on the investment team at Synthesis Capital, a London-based venture capital fund investing in technologies across the alt-protein landscape. Shrav has a long-standing passion for and interest in food and nutrition, specifically alternative protein, having been raised vegetarian. Shrav’s background combines solid financial markets training with tech-company operator experience. After spending three years at Morgan Stanley in its equities division, Shrav worked at several high-growth businesses including Deliveroo and bp pulse. His start-up experience is rooted in strategic and analytical roles across multiple markets and products. Shrav holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Nottingham and an MSc in Finance from the University of Cambridge.

Simcha Nyssen

Simcha Nyssen

Project Manager

Simcha Nyssen studied communication and marketing with a focus on international relations and negotiation processes. Fascinated by human intrinsic motivation processes, she went on to study business psychology. She was always surrounded by animals and advocating for more animal welfare has always been an important part of her life.
Professionally, she was involved in the daily operations of several commercial companies when, in 2019, she decided to devote an important part of her professional time to improving animal welfare. Since then, she has been working on various projects as an independent consultant. Today she focusses mainly on the global protein shift, technological innovations in cellular agriculture, replacing conventional animal based products by cell-based alternatives and precision fermentation or plant based hybrid solutions. She believes in a holistic approach of transitions, looking at the interconnected entity and the importance of understanding complete outline. Approaching stakeholders, understanding the dynamics of transitions and the social impact, identifying resistances and opportunities and looking for long term solutions.
She represents GAIA as a member of the working group International Financial Institutions Working Group and International Policy Forum. She acts as special adviser to stakeholders in relevant projects. In April 2022 GAIA and Eurogroup for Animals hosted Europe’s first-ever symposium on cultivated meat and precision fermentation. Scientific experts, industry representatives and advocates attended the event in Brussels to discuss the future of our food system. Special advisor to Michel Vandenbosch on the book “Cultivated meat to secure our future: Hope for animals, food security, and the environment.”

Sofia Giampaoli

Sofia Giampaoli

Sofia Giampaoli- founder CEO. MSc, ME. Biotech entrepreneur with more than 7 years’ experience in process engineering, Ops strategy in multinational food corporations and in entrepreneurship. Former founder of the first cultivated meat startup from Latin America. Passionate about turning technology innovation into business strategy and roadmap to solve global challenges.

Staffan Hillberg

Staffan Hillberg

Chairman of the Board

Tim Geistlinger

Tim Geistlinger

Chief Scientific Officer

Tim Geistlinger serves as Chief Science Officer at Perfect Day, a consumer biology company on
a mission to create a kinder, greener tomorrow by developing new ways to make the foods you
love today — starting in the dairy aisle. In his role, Tim leads all innovative discovery efforts for
where his work is focused on creating earth-friendly, high-quality, functional proteins that
deliver a truly satisfying full-dairy experience, without the environmental and welfare issues
inherent to factory farming.

Tim is driven by a passion to create scientific solutions that tackle major problems, which he
has cultivated throughout his over 20 years in biotechnology and pharmaceutical research and
development. He brings this experience to Perfect Day, along with a track record of innovative
breakthroughs across various medical, industrial, and academic arenas. Tim’s scientific
research has taken him through the laboratories of Shaman Pharmaceuticals, MIGROS AG,
Stanford University, Genentech, UCSF, Tokyo University, Harvard Medical School, The DanaFarber Cancer Institute, Amyris Biotechnologies, and Beyond Meat.

Tim previously held the role of Chief Technology Officer at Perfect Day where he led the
development of the technology behind our products. Prior to this, he served as Vice President of
Research and Development for Beyond Meat where he built the entire scientific program, the
foundation for all the current and marketing future food products, the scale-up, and the IP
strategy, in alignment with the business strategies. Tim is the original creator of the now
famous Beyond Burger and related products in multiple QSRs globally.

Tim is skilled in metabolic engineering, drug design, fermentation, manufacturing, chemical
biology, natural products chemistry, targeted therapeutics, protein engineering, scale-up
technologies, and oncology. He has built the teams and created the seminal technology behind
multiple therapeutics working in partnership with the likes of the Gates Foundation, Elli Lilly,
Roche, Genentech, Novartis and others. His work has resulted in three IPOs and multiple
licensed products that are currently used globally to treat cancer and infectious disease.

Tim earned his PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from the University of California, San Francisco. He is passionate about the future of animal-free dairy and, with the rest of the
Executive Leadership Team, is driving Perfect Day to its vision of building a more equitable,
resilient, and diverse food system for everyone.

Tiphaine Muepu

Tiphaine Muepu

Valerie Christy

Valerie Christy

Investment Associate

Astanor Ventures

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The Future of Protein Production Summit !

The World's Leading Event For Sustainable Protein Production

21st - 23rd February 2023 | Online

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