Next Bite Speakers

President at Future Food Institute

Sara is an experienced social entrepreneur and thought leader in the food ecosystem. As a seasoned growth expert, she works with globally recognized, high-profile think tanks on setting the agenda for the sustainable food industry. Described as a game-changer who knows how to drive change, she has a flair for exploration and prosperity thinking. Over the past ten years, she has focused on a mission to take food leaders and youth to the next phase of action through education, research projects, and innovation challenges. 

Food Initiative Lead, Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Reniera leads the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s work in food and more broadly across the ‘regenerating nature’ principle of the circular economy. Reniera previously led the formal education programme at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Food Futurist Speaker

Tony is a Global Food Futurist Speaker and qualified food scientist with over three decades of food industry experience. His meat industry experience gives him a unique perspective on animal and alternative proteins. He has developed a limitless appetite for Food Technologies, becoming one of the worlds thought leaders on the Future of Food.

Director of the EIT Food for Southern Europe

Begoña Pérez-Villarreal is the Director of the EIT Food for Southern Europe aimed to boost innovation involving stakeholders from the Mediterranean area, from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey up till Israel.

Next Bite sessions:

Empowering healthy ageing through food and nutrition

Mission Lead Healthier Lives Through Food at EIT Food

Lorena is the Mission Lead for Healthier Lives Through Food at EIT FOOD, with over 20 years of international experience in Fast-Moving Consumer Goods and Horeca. She's excelled in innovation, business development, and marketing at renowned companies like Kraft Foods and Burger King. She has also served as a senior business consultant, designing and implementing clean label and sustainability product strategies for leading food industry firms. Lorena holds a master’s degree in Nutrition and Dietetics for Health Promotion and a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Food Science and Technology. She further honed her skills with an Executive Education Program at IESE Business School.

Next Bite sessions:

Empowering healthy ageing through food and nutrition

Founder, Farmer, CEO at Fattoria Pulicaro

Marco started Pulicaro, which today is a 100 hectares farm located on a vulcanic plateau 550 mt above sea level halfway between Rome and Florence. Agroecology and holistic management are extremely important for us.

Next Bite Sessions:

Composting a Polarised Agenda on Proteins: From Animal Husbandry to Alternative Proteins

Co-founder and Board Member at EcoBean

Enthusiastic creator of innovative solutions for sustainable development with over 20 years of market experience. Former President of the Management Board of Julius Meinl Poland, an experienced entrepreneur and leader with documented success in scaling companies and strategic management.

Next Bite sessions:

From waste to resource: Pioneering circular economy in agrifood

Co-Founder & CEO at NapiFeryn BioTech

In 2014 Magdalena co-founded NapiFeryn BioTech and since then has been leading NapiFeryn BioTech. NapiFeryn BioTech is a company that developed and patented a technology to obtain food grade proteins from rapeseed.She is an experienced leader of research and development teams, specialising in development and optimisation of biotechnological processes.

Next Bite sessions:

From waste to resource: Pioneering circular economy in agrifood

Sustainable Food Manager at Żabka Group

For years associated with the Accor and Orbis hotel groups, former chef of the Mercure Grand and Novotel Warszawa Centrum hotels, worked in France, Spain and Argentina. Currently, he works as Sustainable Food Manager at Żabka Group, where he deals with reducing food losses and good nutrition.

Next Bite sessions:

From waste to resource: Pioneering circular economy in agrifood

Product Sustainability & Circular Economy Manager at Lavazza Group

With a Ph.D. and over 15 years of professional experience in product and packaging sustainability, I am dedicated to crafting strategies that advance the Circular Economy across both products and processes.

Next Bite sessions:

From waste to resource: Pioneering circular economy in agrifood

Head of Impact & Regenerative Financing at AXA Climate

Alice’s purpose is to facilitate large-scale financing for climate and environmental transition. At AXA Climate, a subsidiary of the AXA Group dedicated to climate and environmental adaptation, she crafts investment and insurance strategies that de-risk and accelerate sustainable transitions. 

Head of Decarbonisation & Biodiversity Product at BNP Paribas

Michał has over 20 years of banking experience. During this time he has been responsible for (i.a.) the development & relationship management of strategic corporate clients, the management of business teams, the development & implementation of sectoral strategies (Food&Agri and TSL).

Policy Officer in the European Commission at Directorate General for Climate Action

Jorge Pinto Antunes is currently policy officer in the European Commission (Directorate General for Climate Action), where he is responsible for bioeconomy and financing for the land economy sector.

Senior Project Manager on Startup Support | EIT Food

Founder and CEO | BGI

Technical and Scientific Director | Food4Sustainability

Founder of Mycelium Gastronomy Network

Estefania Simon-Sasyk is the founder of Mycelium Gastronomy Network, an organisation of multidisciplinary professionals seeking to create a more sustainable food industry. She’s collaborated with organisations like the WTO and IDB, tackling critical issues such as health, sustainability, and regional economic development.

Next Bite Sessions:

Serving Sustainability and Health: Food-service Professionals Spearheading Just and Tasty Transitions

Head of Global Certification at The SRA

Julia manages the Food Made Good Standard, The Sustainable Restaurant Association’s signature tool to measure and drive sustainability in the hospitality sector. Julia has built her career in food and sustainability, first selling chocolate in London’s Borough Market, before moving on to UK food waste charity FareShare and then onto B Corp certified chocolate manufacturer Valrhona, where she worked for 8 years as Sustainability Project Manager.

Next Bite Sessions:

Serving Sustainability and Health: Food-service Professionals Spearheading Just and Tasty Transitions

Co-founder | ShakeUp Factory and EIT Food Protein Diversification Think Tank Member

ShakeUpFactory is a state-of-the-art business and innovation accelerator dedicated to ag and foodtech. Based in Paris, inside StationF, it gathers an international ecosystem of 400+ startups, corporations and investors, leveraging synergies between them. An active member of EIT Food and expert in foresight of the future of food and agriculture, having contributed to many prospective studies on the matter.

Next Bite Sessions:

Serving Sustainability and Health: Food-service Professionals Spearheading Just and Tasty Transitions

Farmer / Senior Advisor, Cereals, Protein crops and Oilseeds Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK)

Max, born 14.03.1966, grew up on his family’s farm which he took over in 1986. Stor-Tötar Gård, is an old farm that combines arable land and forestry in Southwestern Finland that has been in the family for around 400 years. Before taking over the full responsibility of running the farm and having taken a degree in agricultural economics, he became a grain trader for the Finnish Grain Board. After that Max worked in the agricultural machinery sector from 2003 until 2008. This job took him all over the world from America to China.

Next Bite Sessions:

Protein diversification - A must for European food security and competitiveness

CEO and Founder at Sopköket AB

Founded by Filip Lundin in 2015, Sopköket (the waste kitchen) is an award-winning catering company based in Stockholm, dedicated to fighting food waste, hunger, and social exclusion. By transforming rescued food waste into delicious meals, Sopköket serves catering and offers circular frozen meals. Beyond their innovative food solutions, Sopköket also makes an impact through regular food donations to those in need, partnering with organizations like St Clara Kyrka shelter to distribute meals up to twice a week. Sopköket has rescued 90 tons of food waste, donated 60.000 meals, and built a diverse team with half of the employees coming from marginalized communities. Today Sopköket is the only business in Sweden that is financially profitable and fully circular at the same time.

Next Bite Sessions:

Serving Sustainability and Health: Food-service Professionals Spearheading Just and Tasty Transitions

Founder and CEO | Food Organisation Frej

Frej was established in 2016 with the aim to create a more sustainable food production and consumption through cooperation between country and city. The food industry should be purpose-driven and set concrete targets for climate reductions, lower environmental footprint, higher animal welfare, and more biodiversity. My skills consist of bringing differences together, inspiring board chairmen and directors in the food sector to sustainability and making farmers feel engaged and motivated to make a sustainable difference.

Director and Head of Regulatory Affairs at Arcadia International, Wageningen University and Nova School of Law

Francesco Montanari is a food lawyer with over 25 years of professional experience at international and European level. He currently heads the food law practice of the European consultancy Arcadia International in the Lisbon office, assisting food companies in developing successful and legally sound innovation and marketing strategies. With Arcadia International, he has performed over 30 food related studies for the European institutions. Francesco researches and teaches food law at Wageningen University, in the Netherlands, and at Novo School of Law, in Portugal.

Manager Business Development & Innovation at Valensina Group

Next Bite Sessions:

Startup/Corporate Roundtables: Connect on groundbreaking topics and meet the people changing the game

Strategy & Corporate Development at Martin Braun-Gruppe / Martin’s Bakehouse

With a background of M.Sc. Business Development, I am part of the Strategy & Corporate Development department at Martin Braun-Gruppe for almost two years. In this role, I am in charge of our Corporate Venture Capital arm called "Martin's Bakehouse", striving to boost our start-up activities and to spark the joy of innovation in our company.

Next Bite Sessions:

Startup/Corporate Roundtables: Connect on groundbreaking topics and meet the people changing the game

Strategy & Corporate Development at Martin Braun-Gruppe / Martin’s Bakehouse

With academic background of general management and prior work experience in Switzerland, China and United Arab Emirates, I am in my fifth year at Martin Braun-Gruppe’s headquarters in Germany. Initially responsible for M&A and now leading the Strategy & Corporate Development team to jointly build a bakery for the next 100 years.

Next Bite Sessions:

Startup/Corporate Roundtables: Connect on groundbreaking topics and meet the people changing the game

Head of Corporate New Business Development at Südzucker Group

Next Bite Sessions:

What will the Next Bite be? How startups are making our foods healthier with cleaner labels

Startup/Corporate Roundtables: Connect on groundbreaking topics and meet the people changing the game

Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC) of Lund University

Expert in applied systems analysis, system dynamics modelling and facilitation of stakeholder participatory group modelling process. Deniz has initiated and participated in multiple inter/trans-disciplinary projects focused on analysing, interpreting, modelling, simulating and communicating alternative scenarios of complex dynamic environmental and socio-economic issues. He is the Coordinator and Director of Studies of BIOECONOMY Graduate Research School at CEC, and the Vice President of EIT Food Protein Diversification Think Tank. 

Net Zero Food System Mission Lead | EIT Food

Vivien drives innovation to tackle environmental challenges in the food industry, including greenhouse gas emissions, resource depletion, and energy consumption. His role involves supporting organisations in adopting sustainable agriculture practices, reducing food waste, implementing sustainable packaging, and engaging all stakeholders in the circular food economy.

CEO Alberts & Chair EIT Food Alumni

As EIT Food Alumni Chair I’m honored to help a group of >3000 alumni thrive and advance our food system. I’m the CEO and co-Founder at ALBERTS, leading a team based in Belgium that focuses on Food Robotics solutions. I hold a Ph.D. in Electro-Mechanical Engineering with speciality in Robotics from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) and the University of Pisa (Italy, cotutelle PhD), and I was selected as Belgium’s FITCE Young ICT personality of 2019.

Entrepreneurship Facilitator, EIT Food 

Friederike Wagner is part of the Business Creation Team at EIT Food West with a local focus on "Food Entrepreneurship made in Bavaria", a project funded by the Bavarian Government. Friederike is responsible for establishing a regional AgriFood Ecosystem and supporting Bavarian startups with specific grants and event formats. She has a background in startup business development and export & trade promotion for German SMEs. In 2024, her activities focus on startup-farmer collaboration.

Foodstuff machines development specialist at Łukasiewicz-Poznań Institute of Technology

From the beginning of 2024 EIT Food Master Contact in „Łukasiewicz – PIT”.
Focused on sustainable economy with preventing food waste during production
priority.

Next Bite sessions:

Reducing Food Loss and Waste

Environmental biotechnologist at Łukasiewicz-Poznań Institute of Technology

An environmental biotechnologist, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) expert and
experienced researcher. He leads a team performing environmental and social life
cycle analyses for various products and technologies.

Next Bite sessions:

Reducing Food Loss and Waste