Featured Speakers 2023

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” manufacturers in Belgium. As head of the Quality Department, he has a global and integrated vision of quality and safety. He participated in the Belgian association of biscuits, confectioneries and chocolate manufacturers (Choprabisco), in the verification of the official self-checking guide of the sector. He is also a member of the Regulatory and Scientific committee and the Hygiene Group of Caobisco, the European association of biscuit, chocolate and confectionery industries

Dr. Matilda Freund holds a PhD in Food Science and Human Nutrition from the University of Florida. In 1990, she joined Kraft General Foods (now Mondelez) as a microbiologist in Tarrytown, NY. During her 32 year career at Mondelez, she held a variety of positions across a number of areas including; product development, production management, sanitation, quality, and food safety. Her most recent role was Vice President, Global Food Safety before she retired last October. Matilda has a passion for food safety and she continues to engage in the industry as Treasurer and Foundation Board member of the European Hygienic Design and Engineering Group (EHEDG) and Ambassador Director and Board Member of the Global Harmonization Initiative (GHI).

After graduation at Law School and a Diploma and University Master in Advanced European Studies, Michele started his career as a lawyer in international law firms with a specific focus on competition law, consumer protection and food law. During this activity he had supported many clients active in the food sector in relation to product compliance, advertisement, food safety, crisis management and trade issues.

After these experiences, Michele joined Perfetti Van Melle, a global leading company in the manufacture and trade of confectionery products very well-known among consumers thanks to its famous brands.

As Group Regulatory and External Affairs Senior Manager, he has an extensive knowledge in the food law and regulatory area and in his role Michele has achieved a significant experience in managing multi-jurisdiction projects and product launches, helping the company in developing safe and compliance products and mitigating possible risks as well as dealing with trade associations, authorities and regulatory bodies.

Michele also has in-depth knowledge of Codex Alimentarius and he follows the relevant of the Committees on behalf of his Company.

Operative Quality Director for Importaco with more than 20 years of experience in the Quality and Food Safety management. Member of International Life Sciences Institute Contaminants Taskforce. Her education includes an analytical chemistry  Ph D (Pharmaceutics & drug design), from the university of Valencia, a lean Six sigma Black Belt, Department of applied statistics in UPV and a scrum master certificate. In addition, with a multicultural team formed by more than 60 people, under her leadership the Department is developing projects about Horizon scanning, workforce engagement and Culture Excellence.

Kraft Heinz’s vision is: Sustainably grow by delighting more consumers globally! Rachid is accountable for External Manufacturing & Supply Chain and with a senior professional team distributed across the globe to mitigate Food Safety & Quality risks, lead various improvement initiatives, govern various global processes, manage change and trouble shoot where required cross functionally and creates real long-lasting partnership wherever he goes.

As some of you may already know, Rachid is very 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!

Over 30 years experience at the highest levels in blue chip companies , regulators, universities and NGOs

leading on food and consumer safety from program, policy and product design to verification of system effectiveness and enterprise risk management

leader of the mondelez food safety team that was recognized in 2021 with the iafp black pearl award

Currently co-chair of the global food safety initiative   and dedicated to developing thinking on the future of food safety management and helping organizations effectively manage their food safety risk

A Food professional with a proven track record of 16 Years of management and technical experience in the Wholesale/retail and food industry, especially in the areas of quality management, product development, supplier development, food safety systems and standards. Responsible for Quality assurance function throughout professional career while working with Wholesale/retail and FMCG. An innovative leader and passionate professional who thrives on the challenge of change and maximizing available resources to develop and achieve strategic, long-term objectives. Attributed with the key strength of Global food safety management system implementation, Compliance & Governance, Supplier Management & product development.

Simon is a Research Fellow and food allergen subject matter expert for Mondelez International based in the UK. Since 2005 Simon has been a key advisor to the Cadbury and more latterly Kraft / Mondelēz International business on allergen control and responsible for developing policy and training. In 2016 Simon became an extended member of the Food Safety Team and is currently the Global Lead for Food Allergens and Food Allergy advising the business on both proactive allergen strategy and reactive lead for allergen incidents.   

Simon is affiliated with numerous professional bodies, industry groups and technical committees (ILSI Europe, FDF, BRC, EFSA, FSA, FARRP, GMA) and has published several articles in peer reviewed journals.  He was also principal editor for the ‘Handbook of Food Allergen Detection and Control’. He is currently chair of the ILSI Europe Food Allergy Task Force.

Work experience of 20 years in leading positions in quality assurance, quality control and system management in the food sector and retail.

In addition, I managed an authorized accredited laboratory for research and development of health safety of food, cosmetics, and animal feed, and I have worked as an economic inspector in the State Inspectorate of Croatia Government.

Experience and knowledge of HACCP, IFS, BRC, ISO 14001, ISO 9001, KOSHER, HALAL Standards, In-depth knowledge of GFSI standards and legal regulations.

Also, I am a Lecturer in numerous conferences in food safety and an active member of working groups within Croatia and the EU in applying legislation and implementing food safety control standards.

Currently, I am the Director of Internal Audit for Food Safety in the Fortenova Group in Croatia.

Fortenova Group is Food and Beverage Company with over 50,000 employees. It operates in three core activities: agriculture, retail and food, and non-core operations in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia.

My primary responsibilities are to audit the implementation of all legal requirements and internal standards related to food safety, quality control, consumer protection and the establishment of good laboratory and manufacturing practices within our manufacturing companies and retail business within our Group.

Before that, I was the Director of Quality Assurance and Environmental Protection in Ledo, a company that produces industrial ice cream and is the largest distributor of frozen food in the region.

I gained experience in retail, working for six years at the position of the Director of Legal Affairs, Quality, and Internal Control in the Mercator retail chain.

My career started in the State Inspectorate of Croatia Government, as a State Inspector for the economy for six years.

I have a master's degree in food technology from the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology,

A degree as Certified Internal Auditor, Specialist in the area of the economy from Croatian Accounting and Financial Workers Community

I am an Internal Auditor for Quality System Management (IFS, HACCP, HALAL, ISO 14001), Internal Auditor for Accredited Laboratory Management System 17025, Lead Auditor (ISO 9001), and I am also an NLP practitioner trainer.

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.

Linda is an experienced Senior Corporate Leader with 30 years in industry and over 15 years’ experience of leadership and consultancy with International Safety and Quality Management
Systems, Manufacturing and Retail and more recently sustainability being her specialist areas.

Having worked in the industry in various roles and with retail, manufacturing, food service across the spectrum of size and demographics, she has a rich mix of experiences to tap into.
She is currently Head of Technical and Food Safety at Harrods leveraging her additional extensive experience in Strategy, Change Management, Global Leadership, and Business Analysis
in the company and supply base.

Linda clearly understands the importance of management leading on Food Safety Culture and also the link between that and risk management particularly within the context of TACCP and VACCP.

As a leader, she is an advocate of performance through people and believes in investing and working together with People to find long lasting solutions. This goes straight to the heart of
maintaining a good culture.

Philip has more than 20 years’ experience in the food industry ensuring quality, food safety & legality and NPD. His background includes QA responsibilities at PepsiCo, 2Sisters Food Group and Iceland Supermarkets. In his time in the industry Phil has covered multiple areas within retail and manufacturing including meat, poultry, fish, cheese, added value products in the frozen, fresh and ambient categories. Prior to joining Papa John’s, he has been successfully involved in developing and launching products and ranges from all over Europe, Brazil, Chile and Thailand.

He joined Papa Johns in 2012 to cover QA for UK and Europe and is now responsible for all International Markets and a team of 6 people from Peru to India to China.

Gary graduated from Queen’s University Belfast with a BSc Hons in Applied Microbiology before continuing his studies at the University resulting in being awarded a PhD in Food Microbiology through the investigation of biofilms containing Listeria monocytogenes.

Gary has over 30 years’ experience working in Moy Park within the Group Laboratories plus the site focussed Technical & Quality Management functions, both at site and Group level as part of the Senior Leadership Team.  During this time he has gained extensive experience of working with the major UK & Ireland Retailers and European Brands.  He has also undertaken project management of grant-funded projects with GB & NI universities and more recently as a supporting team member of a multi-country EU-funded project.

Gary is currently Company Microbiologist for Moy Park with responsibility for the 3 Group Laboratories in GB and NI, including a brand new £1M facility in GB, plus the Group Consumer Relations team.

He is a Director of Chilled Foods Association and Chairman of the Executive Committee and an active member of the Campden BRI Member Interest & Project Working Groups

He has previously spoken at UK and European Food Safety Conferences and was the winner of the NIFDA 2022 Food Safety Champion Award

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 agrifood risk management systems specifically relating to auditing principles and more broadly the control of food safety, product quality, authenticity and legality

As a software engineer, Richard started his career developing solutions to create better jobs for frontline workers across the supply chain. Through this work he saw first hand the challenges that the growing skills gap in heavy industry is having on the workers which are critical to our economy. This led him to drop-out of university to start Zaptic. 

Passionate about people, Richard has created a people-first culture in Zaptic. Embodying the core company values of Transparency, Autonomy, Continuous Improvement, Simplicity and Efficiency, in all that he does. 

Zaptic is helping leading manufacturers digitise daily operations, achieve operational excellence and empower frontline workers to drive continuous improvement.

Dr Ir Renee Boerefijn is a Mechanical Engineer by first degree and did a PhD in Chemical & Process Engineering.

He has been with Bunge Loders Croklaan since 2014 and was responsible for the roadmap on process contaminants and now for mineral oils.

Prior to Bunge Loders Croklaan, he worked in global food ingredients biotechnology and laundry FMCG companies in Innovation leadership roles.

He is based in the Netherlands, where Bunge Loders Croklaan has its Analytical Development and the largest part of its Innovation resources globally.

Sara’s knowledge and experience thanks to 13 years’ in the compressed air industry has helped many manufacturers improve the quality of the compressed air and reduce risks of contamination. With her hands-on approach, and her ability to translate the regulations and guidelines into solid numbers, she guides the manufacturers in their decision-making process and helps them understand how to reduce the risks for their products and their processes. Sara’s goal is to trigger manufacturers into taking a critical look at their processes and become aware of the potential risks when the compressed air comes into contact with the product. Sara is a firm believer in the personal touch and enjoys good conversations in which everybody comes out with more knowledge and a smile.

Jacek Czarnecki is an expert in the field of food law, food safety and quality, and consumer communication.

At Nestlé Polska, he is responsible for the scope of food legislation and scientific contacts. He also manages the area of master data quality and completeness in the processes of developing recipes, creating labels and communicating technical information about products.

He is the vice-president of the Polish Federation of Food Industry, where he chairs the Committee for Food Legislation and Safety. He is also the vice-president of the Polish Association of Food Industry Employers in the Employers Confederation and a participant in the works of the Advertising Council and Food Sector Council for Competencies.

Associated with the Faculty of Human Nutrition of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, where he graduated, obtained a doctoral degree and with whom he actively cooperates, among others. as a co-author of the publications and a member of the Faculty's Curriculum Council.

Gary Nowacki is the CEO of TraceGains, which was launched in 2008. Prior to TraceGains, Gary spent 13 years in a variety of software industry executive positions in the ERP (enterprise resource planning), supply chain management, and quality space for food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, and other process industries. Gary has also held management and individual contributor positions in programming, implementation services, and sales in the ERP software business. Gary’s prior work experience includes serving in senior management roles at CDC Software – Ross Systems, a leading ERP supplier to the food industry.

A passionate entrepreneur in the Digital Industry, through various systems and solutions he helped hundreds of food companies all over the world transform their processes to deliver better and safer products to the market.  In 2016 funded C-LABS in Lugano, Ticino to deliver innovation to the food industry’s digitalisation challenges, now being part of SGS group. He is leading SGS DIGICOMPLY, an artificial Intelligence based platform supporting the food industry in managing food safety and ensuring compliance.