Meet the full jury panel for the Vitafoods Europe Startup Innovation Challenge 2023

Aline de Santa Izabel is an entrepreneur and biosciences specialist with a broad experience and network in entrepreneurship and innovation at a European level. She has been working with different startups and scaleups operating at the intersection of business, science, and tech focused on impact Aline is currently supporting the development of the Deeptech ecosystem in the Nordics and Baltics by accelerating innovative startups through her work as an Expert Advisor at the European Commission’s European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator and Women EUTech Horizon Europe funding programmes. She also lectures at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and works as an ecosystem builder at DigitalWell Ventures and DigitalWell Arena, an innovation platform from the Compare Foundation supported by the Swedish Innovation agency.

Giancarlo Addario is Principal at Five Seasons Ventures, and has been with the fund since February 2018. Prior to that, he spent 20+ years at leading pasta and bakery goods Barilla, covering various roles from Quality Assurance/Food Safety to Research & Development across several product categories in Italy and internationally. In the area of Open Innovation, he led various collaborative projects with research institutes, enterprises and startups worldwide, also providing valuable mentorship to food accelerators and incubation programmes to the likes of Startupbootcamp, FoodTech, MassChallenge, H-Farm, and Future Food Accelerator. Giancarlo holds a BSc in Food Science and Technology and Masters in Total Quality Management

Grégory Dubourg is an agro engineer specialized in agri-food and nutrition, graduated from AgroParisTech. After 10 years of experience in marketing and innovation in the agri-food and nutraceutical industries, he founded Nutrikéo in 2009. Since then, he has managed this Nutrition Strategy Consulting agency whose expertise covers Studies, Innovation, Marketing and Communication strategies across the entire supply chain: agri, food, nutra, health & cosmetics .

Mariette Abrahams is the CEO and founder of Qina, a platform and specialized consultancy that helps companies explore, connect and innovate in Personalised Nutrition. Qina provides market intelligence, research, and innovation services by combining intelligence tools and consultancy services via a global network of domain experts. Mariette has worked in clinical and medical nutrition industry for over 20 years and leverages her combined expertise in nutrition, business, and research to advance the industry at the intersection of nutrition, health, tech, and society .

Mike Dovbish is the Executive Director and a founding member of Nutrition Capital Network (NCN), a founder and investor community and data platform for growth companies in health and nutrition (acquired in 2016 by New Hope Network, a division of Informa). Mike led the NCN team in 2020 in successfully transforming in-person investor meetings into immersive, digital events for 2020, and hybrid events and community platfor m for 2021 and beyond.

Michael Stott is a UK and European Patent attorney and Partner at Mathys and Squire LLP, a full-service intellectual property firm with offices in the UK and Europe. Michael has worked in the patent profession since 2008 and, prior to that, worked in the pharmaceutical industry. He has significant experience of drafting and prosecuting patent applications in the UK and Europe, managing international patent portfolios, and providing freedom-to-operate advice. He works with a wide range of clients, including startups, University spinouts, SMEs, and multi-national corporations, across a wide range of technologies and has particular expertise in the field of food chemistry and pharmaceuticals.

After his study of Human Nutrition at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, Nard Clabbers worked for the food industry for more than a decade as the liaison between marketing and science. In 2011, he joined Dutch applied research organisation TNO to lead their nutrition and health business line. Also at TNO, he then set up the world’s largest public-private research consortium on personalised nutrition and health, together with Wageningen University and Research. This led him on a path of ‘personalised nutrition’, involving co-founding Happ, a personalised nutrition platform as their Chief Science Officer, public appearances, consultancy and working for Foodvalley NL as their Lead Personalised Nutrition.

Paula Giser is a pioneer in Foodtech, developing novel products and startups, as well as corporate consulting. She has experience working as R&D Manager at Foodlab Tel Aviv, which is an emerging global R&D centre in Foodtech. Paula completed a master’s degree in FoodTechnology at University of Natural Sciences of Buenos Aires and a Postgraduate Degree in Innovation and Design Thinking at Pompeu Fabra University.

Raphaelle O’Connor is highly experienced in the ideation, development and commercialization of food chemistry, food science and food technology using strategic partnerships, collaboration and systematic governance processes in the functional foods and beverages, consumer’s health and wellness categories. With inewtrition, she is acting as an innovation catalyst and ambassador for the product portfolio management, leading and supporting the regions through sharing knowledge and technical support within converging product categories . Raphaelle has led numerous international and regional interdisciplinary teams, supporting the implementation of product development projects with Johnson & Johnson, Wyeth Nutritionals, Nestlé and Pfizer. Her range of experience also includes the introduction of several infant formula brands and maternal nutrition food and beverage dietary supplements, functional foods and beverages, and nutriceuticals containing bioactives (including probiotics) in numerous international markets, with a specific focus on China. Currently, Raphaelle is also supporting Amgen, a worldwide pioneer in biotechnology. She is part of the External Supply network where she leads cross-functional technology transfers projects to Contract Manufacturing Organisations (CMOs) and ensures adherence to client business processes to support robust transfer of clinical and commercial products, technologies and services

Sandra Einerhand is the founder and director of Einerhand Science & Innovation, an award-winning nutrition consultancy that provides tailored solutions to the food and dietary supplement industry. Since 2016, she has assisted startups in product development and connected them with the right partners to help bring their products to market successfully. Sandra is also an active jury member in several global startup innovation challenges. Throughout her career, she has focused on scientifically substantiating the health benefits of food and food ingredients. She has over 25 years of experience in infant, senior, and sports nutrition, both as an associate professor in academia and as an R&D director for companies such as Tate&Lyle ingredients, Lipid Nutrition, and Danone Nutricia.

Stephen Beveridge is external innovation & partnering leader for Bayer Consumer Health in Basel and is responsible for the digestive and nutritional health categories. He’s responsible for finding external solutions to address innovation needs in-line with category strategy, expanding innovation with a broad range of outside partners – including key suppliers and vendors, startups, incubators, accelerators, innovation networks, retailers, tech players and public institutions – to fully leverage innovative ideas and solutions that are currently outside Bayer’s expertise, allowing for flexibility to react to consumer and market trends. He has more than 20 years of experience in innovation and new business development in the fields of nutritional supplements, digestive health and beverages with a broad geographical focus covering Europe, NA, LATAM and APAC markets.

Nicolas Carbonnelle is a partner with international law firm Bird & Bird, where he practices food law and advises on regulatory matters affecting the conduct of food businesses from R&D to post-marketing.