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!

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.

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.

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.

Passionate about helping global food businesses understand, manage and mitigate the risks to their products and brands; Kimberly’s reputation as a thought leader in food safety/supply chain risk and deep domain food sector expertise has been built through +30 years working for and with leading global food companies and associated service organizations across major world markets. Kimberly has extensive experience as a technical professional specializing in design, development, implementation, assessment and training within the arena of retail agri-food risk management systems specifically relating to auditing principles and more broadly the control of food safety, product quality, authenticity and legality. Kimberly holds formal qualifications in food science, (Michigan State University, USA), management systems auditing as well as professional education and training.

Richard Werran's food career began as a food technologist and spans 40+ years working in international food ingredient and food manufacturing sectors. Richard is BSI’s EMEA Regional Director for Food and Retail Supply Chain, an acknowledged expert on genetic modification and a Fellow of the IFST and the Society of Food Hygiene & Technology.

Bernard Cubizolles is a Senior Global Marketing Manager for Manufacturing Software for GE Digital. With more than 30 years of experience in industrial automation, data management and manufacturing execution software, Bernard has become a recognized expert and thought leader, published in many industry magazines. He is a former member of the ISA88 and ISA95 working groups and a former president of the ISA France. His expertise helps companies achieve real value from the Industrial Internet. By using software and mobile solutions, Bernard believes infrastructure and manufacturing executives can transform big data into actionable information and knowledge. Bernard has served with General Electric for over 15 years and holds a Ph.D. in Applied Physics.

Uwe Kueppers has been in the manufacturing industry for over 25 years. He has served in an advisory capacity on multiple projects for global companies, gaining excellent expertise in the fields of analytics, IoT, and manufacturing enterprise software (MES). Uwe has been the EMEA Chairman of MESA since 2014.

Sandra is graduated in biochemistry technologies and obtained a Master’s degree in sale technics applied to biotechnology devices and reagents at the Superior School of Technics applied to Biology (ESTBA) in Paris. After a solid experience as technical sales ingenior in a clinical and food diagnostic company, Sandra took the sales management of France in a pure food diagnostic company before joining a start-up business line of the leader of service lab activities as a business unit manager. This deep dive into the food safety market, and her passion in being useful to the food industry actors by making together to world safer, drove her to take the position of Fied Marketing Specialist in the Bio-Rad Food Science Division for Europe Middle East and Africa. Bring and highlight diagnostic solutions that help food industry to face its daily challenges and that guarantee safe products from the farm to the fork makes really sense to her.

As head of Data Science and Technical Services, Sean and his team work behind the scenes developing custom solutions to user queries that incorporate the latest IoT and Data Science technologies within the Safefood 360° platform to drive enhanced data learning.

As director of strategy for QualityOne at Veeva, Sophia is a resident quality subject matter expert and thought leader. Sophia brings to the team over 10 years of direct quality experience in regulated industries. She began her career with the FDA working in CBER’s vaccine lot release program and later moved to the FDA’s office of regulatory affairs as a regulatory microbiologist. Additionally, Sophia has managed CAPA, complaints, audit, and deviation programs in the medical device industry. Sophia has a master of science in bioscience in regulatory affairs from Johns Hopkins University and is an ASQ Certified Quality Auditor.

After the graduation in Economics at Università Bocconi and a Master of Science in International Public Policy at UCL (University College London), Matteo joined The Monitor Group, a strategy consulting firm, supporting companies' business development in EMEA. He joined Barilla in 2008 and moved from Marketing to Innovation in 2012 to develop and launch CucinaBarilla, which he led as the CucinaBarilla Managing Director. In 2018 he was appointed Global Marketing Director at Barilla, leading of the most dynamic and vibrating product categories of the company with a global footprint. He is passionate about Food, business modelling, trends and innovation. He will be chairing the Food Innovate Summit for the second time and attending it for the third time.

Emmanuel leads the strategy, management and development of SightCall sales activity in EMEA and APAC regions with a focus on digital transformation. Emmanuel has been in the high-tech industry for over two decades, spanning software and telecommunications in both Europe and Asia Pacific regions. He has a track record of building high-energy and high-performing leadership teams that have successfully delivered profitable growth through multiple technology and business transformations. Before joining SightCall, Emmanuel was Vice President, Enterprise and Partner Sales at Tata Communications, part of the $103.3 billion Tata Group of companies. Emmanuel has business degree from Paris Management School and INSEAD.

Working Experience: 14 Years of Professional Experience in Wholesale/Retail and FMCG sectors. Out of 14 years worked mainly with METRO AG for 11 years Qualification: MSc. (Hons) in Food Science and Technology Lead Auditor of BRC, FSSC 22000 & ISO 9001

A native of Northern Germany, Jörn Gutowski spent most of his young adulthood abroad. After studying marketing at Emerson College in Boston and a one year stint at a PR agency, he worked for an international non-profit organization. While travelling the world, he was exposed to many new cultural and culinary experiences. His passion and appreciation for food was so deeply affected that in 2013, he decided to put his 10+ years background in marketing and business into his new venture TRY FOODS. Following the slogan „feed your curiosity“, TRY FOODS has been helping people to expand their knowledge of and their palate for high-quality food products. In 2018, he co-founded another food startup, called Zeevi Kichererbsen GmbH. Zeevi is the first European company producing and selling a chickpea tofu, called Kofu.

An experienced, international business leader, Liliana has been leading transformational growth across brands and portfolios to drive step changes in business results for over 20 years. She is a leading expert on innovation, communication and business strategy within the FMCG and luxury industries, working with top blue-chip companies: Unilever, Tata, on world-class brands and portfolios. Her sector experience covers Consumer Goods, Personal Care, Home Care, Foods, Refreshments and Luxury, as well as driving disruptive innovations projects. She holds a Master’s in Marketing & Communications and an Executive MBA. With extensive marketing and leadership experience gained across multi-category, multi-brand, and multi-cultures, Liliana has a track record of shaping and unlocking opportunities, accelerating and leading incredible business growth with her trademark energy, drive and possibility mind-set. She is passionate about inspiring possibility: growth for people and business. Liliana is Professor of Practice at Hult International Business School, teaching on Trends and Innovations and Brand Management subjects. She has also lectured as a keynote speaker around the world on Marketing, Omnichannel and Digital customer experience, Change Management and Disruptive Innovation topics.

With more than 25 years of experience in the food and beverage industry, Johan has dedicated his career to providing the industry with innovative new ideas and offerings to help companies of all sizes grow their business. As Chief Product Officer, Johan is responsible for Dawn’s R&D and Category marketing globally, prioritizing innovation efforts within Dawn to provide customers with the best bakery products in the business. Since joining the team in 2012 as vice president of R&D in Europe, Johan has led the research and development of multiple Dawn product launches, specifically the Dawn Balance Line, which contains clean label, vegan and better-for-you products. In addition to his focus on product development, he also drives global technology projects to keep Dawn at the front of introducing new industry capabilities both for bakers and within the walls of the company.

Chiara Frausin is the Global CoPack and Supplier Food Safety and Quality Data Analyst at Kraft Heinz Company, based in the Netherlands, at the Heinz Innovation Center in Nijmegen. With experience in data and trend analysis, project management and documentation and systems, Chiara led the implementation of the virtual auditing system within the FSQ team and rolled it out to several other departments, contributing to digital transformation and supporting business continuity.

He is an innovative and resourceful marketing strategist with over 20 years of creating strong consumer brands, driving retail sales and customer acquisition, and improving performance. Marc is determined to help our communities with local farming using responsible, innovative growing methods that champion the environment. AeroFarms is on a mission to transform agriculture by building and operating environmentally responsible farms throughout the world to enable local production at scale and nourish our communities with safe, nutritious, and delicious food.

Emanuela Casalini has been working for GS1 Italy since 2010. She is responsible of the Identification and Barcode Standard in Italy. She participates to international working groups of GS1 related to the development and the adoption of GS1 standards in many sectors, among which fresh foods, tobacco and apparel. Emanuela supports italian companies in the adoption of GS1 Standards and she is the teacher in the training courses that GS1 Italy offers on identification based on GS1 Standard. She graduated in Management Engineering at Politecnico di Milano.