Speakers 2020

With over 25 years’ experience in a variety of senior roles and acting as Head Global FSQ Management- Supply Chain & External Factories as part of The Kraft Heinz Company, we are once again very honoured to have Rachid Hassairi as our Chairman. He brings his strong commitment to excellence through improving organisations, teams and people at the highest level. Kraft Heinz is the fifth largest food and beverage company in the world, with eight $1 billion+ brands. To deliver on their trusted brand status, Kraft Heinz has implemented consistent, comprehensive Global Food Safety & Quality Management and Improvement Processes across their supply chain. Kraft Heinz’s vision is: To be the best food company, growing a better world! Rachid is responsible for Supply Chain & External Factories with a team distributed across the globe to mitigate Food Safety & Quality risk, lead various improvement initiatives, govern various global processes, manage change and trouble shoot where required cross functionally. As some of you may already know, Rachid is skilled at making events he chairs interactive while working closely with the audience to stimulate conversation and enhance learnings. We look forward to having Rachid back with us. Get ready for some exciting conference days!

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.

Campbell Mitchell is currently working in Dubai for Kerry Group as Regional QSHE Director for Middle East, North Africa and Turkey (MENAT). He has been with Kerry since December 2018. Previously he was Group Compliance Manager for Almarai where he worked since July 2009, based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Kerry Group (www.kerrygroup.com) is a global leader in taste and nutrition serving the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. Every day millions of people worldwide consume food or beverages containing Kerry’s Taste and Nutrition technologies. They have more than 147 manufacturing locations globally and produce more than 15,000 products. In his role, Mr. Mitchell coordinates best practices for food safety and compliance standards, for acquisitions and greenfield facilities. Almarai (www.almarai.com) is the largest food and beverage company in the Middle East, active throughout the Gulf region, focused on Dairy, Poultry, and Baked goods, as well as Infant Nutrition. Mr. Mitchell was responsible for the development and implementation of the company's food safety and quality standards across the organization. He was fortunate enough to have been on the project teams who built 6 world class state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in the 9 years he was there. His previous experience includes roles as Regional QA Manager at Goodman Fielder Australia (2008 - 2009), Quality Manager at McCain Foods NZ (1999 - 2008), Microbiologist and Factory Hygienist at Nestle NZ (1995 - 1999), and Microbiologist at Fonterra (1992 - 1995). He received his BSc in Microbiology from the University of Otago and completed his post-graduate studies in Business Administration from Massey University in New Zealand.

Celia Martin is a regulatory expert with experience in Food law, Health claims regulations and worldwide product registrations in the area of Novel foods, pharmaceuticals, health claims and food supplements. She has been leading cross-regional regulatory teams, implementing regulatory strategies at global level and liaising with regulatory authorities in the EU, North America and Asia for the last 10 years. She has represented Lallemand in different trade associations at national, European and international level and has been invited to give lectures and chair roundtables at different seminars, workshops and conferences. Celia works for Lallemand, a Canadian global company specializing in yeast and bacteria products in different fields of application, among which food ingredients.

I'm a food technologist with a significant experience - gained both abroad and in Italy - in a number of food and beverage sectors: milk, cheese, meat and coffee. In addition, I also have a considerable know-how about food packaging as I worked for 5 years in a packaging company. I have always been performing key roles - Technical Director, Plant Manager, Quality Manager - in the following departments: Production, Quality Control, Research & Development. Several experiences have allowed me to see different sides of the business process, appreciating the different faces of the same problem. I think my strength is the ability to learn new things quickly and I am very good at adapting to change in any situation. I believe in Teamwork and the strength it can generate by working for goals. I joined Kaizen's philosophy and believe in continuous improvement through optimizing organization and processes by eliminating waste. I love analysing problem with numbers and facts because across the Lean six-sigma Black Belt certification I understood the power of statistics. In my opinion, a company that wants to express itself at the highest levels should not only try to increase its margins through cost cutting, but also try to implement strategies that ultimately aim at customer satisfaction by making the right product with the fair price, at the right time. My favourite quote is: "Impossible is nothing"

Eric has worked in the global food industry for more than 30 years in many roles related to Innovation, Business Development, Technology, Quality Assurance & Quality Control, both in B2B as a B2C environment Eric has worked 12 years as a consultant to the Food Industry and has supported many major food companies like FrieslandCampina, Danone, CSM, … in implementing continuous improvement programs. He has been the initiator of the development of GOS (galacto-oligosaccharides), a crucial ingredient for infant formula, for which FrieslandCampina is worldwide market leader He was the co-founder of the Global Food Safety & Quality program “Foqus” for FrieslandCampina, encompassing all steps in the Supply Chain. Eric has a Food Technology degree from Wageningen University and a Business degree from Nijenrode University (both in The Netherlands)

Bart Ingredients supply a wide range of ingredients including herbs and spices from origins around the world. These products are widely considered to be at risk from adulteration and contamination. Bart Ingredient’s Food Defence Team focusses on the Integrity of Ingredients throughout the global supply chains. Gideon has worked in the UK and overseas in primary food production and technical management for 15 years, with experience of the challenges of emerging ingredients and new technologies.

I graduated in Biochemistry in 1985, and since then I have been fortunate enough to accumulate 34 years’ experience working in a variety of new product, processes and R&D departments of FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) food manufacturing businesses both in the UK domestic and International sectors covering frozen, chilled and ambient retail and food service products. During my years of food manufacturing development, I’ve managed and led new product and process projects, and I have had the privilege of heading new product and process development teams over multiple sites and countries. Currently, I work for Associated British World Foods Limited based in Leigh (north-west of Manchester, UK ), and in June 2019 I moved into a new role of overseeing the technical aspect of new major investments in ABWF, while also advising, mentoring and training technical departments and associated line-managers.

Head of the packaging quality team in Essential Dairy & Plant Based Division, covering 30 Manufacturing plants , 200 supplier sites for > 1Bln spend. Extended QFS experience developed in various roles of co-man and supplier management in PepsiCo and Danone, ensuring the right quality standards for materials and suppliers.

Roy Kirby is Director of Global Food Safety for Mondelēz International. He is a member of Mondelez International’s Global Quality leadership team and a Board Member of the Global Food Safety Initiative. Prior to joining Mondelez, Roy was a member of the European Food Safety Authorities Executive Office responsible for Quality Management. Throughout his 30 year career, Roy has worked in roles spanning academia, public service and industry but always focused on consumer safety. Roy completed his B.Sc. in Microbiology at the University of Surrey and his PhD in the Survival of Salmonella during Chocolate Mass production at the University of Reading and has subsequently published over 30 articles in peer reviewed Journals. Outside of work, Roy is married with 3 children and has many hobbies, with wine tasting being the principle one.

I co-founded Honest Burgers pretty much straight out of uni back in 2010. We started selling homemade burgers and chips out of a glorified tent (normally in the rain) at weddings and small festivals. We graduated into a fixed site in Brixton village in 2011 and opened our doors to queues of hungry Londoners. We focus on the simple things that, in our opinion, make restaurants great. Homemade food and great service. A lot has changed since Brixton but the important things have stayed the same, in fact we actually make more ourselves now as we’ve got our own butchery. Right now we’ve got 37 restaurants around the UK, employ over 700 people and make 90% of our menu from scratch. We’ve always felt homemade is best. My role at honest has always centred around food. I oversee menu development and collaborations, and any food related projects, like our butchery. My technical title is Brand Director and my wife is our graphic designer so I also get involved with a lot of marketing material and interior design as well.

My experience in quality assurance, commercialization and supply chain roles working in cross functional teams and multicultural environment, in close collaboration with R&D, bottling partners, marketing, finance, scientific and regulatory affairs, legal, procurement, and market leaders helped me shape myself as a rounded technical professional with sound understanding of the entire supply chain in beverage industry.

Dr Jenneke Heising is an assistant professor at the Food Quality and Design group in the Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences at Wageningen University. Jenneke completed her study Food Technology and her Ph.D. at Wageningen University on the topic of Intelligent Packaging for monitoring food quality. Her research interests lie in the area of food packaging, with a focus on the relationship between food packaging and the quality of packed foods. She has collaborations with researchers in several other disciplines, e.g. logistics and consumer science. Currently she focuses mainly on the design of sustainable food packaging that reduces food waste or influences the quality of foods, with a special interest for active and intelligent packaging and on modelling quality reactions of foods.

I have over 25 years’ experience within the fresh produce industry and have worked directly with a varied range of products. My more recent experiences has been within the Berry category, where over the last 6 years I have been part of the Berry Gardens management team. Our vision as a co-operative of innovative and entrepreneurial growers, we are focused on quality and customer satisfaction, building industry leadership and sustainable, profitable businesses. We have a passion for berry excellence and the expertise to deliver all year round and we have very clear core values: - Honesty, Openness, Passion, Quality, Respect, Expertise and Responsibility. As Head of Technical, I am responsible for the entire technical activities at Berry Gardens, from a grower level all the way to our final customers, which include many UK retailers.

Born in 1972 and degreed at the University of Bologna in Animal Production, she attended a Master's degree in quality assurance in Padova. Her work experience is in the quality assurance department/laboratory of confectionery and pasta companies. Since 2008 she is responsible of the Italian IFS office with the role of technical project manager in the definition of the IFS standards and in support of the development of the Italian market.

Cesare is a food lawyer based in Italy and founder of Foodlawlatest.com, his independent law firm and food law blog. In addition to labelling compliance services on over 70 countries and food law advice, he regularly provides assistance to clients in relation to crisis management, food safety issues, food fraud investigations and import/export requirements. Through partnerships with technical experts and other international advisors he can offer a multidisciplinary and multi-jurisdiction approach, to timely answer clients’ need in a globalized environment: he proudly works at the intersection between food technology, law, business and social sciences, building bridges between different sectors to deliver a strategic and actionable advice. He is a well recognized speaker and he is involved in several scientific activities for private companies, public institutions and universities. He is teaching at LUISS LL.M in Food Law in Rome, at the Master in Food Law & Safety of the University Alma Mater in Bologna and he is guest instructor at Michigan State University Institute for Food Laws and Regulations.