Speakers 2018

Wine & Spirits industry career, starting with Remy Cointreau in 1996, then J&B, then joining Adelphi in 2004 as Sales & Marketing Director. He was appointed Managing Director of Adelphi and the Ardnamurchan Distillery in 2015. He designed and project managed a new bottling and distribution warehouse for Adelphi in 2010, and oversaw the design, planning and build of a brand new, greenfield, distillery in Ardnamurchan on the west coast of Scotland, utilising 100% local, renewable energy sources and deployment of byproducts. The Ardnamurchan Distillery was opened by HRH The Princess Royal in July 2014 with a capacity of 600,000 litres of alcohol per annum. He developed and blended the first, branded, official fusion of Scotch and Japanese whiskies, The Glover, in 2015 to promote the historical relationship between the 2 countries and has subsequently added further international distilling partners to a growing fusion whisky portfolio. In 2014, he joined the board of Scotland Food & Drink, the ILG for the industry. In 2017, Adelphi was the first Scotch whisky company to adopt blockchain technology for its bottles, promoting transparency, authenticity and supply chain security. Alex was appointed a Keeper of the Quaich in 2006, and a Master of the Quaich in 2016. He was also granted Freedom of the City of London in 2012 and became a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Distillers. He is an honorary member of the Whisky Guild of New Zealand and a recipient of the Order of the Scottish Samurai.

Andrew has over 10 years of experience in international consumer and market insights, working with global FMCG companies in agency and client-side roles. His current role as Consumer Insights Director at Eolas International has allowed Andrew to take his passion for consumer behaviour into the world of product quality, to understand what quality truly means for the customer.

Anneke de Valk is working as Quality Manager at the family company Henri Willig Cheese. After finishing her studies Food Technology in 1998 and Industrial Engineering Management in 1999, she started at a cheese company as Quality employee. In 2002 she came as Quality Manager at Henri Willig Cheese. From 2005 till 2012 Anneke worked as Quality Manager at Concorp (Company producing liquorice and candy). In 2012 Anneke came back at Henri Willig Cheese as Quality and R&D Manager.

Dr. Atanasios Moschos is a Quality and Food Safety professional with nearly 25 years of experience. He studied chemistry at Brussels University (ULB) and obtained his PhD in physical chemistry. He is also graduate in Occupational Safety and Hygiene and in Innovation Management. He was expert at the European Commission where he worked for 3 years. Since 1995, he works for Leonidas Confectionery, one of the larger “pralines” manufacturer in Belgium. As head of the Quality Department, he has a global and integrated vision of quality and safety. He participated within the Belgian association of biscuits, confectioneries and chocolates manufacturers (Choprabisco), in the verification of the official self-checking guide of the sector. He is also member of the Regulatory and Scientific committee and the Hygiene Group of Caobisco, the European association of biscuit, chocolate and confectionery industries.

Technical Director and Leader of IFS French office. After studying veterinary medicine in France and Germany, and working more than 20 years in the Food Industry, Bruno Séchet joined IFS, as responsible for the standard management, the coordination of the technical team and the international stakeholder workgroups. His previous position was Asia-Pacific Director for Product Development and Quality for the cheese manufacturer “Groupe Bel”. He has worked across more than 25 countries, occupying 10 jobs at operational, regional or corporate level, and been involved in: The implementation of quality, food safety and integrated management systems, defining quality policies and strategies, auditing suppliers, subcontractors and own facilities the implementation of Crisis Management Systems Setting up production lines for and in Asia.

Bastian Eichler is an expert on measurement technology, IoT and quality management systems. At Testo, he currently leads a team of five product and market managers, who exclusively create quality management solutions for the food retail sector. In his six years at Testo, he was responsible for various innovative product launches, including one of the first SaaS temperature monitoring systems worldwide: testo Saveris 2. Bastian is an alumnus from the University of Freiburg, one of Europe’s top research and teaching institutes. His background as an economist allows him to have a broad perspective on how to solve a customer’s problem in an efficient and sustainable way and how to anticipate long-term effects."

Christine Lodder, Dutch, mum of 2 boys. Tenure of more than 10 years in Infant Nutrition and 20 years in Fast Moving Consumer Goods in Global companies. Since 2015 Global Quality Director Danone Early Life Nutrition. Current responsibilites for Quality & Food Safety in ELN Business Units worldwide and leading Quality & Food Safey Strategic Programs for the ELN Division with internal and external stakeholders. Graduated as Food Technologist, Wageningen University. Build a career, in the Netherlands and abroad, through Quality, Manufacturing and Consumer Service Leadership roles. Areas of interest are Excellence, Transformation through strategy & culture, (Whole Scale) Change. Energized by deploying holistic & agile E2E strategies to deliver consumer trust and preference for global brands at competitive cost.

Corinne is a Group Quality Director at BEL GROUP, previously worked as Quality and Laboratory Manager in plant manufacturing natural cheese and started her career in R&D and Development & Innovation, studied Food Industry Engineer School in Bordeaux in France . she enjoys riding horses and motorbike and sailing

Einar Sigurdsson is a Product Manager for SensorX bone detection solutions at Marel, a leading global provider of advanced processing systems and services to the poultry, meat and fish industries. He studied Business Administration at Aarhus University in Denmark, with focus on strategy, organization and leadership. For the past year, Einar has worked with food processing companies all around the world to help them integrate the SensorX bone detection solution and Innova food processing software into their production process, with the aim of improving the quality and safety of their products.

For over the past 10 years I have closely accompanied the more relevant issues faced by the food industry, at all levels of the supply chain. Particularly, the questions related to food safety, food defence, biovigilance and bioterrorism, have always been topics of particular personal interest. During my talk I will give an historical perspective on bioterrorism and its impact on communities starting from the birth of humanity until today. After the previously mentioned historical perspective I will try to explore the current state of affairs, concerning the previously referred topics, from the Consumers, Industry, Supply chain Players, Certification Agencies and Regulators standpoint. After presenting the current trends, my presentation will be followed by some future perspectives and prospective directions.

Faouzi Grebici has over 30 year experience in industrial automation with a solid specialization in mechatronics. Holding a master degree in machine control he spent most of his career in Omron Electronics Industrial Automation Business where he grew from product manager in mechatronics to being a global senior GM leading a global business unit in motion and robotics technology. Now he is putting that experience in developing the business of industrial solutions across the EMEA territory. The core strategy of industry solutions strategy is articulated around Omron core competence in machine automation and Omron world first technology in autonomous intelligent vehicles. The synergy of those competencies is a real game changer in flexible manufacturing and especially in the growing field of personalized production. The other important aspect, that technological and manufacturing strategies often overlook, is the human aspect. Faouzi Grebici believes that smart factories need smarter people and that successful manufacturers are those who work tirelessly to turn the tedious job of operators into creators.

BSc Hons in Applied Microbiology from Queen’s University Belfast PhD in Food Microbiology from Queen’s University Belfast EXPERIENCE Over 25 years experience working in Moy Park within in the Group Laboratories and the Technical & Quality Management functions, both at site and Group level as part of the Senior Management Team. Extensive experience of working with the major UK and Ireland Retailers Project Management, including grant-funded projects Member of the FSA/BPC/Industry working groups on Campylobacter Reduction. Member of the Chilled Foods Association Executive and Technical Committees Active member of the Campden BRI Member Interest Groups

I joined HM Customs and Excise at London’s Heathrow Airport in 1989 and spent 8 years enforcing border controls in Terminal 3 before qualifying as a tax inspector to audit and assess businesses tax affairs. For the last 20 years I have been a criminal investigator in HM Revenue and Customs investigating some of the UK’s biggest tax, alcohol diversion, cigarette smuggling and associated money laundering offences. These cases included a large and complex Missing Trader Intra Community VAT fraud with a tax loss in excess of £176m which led to the longest prison sentences ever handed down in the UK against 15 defendants. In 2015 I joined the National Food Crime Unit within the Food Standards Agency as the Head of Intelligence responsible for leading the UK’s response to food crime.

James Karn is a Food Safety Director who has an extremely broad global experience in preventing microbiological, chemical and foreign body contamination in food, packaging and consumer products at all stages of the value chain. James has worked for major global branded companies which include Heinz, Nestle, DuPont as well as Kerry Taste and Nutrition, Warburton’s the bakers, McBride plc and the UK Ministry of Agriculture. During this time, he has been through many crises and issues related to food, brought about culture change in companies in all global regions and delivered over $600 million in benefits through continuous improvement, and eliminated the number consumer complaint in more than one company

George Howlett is the CEO of Safefood 360° and one of Europe's leading food safety experts. Before co-founding Safefood 360° he worked with some of Ireland's most prominent companies and brings this expertise with him. George also lectures on the MSc for Food Safety Management in the Dublin Institute of Technology

Laurence Blayo started her career in 1994 as Quality Manager in the meat industry in France. In 1996 she joined the Nestlé group in Sweden as a Microbiologist in their Research and Development Center dedicated to Frozen and Chilled Food. Since then she has occupied various positions in Nestlé. She is currently leading the Food Safety Microbiology team at the International Nestlé Research Center based in Lausanne, Switzerland. Her team is dedicated to Emerging Microbial issues and Microbiological Risk Assessment. She is leading as well the Nestlé R&D Microbiological Safety Expert Network aiming at developing the critical mass of food safety microbiologists and leveraging the overall microbiology competences throughout the Company. Laurence brings over 24 years of experience in food safety including training, microbiological trouble-shooting, implementation of preventive control programmes. Her passions include not only Microbiology and Food Safety sciences but also people management and development.

Dr Louise Manning, Reader (Associate Professor) in Food Policy and Management has worked for over 30 years in the agri-food supply chain in a range of roles. Her expertise is in the area of the interaction of people, systems and technology in the food supply chain. This includes food safety culture, supply chain governance and integrity, risk communication and enabling stakeholder responsibility. Louise advises both government and corporate businesses on supply chain challenges, opportunities and emerging issues. Louise has published in a range of peer-reviewed journals and regularly writes for trade press and electronic media.

"I am a lucky person because I spent all my professional life – close to 20 years now - working on things that I like and where I could feel I was having an impact on making things happen. A skill that I liked to developed over years, it’s about pursuing synergies and unobvious connections. As a background, I am industrial chemist, specialized on polymer chemistry. After a master on innovation and operation management, I joined Procter&Gamble where I spent seven years working on technology development and then product research on detergents in Brussels Innovation Center In 2006. I joined Barilla R&D on pasta category where I could put together my passion for pasta with the passion for innovation Since January 2017, after a whole carrier in product development, I started to discover Quality and Food Safety, the other half of the moon, maybe not as bright as the one of product innovation side, but surely the most critical side to give consumer safe products with reliable quality.

Marion works as Head of Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs at Nordzucker AG since 19 years. Her main focus areas are Product Safety, Audit Management and Food and Feed regulatory affairs, in addition she has years of experience in Quality Management, Crisis Management and Sustainability. In her spare time, she enjoys travelling, cooking and yoga.

Marjolein works as Quality lead for Chocolate and Licensing at Mondelez International for almost 8 years. Before that she held several international positions in Quality and R&D at food companies like Campbell’s, Unilever and Nestle. In her spare time she plays field hockey, coaches her daughters soccer team and loves travelling, winery and distillation.

With a background in Finance, Martina has over 20 years experience in FMCG companies, having worked with Global brands such as Pepsi and Heineken. As a director of Eolas, Martina is responsible for Business Development and is applying her broad business knowledge across a number of different aspects of the business.

Nati Larrea Onaindia is the EUAU Ingredients/ packaging suppliers External Quality Manager. In this role, she has been taking an active part in developing and driving the strategies to build XQM program in International, having the responsibility to: Manage and strive to drive down risk across regional supply chain at a calibrated risk level that is aligned to GM corporate policies Develop a highly skilled network of the regional auditors assuring continuous reduction of food safety risks and consistent quality of ingredients, packaging and finished products within GM plants, and copackers. She has been on this role since October 2012, actively co-working with the Sourcing team, R&D and other stakeholders across the company. Before that, she was the Supplier Quality Assurance Manager for one of GM plants, based in San Adrián (Spain), since 2004. Prior to joining GM she worked as Quality Manager for Florette (Vega Mayor), mainly dedicated to the production of ready to eat salads, and in those days, ready to eat pastry, soups and creams. She has a Veterinary degree from the University of Zaragoza. Course units included Microbiology, Chemistry, Physics, Immunology, physiology, Hygiene of the aliments, and Biochemistry.

Nicola joined SGS through the acquisition of C-LABS SA in December 2016 where he was the CEO. A passionate entrepreneur in the digital industry, Nicola started his career with Selerant in 1997 where he helped hundreds of food companies all over the world to transform their R&D processes to deliver better and safer products to the market. In 2016, Nicola founded C-LABS to deliver solutions for the industry 4.0 transformation. He is currently working on new solutions based on artificial intelligence that will drive innovation in the TIC industry. With substantial expertise in business and software development, has a passion for motorcycles, challenges and adventures. In 2013, he rode his electric motorcycle across Asia from Shanghai to Milan, achieving a Guinness World Record. This research trip also produced several publications on food chain sustainability.

Raymond Ellard has worked in various aspects of food control from the local to the international level since he qualified as an Environmental Health Officer (EHO) in Ireland in 1975. For eight years he was Chief Environmental Health Officer with the Department of Health and Children. He moved to the then newly established Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) as Chief Specialist in Environmental Health, before taking up his present post there as one of the Directors. Within FSAI, as Director of Risk Management and Regulatory Affairs he is part of the Senior Management Team and has held many responsibilities including service level agreements with official agencies. Currently he is responsible for the Authority’s training group, veterinary public health and agriculture group, food incidents team, regulatory affairs and the FSAI Consultative Council. He has worked with the EU systems as a national expert representing Ireland at various working groups on food safety and food regulations. He has also worked internationally as a consultant on food control for both the World Health Organisation and the Food and Agriculture Organisation. In addition, he has worked as a training provider and project leader on food safety and food control for many EU candidate countries. He represents FSAI at the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) Advisory Forum. For five years from 2006 he was Honorary Secretary of the International Federation of Environmental Health. He is currently chair of the group in Europe known as FLEP (Food Law Enforcement Practitioners). He holds three Master’s Degrees; one each in Food Science, Health Services Management and European Food Regulatory Affairs.

Tania Abi El Hessen, holder of a double Master’s degree in Food Science and Technology and Quality Management, is an Agricultural engineer working as a Food Science Expert at the Ministry of Economy and Trade - Lebanon. Her work focuses on the technical aspects, participating in the decision-making for the approval of imported goods’ for market access and conformity assessment of local products in the market. Furthermore, her work also includes conducting market studies, gap analysis, training for the public and private sector mainly inspectors, food handlers and municipalities, in addition to handling the RASFF notifications at the national level. Tania, actively and extensively involved as a member of the technical committees of the national standardization body and in several national advisory committees to several ministries and national bodies, has participated in a number of international programmes on food safety, consumer protection and SPS requirements.

Thorsten Steinhübel has over 10 years of auditing experience in the field of hygiene, food safety and quality management. He started his career as a food auditor at LSG-Hygiene Institute GmbH (a subsidiary of LSG Sky Chefs) before taking on the role of Director of National Business responsible for auditing and consulting services. He subsequently moved on to be the Technical Director of TÜV SÜD Food Safety Institute GmbH. In his current position as Global Business Line Manager for Inspections and Audits for Food, Health & Beauty at TÜV SÜD, he coordinates the global auditing service and is responsible for business development and product compliance. Mr Steinhübel obtained his Nutrition Scientist (Dipl. Oecotrophologe) from the University of Applied Science in Mönchengladbach, Germany.

Wiebe Willig succeeded founder Henri Willig as the managing director of the second generation family business Henri Willig Cheese. While growing up he witnessed the company going through several growing stages from start up to an international player in specialty cheeses. After finishing his studies Finance & Economics at the Free University of Amsterdam in 2001, Wiebe briefly worked for Accenture after which he entered the family business as director of finance. In 2011 he took over the role of managing director.