Mark brings over 20 years experience in the foodservice, retail and FMCG sectors to GlobalData.  Mark joined the GlobalData team in 2017 following 5 years living in Canada where he was an insights leader for PepsiCo and strategy consulting leader for the NPD group.   In his role at GlobalData, Mark brings bold thought-leadership to global partners across the manufacturer, retailer and distributor segments; always striving to find new ways to create growth by positively influencing shopper behaviour.

Mark brings significant FMCG knowledge and expertise to the conference having led research around the world on topics from shopper segmentation, to category market sizing to innovation planning and the study of global best practices.

Mark will be chairing the conference whilst sharing his views on the changing nature of next generation product offerings, the demands and expectations of today’s consumer, and the innovations and trends that will shape the future…

Rob Reames is VP Commercial at Eatplanted, the number one Swiss meat alternative brand. Rob’s experience includes some of the biggest Global brands and he is no stranger to establishing new categories into the mainstream having led Alpro’s commercial team across Europe at Board level. Other brand experience includes PepsiCo, Reckitt and Danone internationally.

Rob strongly believes in purpose driven businesses like Eatplanted and he is deeply passionate about accelerating the growth and adoption of meat alternatives as part of healthy, plant-based and flexitarian diets.

The daughter of a butcher from a small town in Northern Canada, Toni gave up meat in her teens when she learned that we can live and be healthy without it. Now vegan for more than 30 years, she believes passionately that we need a mass shift towards plant-based eating and is proud to be part of an organisation fuelling this change. She also holds a PhD in Animal Behaviour.

James Cuthbertson is the CRO of Relative Insight. An innovator in text analytics, James helped to grow Relative Insight from its true start-up phase into a pioneer of text analysis servicing global clients such as F1, Amazon, Coca-Cola and HSBC.

With over 12 years-experience in the early stage technology market, James has grown, and developed sales and marketing functions focused on products in audience insights and data.

James is a keen vegetable grower and recently left London to relocate to the wild Kent countryside alongside his wife, and their ever-expanding menagerie of cats, dogs, chickens and babies.

Joke has a background in Bioscience Engineering. She graduated as a Master in Agriculture and Tropical Agriculture, at the Catholic University of Leuven, in Belgium. In the following years, she investigated starch and starch-lipid interactions during her PhD. After leaving academia, she worked as a scientist and senior scientist at the DSM, focusing on physicochemical properties and structure-function relationships of materials and, specifically, of baking applications and meat alternatives. In her 11 years at DSM, she also broadened her understanding of sensory, rheology, processing, and biotechnology.

Joke Putseys joined Griffith Foods in November 2021 as European Innovation / R&D Manager for Alternative Proteins. In this role, she contributes to, structures and leads the proactive innovations regarding plant-based and alternative proteins to elevate Griffith Foods´ insights and become a thought leader in that area.

Jaume joined Griffith Foods in 2019 and is the Market Segment Manager for Alternative Protein solutions in Europe. His work focuses on promoting Griffith Foods as the product development partner of choice for meat alternative products, with the mission of helping processors to elevate the taste, texture and nutrition attributes of their products.

Prior to Griffith Foods, Jaume has worked as a business and marketing consultant and holds a master’s degree in Civil Engineering.