David Benzaquen
CEO
PlantBased Solutions, Ocean Hugger Foods

Måns Ullerstam
Founder
Kale United

Serial entrepreneur building many companies / teams from 1-100 people. Raised a lot of money with venture capitalists in the last 20 years. Plant-based investor & vegan. Founder of Kale United, a Swedish ethical holding company with a vision to create a plant-based world. Their mission is to increase the global availability and awareness of plant-based products. Working together, they will make plant-based brands game-changers on the global stage. 

Dr. Mark Post, CEO Mosa Meat

Dubbed ‘the father of clean meat’, Dr Post presented the first ‘clean meat’ patty in 2013. Post first joined the KNAW Interuniversity Cardiology Institute of the Netherlands in 1989 before being appointed full-time Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School in 1996. Five years later, he moved with his lab to Dartmouth Medical School, and was appointed Associate Professor of Medicine and of Physiology.

Matt Tom
Founder & CEO
MTCC LLC

 Matt specializes in New Product Development and Commercialization, especially in the food technology space where he integrates the sciences with digital technologies. With over 15 years of experience in the Food & Beverage sector, from planting to harvest to marketplace and full life cycle testing, Matt has been involved with bringing tasty and innovative plant-based foods to the market that are healthier and more sustainable than their non-plant-based counterparts, first through government research at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service collaborating with companies like PepsiCo, General Mills, Clorox, and P&G, and more recently at Silicon Valley food tech startups such as Impossible Foods, Kite Hill, Hampton Creek, Ripple Foods, and more. Matt is passionate about social impact, public health, and environmental sustainability via the world’s food system. He is excited to help entrepreneurs make a splash in this area! To learn more about him and his work, please visit his website at mtcc.io. 

Rich Kelleman
Founder & CEO
Bond

20+ years working as a strategic planner at some of the most creative agencies in the world (CP+B, Fallon, Goodby, FCB), for clients like P&G, Kellogg’s, Facebook and Chevrolet. Now the founder & CEO of Bond, working with some of the world’s most progressive veterinarians, scientists and technologies to understand how to take bigger leaps with pet food. Leaps that can lead to food that’s exceptionally cleaner, kinder and nutritious.

Jan Wirsam, Professor Hochschule Für Technik Und Wirtschaft Berlin

Prof. Jan Wirsam is focusing on innovation, production management, digitalisation and business model innovations, as well as plant based value creation and sustainability at the Technical University of Applied Science (HTW). He has been working closely with ProVeg international on various projects over the past three years.

Bob Kodrzycki
Biotech business leader

29 years of industry experience in synthetic biology, microbials, biologicals and genomics in the agtech, industrial biotech and renewables sectors. A PhD scientist who understands business. Combines a passion for biotech, experience in Fortune 500 and startup companies as well as management skill to move bio-based products to the market. Helping science-based companies improve their operations and also investors with due diligence. 

Viktor Maciag
Lead Tissue Engineer

5 years of work experience in biological laboratory specializing in mammalian cell culture. Experienced in building laboratory and starting projects from scratch, and most mammalian cell culture and laboratory techniques. Plus working as a tissue engineer at his second, very nascent, start up. Familiar with looking for new hires and growing out a team. Running, designing, researching, and developing experiments. Taught and mentored others in many of these practices. 

Frank Cordesmeyer
Co-Founder & CEO
Good Seed Ventures

Frank is a food scientist focusing on the development of alternative protein sources. He is the Co-Founder & CEO of Good Seed Ventures, a venture capital fund dedicated towards innovative and sustainable solutions within the food value chain. As the Director of Communications Europe at the Cellular Agriculture Society, a non-profit dedicated to advancing the field of cellular agriculture, Frank mobilizes volunteering and collaboration efforts across Europe, engaging academic, governmental, and industry leaders.

Jörn Gutowski
Founder
TRY FOODS, Zeevi

A native of Northern Germany, Jörn Gutowski spent most of his young adulthood abroad. While working for an international non-profit he travelled worldwide and 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 developing tasting sets helping people to expand their knowledge of and their palate for high-quality food products. Most recently, he co-founded Zeevi, another food startup which is producing tofu based on chickpeas. 

Jared Schachter
Founder, Freelance Consultant
Biblio-app

Jared has a diverse background in Strategy, Finance, Operations, and Product. He has worked directly with entrepreneurs and C-level executives and has a proven track-record of making data-driven decisions, optimizing operations, and managing teams and projects in organizations of all sizes. He’s also passionate about making a positive impact in the world and his interests lie in mindfulness / personal development, plant-based / clean meat, effective altruism, and exploring different cultures through global travel. 

Sebastian Joy, ProVeg Co-Founder & CEO

Sebastian Joy is one of the most renowned representatives of the vegan movement in Europe. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of ProVeg International, and is a board member of the European Vegetarian Union (EVU). He also is a lecturer in nonprofit management at the Berlin School of Economics and Law.

Matthias Rohra, ProVeg COO

Matthias Rohra has more than 20 years experience in business, including leading a marketing agency, being a brand business development manager, as well as marketing director at the Coca-Cola Company and McFit, Europe’s largest gym chain.

Jan Bredack, Founder Veganz

Jan Bredack is the Founder and CEO of Veganz, the first vegan supermarket chain in Europe. The wholesale activity of the Veganz group has increased impressively since the beginning of 2014 and their shop-in-shop concept has been successful in hundreds of retail grocery stores. Prior to founding Veganz, Jan Bredack was a former Senior Manager with Mercedes Benz.

Kati Radlof, Founder Loose Frog Consulting

Kati Radloff is the founder of Loose Frog Consulting, an agency that specialises in public grant procurement in the European and national context. Her expertise lies in spotting available grants, conceptualizing project ideas, bringing project partners together, and accompanying proposal writings up to submission.

Tobias Leenaert, Author and Director Ceva

Tobias Leenaert is a longtime speaker, trainer, and strategist. He is also the co-founder of the Belgian organization EVA (Ethical Vegetarian Alternative), the first vegetarian/vegan organization to receive structural funding from a national government. Under Tobias’ management, EVA launched a successful campaign that resulted with the city of Ghent becoming the first city ever to officially support a weekly vegetarian day. Tobias gives animal advocacy trainings worldwide together with Melanie Joy, for the Center of Effective Vegan Advocacy (CEVA). He is also co-founder of ProVeg.

Elliot Roth
CEO, DIY Astrobiologist & Writer
Spira Inc.

Elliot is incredibly motivated to solve physiological needs using simple biological design. He had 2 successful non-profits, 6 failed startups and raised 100’s of thousands of dollars for his companies. After being trained as a University Innovation Fellow at the Stanford d.School, Elliot started multiple entrepreneurial projects including the DIYbio lab Indie Lab, TEDxVCU, and 6 failed startups. He graduated Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in Biomedical Engineering and spent 5 years consulting in product design and business strategy before starting Spira.
He is a Kairos Fellow, a Seasteading Ambassador, a member of the TFF NextGen Council, and sits on the Virginia Governor’s Council for Youth Entrepreneurship. Elliot has spoken at Synbiobeta, SXSW, and Thought for Food on social impact, synthetic biology and food. 

Devon Fritz, Director Founders Pledge, Germany

Devon joined Founders Pledge, following a diverse background in consulting and software development for both the public and private sectors, working for various organizations as well as running his own business. He organizes networking events with high-profile speakers for European founders.Through Founders Pledge, founders commit to donating at least 2% of their personal proceeds upon exit. Pledgers join a network of successful entrepreneurs and investors who’ve all made the same commitment. Since June 2015, Founders Pledge has raised more than $400 million for charity.

Kurt Schmidinger, Future FoodsAustria

Kurt Schmidinger is a geophysicist and earned a doctorate in food science in Vienna, focusing his dissertation on clean (i.e., cultured) and plant-based alternatives to animal products. In 2005, he founded the project Future Food, which gathers and presents a worldwide portfolio of alternatives to animal products for human nutrition, as well as possible future technologies for food production, such as biofermentation and clean meat.