Archives: Speakers

Dries Cauwenbergh is a Senior Technical Account Manager for Dairy & Dairy Alternatives, bringing over two decades of experience across food technology, food formulation, and food safety and quality. He holds a Master’s degree in Bio‑Engineering from the University of Ghent and joined Cargill in 2010, where he built a strong foundation in refined vegetable oils, working closely with customers on nutritional, physico‑chemical, quality, sustainability, and regulatory topics.

Over the course of his career, Dries has expanded his scope beyond oils into holistic dairy and plant‑based applications, combining technical expertise with business development leadership. After leading the dairy category team for Cargill Edible Oil Solutions Europe, he assumed his current role in 2023. Today, he partners with dairy, hybrid, and fully plant‑based manufacturers across Europe, supporting end‑to‑end product development, troubleshooting, and formulation optimization across Cargill’s full ingredient portfolio. His work bridges ingredients, processing, and application know‑how to help customers deliver high‑performing, future‑ready dairy solutions.

Dr. Carolina Diaz Quijano has been leading the Consumer Solutions technical services team at Omya since 2018 that drives the successful introduction of value‑added ingredients globally across Food, Pharma, Nutra as well as Home, Personal and Oral Care markets. She joined the company in 2013 and during this time brought multifunctional excipients to market, established technical support laboratories, and led strategic ingredient replacement projects that address supply chain challenges, cost optimization, and sustainability goals. Passionate about advancing health and nutrition, she focuses on delivering solutions that create meaningful impact.

Mark Campbell is Head of Wealth Planning at Isio, where he leads the evolution of modern, client‑centric wealth advice in an increasingly digital world. With over 20 years’ experience across private banking, investment management and financial advice, in roles including his current role as head of an Independent Financial Advice business, to Head of Advice Proposition and Regional Director. His work focuses on how digitisation can enhance—not replace—great advice: improving accessibility, consistency and insight while preserving the human relationship and judgement that clients value most. Mark is particularly passionate about designing scalable advice propositions, embedding technology responsibly, and equipping advisers to deliver better outcomes through a data‑driven, digitally enabled approach.

Maxim is an independent international GCP auditor and trainer with over 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and clinical research industry across Europe, Africa, and CIS regions. A certified MRQA and SQA expert with a medical background, he combines hands‑on audit practice with quality management expertise. He specializes in GCP audits, FDA and EMA inspection preparation (including mock inspections), and the development of Quality Management Systems (QMS) for sponsors and CROs. His practical, audit‑driven approach forms the foundation of THE QARP’s training programmes.”

I confirm the session details are fine from my side. We will share not only the presentation in 16:9 format by 24 April, but also the detailed plan for our workshop “Training Teams to Respond to Inspection Findings – An AI‑Supported Approach.

Michael Clay is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Caidya, where he leads the Global Operations Leadership Team and is responsible for the company’s operational delivery, client engagement, and operating model.

A seasoned operations executive, Mike brings deep expertise in global project delivery, site-relationship development, and APAC leadership, with extensive hands-on experience in China. Most recently he served as Senior Vice President, Global Project Delivery at Fortrea, where he oversaw delivery of more than 500 global clinical trials across 60+ countries. Prior roles include senior leadership positions spanning the globe in all phases of clinical development, focused therapeutic delivery, and Biotech and Pharmaceutical engagement strategies at Javara, PPD, and Synexus.

Mike’s focus is on scaling a dynamic, world-class delivery engine that is tailored to serve evolving client needs, strengthens sponsor and site partnerships, accelerates cross-border execution, delivers operational excellence through periods of growth and speeds products to patients, faster.

Mike holds a Master of Science in Jurisprudence (M.S.J.), Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Law from Seton Hall University, School of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Chemistry from Missouri State University.

Alex Reid serves as the Country Manager for Canary Technologies where he blends strategic insight with a hands-on approach to partner with hotels, elevate the guest journey and optimize operations. Known for a keen ability to build lasting rapport with customers, Alex focuses on creating value at every stage of the business cycle. He is a firm believer in the power of diverse perspectives and thrives in cultures that prioritize innovation and collective achievement. 

Manolo Díaz is an industry leader passionate about hotel technology and distribution. With over 20 years of experience in strategic partnerships and global sourcing, he has held leadership roles at top global brands, always within the travel industry. Manolo specializes in driving innovation and growth in hospitality and travel tech. 

Jonatan Wahren is a PhD student at Lund University, Department of Process and Life Science Engineering, Sweden. He has a background in the dairy industry and holds a M.Sc. in chemical engineering from Lund University. His research is focused on membrane filtration for dairy applications and particularly fouling and cleaning of membranes.

Currently, Jonatan’s research is centered around detection and quantification of organic fouling on polymeric membranes from dairy processing. He has experience working with a range of different techniques for fouling and cleaning analysis like FTIR-ATR, SEM-EDS, membrane staining and QCM-D.

The overall aim for his PhD thesis is to increase the sustainability of membrane processes by optimizing costs and reduce environmental impact of membrane cleaning in the dairy sector. The research is heavily dependent on pilot scale trials and input from the project’s industrial partners.