2021 Programme overview

Edith Schippers (1964) studied Political Science at Leiden University and Jawaharlal University in New Delhi. She worked for 6 years at the Confederation of Industry and Employers (VNO-NCW) in the field of health, labor market and spatial planning. As a Member of Parliament VVD group, she was, a.o. spokesperson on health care and vice-chairman VVD group. Edith was Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport for 7 years in the Rutte I and II cabinets. After the parliamentary elections in 2017, she became scout and informateur for a new Cabinet. After the municipal elections in 2018, she was the formateur of the city council The Hague College. Currently Edith has been President DSM The Netherlands, chairman of the Board of Pension fund DSM in The Netherlands, member Executive Committee VNO-NCW, member Supervisory Board Planet B.io and Chairman of the Board of Foodvalley NL.

General Partner at The European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF). PhD in Business Innovation with 20+ years of investment experience as Managing Director of High-Tech Gruenderfonds Management GmbH, Tech Investments in KfW, and tbg. Mr. Bradkamp has great expertise in all types of financial instruments and leading transactions in High-Tech and bioeconomy start-ups. He has performed as a member of several advisory boards, assured investments in around 550 start-ups, closed more than a hundred exits, executed 30+ IPOs, and raised almost EUR 1bn in various fundraising initiatives.

Jo-Ann has studied Chemistry at the University of Graz where she received her master’s degree in 2000. Thereafter, she did a PhD finishing in 2004 with her thesis titled “Interactions in Colloid Systems Investigated by Scattering Methods”.

She joined Lenzing AG in 2005 and spent 10 years holding various positions within R&D until 2015 where she stepped into the role as Head of Monitoring and Funding. In 2018 she additionally became Head of PMO and has over the last couple of years become increasingly active in the fields of bio-and circular-economy where she has been a member of the Renewable Carbon Initiative Core Advisory Board.

Mr. Olivier Rigaud was appointed as CEO of Corbion in August 2019. He is also Chairman Board of Management and a member of the Executive Committee.Olivier Rigaud was CEO of Naturex, a global natural specialty ingredients company for the Food & Beverage, Nutrition & Health and Personal Care industries. Before joining Corbion, Mr. Rigaud successfully finalized the sale of Naturex to Givaudan. Prior to that, Mr. Rigaud worked for specialty ingredients company Tate & Lyle for 14 years, in Belgium, France and London.Mr. Rigaud started his career at Amylum, a starch and sweetener company, where he held sales and marketing roles in France and Belgium.Mr. Rigaud holds a Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Marseille. Mr. Rigaud holds the French nationality.

Since 1st of July 2021 Caroline is CEO of The New Meat Company AG, a young stock-listed and purpose-driven impact investment company based in Berlin with focus on alternative proteins. Caroline is intrigued by the idea of revolutionize the food industry, especially everything animal production related, in an environmental friendly, healthy and sustainable way that will allow us to feed +10 billion people in the future. Prior to joining TNMC Caroline was working for EY as a lawyer and as part of the global EY Agribusiness Team. At the global EY Agribusiness Team she covered legal agri- and foodbusiness aspects and was involved in strategic and innovative agri- and foodbusiness projects. Caroline i.a. gained experience in advising national and international corporate clients, banks and financial investors on corporate aspects of M&A transactions and VC investments, including performance of legal due diligence. She also gained experience in the field of implementing data protection management systems (GDPR) for international corporate clients. Caroline always had a strong interest in the field of agriculture and food worldwide, especially in the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Her track record covers global and regional food- and agribusinesses with focus on digital transformation of the larger agribusiness value, the alternative protein and meat market, food security impact driven by agricultural policy setting and all questions related to sustainability and environmental impact.

Nate is an investor at Blue Horizon, the leading multi-stage investment firm focused on alternative proteins. He previously worked as the Startup Growth Specialist at the Good Food Institute where he drafted the three flagship state of the industry reports on plant-based, cell-based, and fermentation-enabled meat, eggs, and dairy. He is also the author of the eco-biotechnology newsletter, Fifth Industrial, and previously worked at a university-affiliated biotechnology incubator.

Sarah is Program Manager Alternative Proteins at the Hochland Group and coordinates group wide activities in Hochlands efforts to find new sustainable raw materials for future food developments. Sarah holds a PhD in biotechnology from the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich. Before joining Hochland, Sarah worked as an international key account manager for a biotech company with customers from the food industry, headed a biosafety and biosecurity project for the German armed forces in Georgia and was a lobbyist for the German chemical industry association raising awareness for biotechnological topics with government representatives.

Robin Simsa is the founder and CEO of the company “Revo Foods”, which produces plant-based seafood with 3D food printing technology. He has a PhD in tissue engineering and focused on meat replacements during his doctorate.

Math Lambalk is Business Development Manager, Renewable Chemistries at Avantium and has been with Avantium for >3.5 years. Math is tasked with commercializing Avantium’s portfolio of groundbreaking chemical technologies to enable a circular economy based on renewable carbon sources. More specifically, Math drives the collaborative exploration of potential regional Ray Technology™ deployment opportunities with like-minded value chain partners. Prior to joining Avantium, Math acquired a MSc in Biotechnology from Wageningen University & Research Center.

Eva Maria Binder is Managing Director of DSM Austria GmbH being responsible for R&D process management, translational science, as well as innovation and intellectual property management. After obtaining her PhD in biochemistry and biotechnology at the Vienna University of Technology she joined BIOMIN as R&D project manager for mycotoxin detoxification and analysis. She was appointed director of strategic research in 1996, focusing on the development of innovative feed additives. In her role as Chief Scientific Officer of BIOMIN and ROMER Groups she moved to Singapore, where she established R&D process management tools and quality assurance measures. In 2005 she became Chief Research Officer at ERBER AG. Before the acquisition by DSM she acted as Managing Director of ERBER Future Business (EFB), the incubator entity of ERBER Group, as well as member of the Executive Board of ERBER AG.
Eva holds a master degree in chemistry as well as in knowledge management, is co-inventor of more than 30 patent families and has served as committee member of several Austrian research funding organizations; currently she is deputy chair of the Scientific Board of the Christian Doppler Society. She has been Head of the Scientific Committee of the World Nutrition Forum since 2008 and edited several books on animal nutrition and mycotoxin management

Alexander Stephan was born as a son of a butcher and was involved with the manufacturing processes of the meat products industry from an early age. After graduating from high school, he completed an apprenticeship as a butcher and obtained his master’s degree in the butcher’s trade in 2004. From 2004 to 2009, he studied food chemistry and toxicology at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern. He studied aroma chemistry with Professor Fischer in Neustadt an der Weinstraße. After graduating, he started working in the spice industry as a product developer and raw material manager. He spent his first years at WIBERG in Salzburg, which is now part of IFF (International flavour and fragrances). Since 2011, Dr Stephan has been with the company VAN HEES, where he completed his part-time doctorate at the chair of Professor Zorn in Gießen from 2014-2018. He has held various positions at VAN HEES and has been head of the scientific research department of the VAN HEES group (Department of Science) of companies since 2018. He is particularly concerned with alternative protein sources from plants, fungi, but also insects.

Paul is a molecular biologist and biochemical engineer with experience working within large corporates, SMEs and in public funded organisations. His early career was spent in the pharmaceutical industry focusing on development and safety testing of biologics before moving to Scotland and into a role heading up the commercial activities of the newly formed Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) in 2014. He joined 3F BIO Ltd as Technical Director in 2017 after assisting their spin out of the University of Strathclyde the year before. In 2020 3F rebranded to ENOUGH but their mission to commercialise a novel, zero waste process for the production of mycoprotein has not changed. For the last 4 years he has led the development, scale up and piloting activities and has celebrated the ground-breaking of their first commercial plant very recently. When he’s not working Paul lives in Renfrewshire with his wife, two excitable young sons and an aging labradoodle named Jackson!

Jo-Ann has studied Chemistry at the University of Graz where she received her master’s degree in 2000. Thereafter, she did a PhD finishing in 2004 with her thesis titled “Interactions in Colloid Systems Investigated by Scattering Methods”.

She joined Lenzing AG in 2005 and spent 10 years holding various positions within R&D until 2015 where she stepped into the role as Head of Monitoring and Funding. In 2018 she additionally became Head of PMO and has over the last couple of years become increasingly active in the fields of bio-and circular-economy where she has been a member of the Renewable Carbon Initiative Core Advisory Board.

Christian Schimper studied Food- and Biotechnology, followed by a PhD Thesis in the field of Cellulose Chemistry at the Chair of Wood, Pulp and Fiber Chemistry at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna.

Before and during his masters program he worked at the Research Institute of Textile Chemistry with Prof. Bechtold, where they developed a method to increase and direct the hydrolysis rate of cellulases on cellulosic substrates. With an idea how to use and commercialize the invention in the denim industry, Christian Schimper co-founded the company Acticell in 2014 where he acts as managing director. In 2017 Acticell was awarded with the 1st price of the GEWINN young entrepreneur award in the category “Environment” and 2019 with the Plan B Founder’s Contest for Bio-based Business Ideas.

Acticell acts as research company with a strong focus on sales that develops innovative chemical formulations for the new trends in the textile industry. Acticell’s know-how replaces the environmentally harmful potassium permanganate bleaching of jeans and offers solutions for new technologies like laser and ozone. A bleach replacement and a laser enhancer is sold through a global chemical wholesaler. Beginning of the year 2021 the new ATMOSPHERIC process was launched by Jeanologia, which uses an Acticell product to replace stonewash and chlorine bleach by ozone. Worldwide leading jeans labels already rely on production processes with Acticell technology.

Gerard Nijhoving is an entrepreneur and since January 2017 the co-owner and Managing Director of Senbis. The company is a continuation of the former research department of AKZO Nobel and now offers R&D services to the plastic sector and develops bioplastics and products thereof. At Senbis Gerard is mainly focusing on business development and strategy. He holds a BSc in mechanical and plastic engineering and a MSc in management of technology

Massimo Bregola- Global Technology Lead Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants & Elastomers – Cargill Scientific Coordinator of SUSBIND
Cargill is an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services. Together with farmers, customers, governments and communities, Cargill helps people thrive by applying its insights and 150 years of experience. Cargill has 145,000 employees in 70 countries who are committed to feeding the world in a responsible way, reducing environmental impact and improving the communities. Customers turn to Cargill for scientific expertise when the challenge is enhancing an existing product, improving process efficiencies, or uncovering a solution that helps them launch a first-to-market innovation. In this sense, Cargill provides the people, capabilities and facilities to solve virtually any technical challenge across a range of industry segments, including: animal and fish feed; bio-industrial products and biofuels; as well as food ingredients.
Cargill leads the Scientific Coordination of SUSBIND. The goal is to leverage Cargill research and development capabilities to generate distinctive value through new, improved products and innovative ways to reduce costs. Additionally, Cargill is in charge of delivering the most suitable feedstock and of contributing with R&D expertise in both carbohydrates and lipids chemistry.

Tamara graduated with a master’s degree in technical mathematics, specialized in applied mathematics, with distinction form the University of Technology, Vienna.
During her studies she was working at the Institute for Analysis and Scientific Computing in the study group modeling and simulation. She is excited about problem solving processes and finding a mathematical formulation for all kind of procedures. Her motivation and interest in the development of sustainable and efficient nature-based solutions brought her to alchemia-nova. Currently she is managing the HOUSEFUL Project (houseful.eu) which focuses on innovative circular services and technologies in the housing sector, where she coordinates the implementation of circular solutions at the Austrian Demo site Cambium (community project in Styria).

Rob is a partner at Capricorn Partners, working in the Capricorn Sustainable Chemistry Fund (CSCF). CSCF invests in early and growth companies bringing sustainable technologies to market, albeit through feedstock, technology platform or products. CSCF has made 7 investments to date, Prolupin, Virovet, DMC-BIO,cLecta, Void Polymers, Zeopore and Blackbearcarbon, and is looking to add several more to the portfolio. Rob is a chemical engineer from Delft University in the Netherlands and has worked both in the corporate, strategy consulting and start-up world in chemicals, process and water technology. Rob has held business management positions with Akzo Nobel and Shell Chemicals, was a founder and CEO of KiOR in the US and worked as CEO for several other start-ups in chemicals and water technology. He is also an investor in CoolSeparations, HyVent and Reactor Resources EU and has board roles in several start-ups. Rob has followed the New Board Programme from Neyenrode Business University

Since 1st of July 2021 Caroline is CEO of The New Meat Company AG, a young stock-listed and purpose-driven impact
investment company based in Berlin with focus on alternative proteins. Caroline is intrigued by the idea of
revolutionize the food industry, especially everything animal production related, in an environmental friendly, healthy
and sustainable way that will allow us to feed +10 billion people in the future. Prior to joining TNMC Caroline was
working for EY as a lawyer and as part of the global EY Agribusiness Team. At the global EY Agribusiness Team she
covered legal agri- and foodbusiness aspects and was involved in strategic and innovative agri- and foodbusiness
projects. Caroline i.a. gained experience in advising national and international corporate clients, banks and financial
investors on corporate aspects of M&A transactions and VC investments, including performance of legal due diligence. She
also gained experience in the field of implementing data protection management systems (GDPR) for international
corporate clients. Caroline always had a strong interest in the field of agriculture and food worldwide, especially in
the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Her track record covers global and regional food- and agribusinesses with
focus on digital transformation of the larger agribusiness value, the alternative protein and meat market, food security
impact driven by agricultural policy setting and all questions related to sustainability and environmental impact.

With background in biology and PhD in biotechnology, Martin Kavšček is a Senior R&D manager at Acies Bio, a leading European company in development of industrial microbial strains and bioprocesses. With 10 years of experiences in development of microbial strains for production of various biochemicals he is leading part of Acies Bio internal R&D activities for development of novel chassis technologies with platform potential. He is also responsible for developing Acies Bio external collaborations as well as managing several of the EU co-founded projects like SUSFERT and SyCoLim.
Dr. Kavšček started his work in the area of biotechnology with extensive work on production of new lipid accumulating strains of Yarrowia lipolytica using combination of genome scale modeling, synthetic biology strain design and bioprocess optimization. In last 5 years he was developing Acies Bio chassis strains and co-created the internal pipeline focused on AgBio, food/feed and industrial biotechnology.

I have worked for 14 years at DSM in several managerial functions at R&D and innovation in the field of biotech food
ingredients. My current position is to transform the industrial site of DSM in Delft to an open innovation campus
welcoming startups, scaleups and grownups in industrial biotech. We recently founded a non-profit organization with 5
partners along the triple helix called Planet B.io. At Planet B.io, we aim to create a world class innovation ecosystem
where you can rent labs and offices, perform pilot productions, access excellent employees from the Technical University
in Delft, and get a wide range of support (technical, financial, equipment, business mentoring etc). At Planet B.io, our
purpose is to make your business grow and innovate successfully so that we can jointly enable the transition into a
biobased economy.

Bernd Nidetzky is the scientific director of ACIB (CSO) and coordinates all research areas there. He is a technical chemist by training and is Professor of Biotechnology at Graz University of Technology since 2002. In 2004, he became Head of the Institute of Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering and in 2012, Head of the Field of Expertise “Human and Biotechnology” at Graz University of Technology. He also is Austrian representative in ESAB (European Society of Applied Biocatalysis) and Co-chair of the Biocatalysis Section in ESBES (European Society of Biochemical Engineering Sciences). Bernd Nidetzky is an expert in carbohydrate-active enzymes and biocatalytic process development with these enzymes.

Marcel Wubbolts holds a PhD from the department of Biochemistry, University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and was Post- Doctoral research associate and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Biotechnology at the ETH in Zürich, Switzerland, leading a research group on biocatalyst development and remained there until late 1997.
Following his positions in academia, he joined the Life Sciences and Material Sciences company DSM, Heerlen, The Netherlands, where he held several positions including that of Chief Technology Officer from 2011 to 2016.
Since November 2016 he holds the position of Chief Technology Officer and is member of the Executive Committee at Corbion. As Chief Technology Officer, Marcel is responsible for Corbion’s global Science and Innovation portfolio and for Sustainability. He is passionate about developing sustainable solutions, in conjunction with partners from academia and industry. Marcel Wubbolts has the Dutch nationality.

Wolfgang Ranfft is Vice President Bio Based Products at De Smet Engineers & Contractors, an engineering firm and general contractor, dedicated to the agro industry.
After his studies of food technology in Weihenstephan / Munich he joined an Austrian technology provider for yeast, ethanol (1G and 2G), organic and amino acids and later on became managing director of this company. During this time he was involved in various process developments and among other things filed for patents in the field of grain milling, 2G ethanol and biogas.
Since late 2011 he follows on behalf of De Smet Engineers & Contractors projects mainly linked to ethanol, wet milling and in particular bio-based chemicals

Werner Merzeder is Trade Commissioner for Austria at Business Finland, which is the Finnish government organization for innovation funding and trade, travel and investment promotion. Business Finland employs 600 experts in 40 offices globally and in 16 regional offices around Finland.
Werner is a member in Business Finland’s Bio & Circular Economy industry leadership team to develop and promote the Finnish Bio & Circular Economy ecosystem. He also supports international companies to establish operations in Finland. Prior to Business Finland Werner worked as consultant in several international consulting companies.

Simo Ellilä is the CEO and Co-founder of eniferBio, a Finnish start-up developing the mycoprotein PEKILO primarily for sustainable aquaculture. Prior to founding the company in 2020, Simo spent a decade in various R&D roles in Industrial Biotechnology at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. His work has always focused on biorefining applications, converting renewable resources into value added fuels, chemicals or food/feed. He has been involved in the development of several biotech processes in Europe and South America

Mikael Westerlund, Chief Business Activist, MBA & BSc Eng, +20years of international business leadership and development. With a broad background in various executive leadership positions Mikael has through his career been building new businesses and business strategies. Mikael has the Baltic Sea close to heart and an ambition to create a new sustainable yet global business.

Matti has a Biotech Engineering degree and an MBA with 17 years of experience in bio-based industries, starting with Genencor/DuPont where he was leading a global engineering team responsible for the development of the Industrial Bioscience Division’s process technologies and competencies.
During his career, he has had various international leadership roles and organizational development responsibilities. During his 8 years at MetGen, he has been responsible for manufacturing, the development of technologies and new business as well as, marketing, and financing. In 2018 he was awarded the CTO of the Year title in Finland. In his subsequent role as a COO he has driven innovation and growth of the company as a part of the external ecosystem: He aims to strengthen the organization and internal competencies and build external value-chains and partnerships to drive innovation.
As an international networker, Matti has always been driven to innovation, radical rather than incremental. Matti strongly believes in the power of open innovation to drive change in the bio-based and chemical industries. With this mindset, he has successfully created, developed, scaled up, and commercialized several new bio-industry technologies. He can create a comprehensive vision and communicate the executable strategy to the stakeholders throughout the value chain.
Matti has successfully lead MetGen and consortiums of companies to be a part of numerous commercial joint ventures, R&D projects, capital investment projects, and 12 European Horizon2020 projects. This collaborative action has provided the participating companies with private and public funding to drive the new technologies quickly through technology readiness levels to industrial and commercial maturity.

Education: MS Chemical Engineering, Business Strategy and International Marketing, Helsinki University of Technology, 1995
Over 25 years’ experience in chemical and paper technology.
Leader in business, sustainability and communications with technical background.
Coach in business and sports.
Empowered by innovative solutions promoting sustainability.

Olivier Rolland is Managing Director of TWB, a public / private industrial biotechnology organization, based in France, that transitions early stage R&D from academic labs into preindustrial development projects and start-ups. Olivier has 10+ years experience in strategy, business and product development in the bio-economy. Prior to TWB, Olivier was Director, Sustainable Fuel Strategy at Boeing where he was leading the global strategy to enable innovative regional biofuel value chains. He also spent 8 years at Total, 5 of which in California where he managed the alliance with Amyris, a longstanding synthetic biology actor. In particular, he led the development of the first commercial sugar-based aviation fuel in relation to which he received the Presidential Green Chemistry Award from US Environmental Protection Agency in 2014. Olivier also started Michelin biotechnology activities focusing on bio-sourcing monomers. He has a Ph.D. in chemistry, which he achieved while working at Rhodia (now Solvay).

Juergen co-founded enGenes Biotech after working as a Research Associate at the intersection of genetic and bioprocess engineering at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria. Prior to this, he held a PostDoc position at the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (ACIB GmbH.), working in the research field “Microbial Cell Design” where he was involved in the sequencing and engineering of different host strains for the production of recombinant proteins. He has authored several peer-reviewed scientific publications and book chapters and received training from the University of Iceland and the University of Bielefeld.

Juergen holds a Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria.

Dr. Michael Krohn studied biology and graduated in molecular biology with a PhD from the Heinrich-Heine University (HHU)
Düsseldorf and did his postdoctoral training at the Max-Planck Institute for Immunology in Freiburg with focus on
molecular and cell biology. Dr. Michael Krohn started his industrial career at BRAIN Biotech AG as a project manager in
1997. Since 2001 he is working in the upper management at BRAIN Biotech AG as the Head of the Unit: ‘BioActives &
Performance Biologicals’. In this position he is responsible for the research & development of bioactive ingredients
mainly for the food & cosmetic industries for industrial applications and products. His main accountability is best
described by national and international contract research, in house developments as well as national and international
business development of functional ingredients for business-to-business markets. Since 2013 he is part of the
coordination team of an Innovation-Alliance called ‘NatLifE2020′, which is funded by the German Ministry for Education
and Research covering more than 20 enterprises with a potential running time of up to nine years. In 2013 Dr. Michael
Krohn became member of the executive committee at BRAIN and has meanwhile 20 years’ professional experience in
Industrial Biotechnology. In 2018 he became the Head of R&D at BRAIN Biotech AG.

Dr. Leonie Alten is Scientific Development Manager at Twist Bioscience. Before joining Twist, Leonie served as a team leader to develop of innovative immune therapies from early hit discovery through lead characterization and drug development of TCR-based adaptive cell therapies and bispecific molecules. Earlier, deciphering the underlying molecular mechanisms of ciliopathies was her main focus. Leonie built and lead technology platforms employing cutting edge molecular biology technologies in genome editing, high throughput cloning and in vitro transcription techniques, advanced PCR technologies and single cell sequencing. She earned a Diploma in Biochemistry and Dr. rer. nat. focused on cell and molecular biology.
With proven commitment on innovation, Leonie thrives to support synthetic biology, protein discovery and evolution projects and many other ways to aid medical research utilizing the high quality and high throughput Twist DNA tools.

Nikolaus Schwaiger is Chemical Engineer Biorefinery Sappi Europe SA. Sappi Europe SA is the leading European producer of coated fine paper used in premium magazines, catalogues, books and high-end print advertising. As a global diversified wood fibre company focused on providing dissolving wood pulp, specialities and packaging papers, graphic/printing papers, as well as biomaterials and biochemicals to our direct and indirect customer base. Sappi has over 12,800 employees in over 35 countries and manufacturing operations on three continents including ten production facilities in Western Europe. In the SUSFERT, Sappi leads the sustainable Coating in developing a process to provide bio-based controlled release coatings for sustainable fertilisers.

Kristin Schreiber leads the Directorate Ecosystems I: Chemicals, Food, Retail, Health in DG GROW, the Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.

Prior to her current Director position, she served as Director for Governance of the Single Market and International Affairs in DG MARKT (until 2015) and Director for SME policy in DG GROW (until March 2021).

Kristin Schreiber was Head of Cabinet of Employment Commissioner Vladimir Špidla, Deputy Head of Cabinet of Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier and member of the Cabinets of Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen and Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert. She also served as Head of Unit for International Affairs in DG Employment and Social Affairs and was a member of the Merger Task Force of DG Competition.

After graduating with honours from L’Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and gaining a Master’s degree from the University of Kent at Canterbury and the Diplôme des Etudes Approfondies of the College of Europe in Bruges in International Relations, Economics and European Law, she worked as a researcher on the Single Market at the Institut für Europäische Politik in Bonn, before joining the European Commission as policy officer on biotechnology in 1990 where she held a large variety of positions since.

Claire holds a PhD in biochemistry and has worked in the development of scientific networks and associations for over 15 years. She started her career as part of the Cambridge biotech cluster in the UK within the cluster business network and was a founder of the Council of European BioRegions, a network of biotech clusters across Europe. She brought herself and CEBR to Brussels in 2009 where she also took on the role of SG for the European Biotechnology Network, working across sectors, organisations and countries as part of the EBN mission to facilitate partnerships. In January 2017, Claire took up her role as DG of the Nanotechnology Industries Association which she successfully led until recently..

Marty Muenzmaier leads sustainability and external affairs for Cargill’s Bioindustrial Group. In this role, Marty leads sustainability strategy and programming as well as government relations and thought leadership.
Previously, Marty led the global sustainability team in Cargill’s Corporate Affairs function and its Starches & Sweeteners North America business. Marty joined Cargill in 2001 and has held government advocacy positions in its headquarters and Washington DC offices. Previously, Marty worked for Kimberly-Clark and the law firm of Messerli Kramer.
Marty received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a law degree from the Mitchell Hamline College of Law in St. Paul, MN.

Philippe Mengal is the Executive Director of the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) since 1st of October 2015. His mission is to further consolidate the role and responsibilities of the BBI JU. The Executive Director is the legal representative of the BBI JU. He is the chief executive responsible for the day-to-day management of the BBI JU in accordance with the decisions of the Governing Board. Mr. Mengal trained as an engineer in Chemistry and Bio-industry at the Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech University and later on in Strategic Innovation Management at INSEAD – Fontainebleau in France. He started his career in 1990 in France as R&D engineer in the field of biomass fractionation and purification. In 1995 he became Technical Director of a research centre dedicated to biomass valorisation and between 1990 and 1997 he taught in a Master programme on chemical engineering in Rennes, France. He has published a number of scientific papers and awarded 5 patented license agreements.

In his 25 years of professional experience before joining BBI JU, Mr. Mengal held strategic managerial positions in France and Belgium such as CEO of three companies, Global R&D Director of a multinational and Senior Consultant in food ingredient, engineering and life science industries.

Nikolaus Schwaiger is Chemical Engineer Biorefinery Sappi Europe SA. Sappi Europe SA is the leading European producer of coated fine paper used in premium magazines, catalogues, books and high-end print advertising. As a global diversified wood fibre company focused on providing dissolving wood pulp, specialities and packaging papers, graphic/printing papers, as well as biomaterials and biochemicals to our direct and indirect customer base. Sappi has over 12,800 employees in over 35 countries and manufacturing operations on three continents including ten production facilities in Western Europe. In the SUSFERT, Sappi leads the sustainable Coating in developing a process to provide bio-based controlled release coatings for sustainable fertilisers.

Jovita Neliupsiene was appointed as Vice-Minister of the Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania in December 2020. Prior this position, J. Neliupsiene was the Chancellor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2015 – 2020 she served as Ambassador at the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Lithuania to the EU. In 2009 she was appointed adviser to the President of Lithuania and, later, chief adviser on foreign policy issues. J. Neliupsiene has also served at the Embassy in Minsk and worked at the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania. She holds a doctoral degree in Political Sciences from IIRPS of Vilnius University.