Taedza Ratuschny

Taedza Ratuschny is a food application technologist at Gelita, specializing in the development of collagen-based ingredients for the beverage industry. With a solid background in product and process engineering, she brings a practical and research-driven approach to innovation in functional ingredients. She consistently integrates science-based technologies that effectively align the needs of manufacturers with the expectations of today’s health-conscious consumers.

Mandy Saven

Mandy leads consumer lifestyle content at Stylus, a remit that comprises food & beverage as well as hospitality & leisure, consumer attitudes, and technology. A prolific writer, editor, content strategist and innovation expert, Mandy is passionate about helping brands achieve their commercial ambitions while also making a positive impact.

A seasoned public speaker, Mandy has unveiled fresh trends intelligence at events including SXSW London, The World Retail Congress and Food Matters Live. You’ll also find her insights featured in the press, in publications like The Times, HuffPost, and Food & Beverage Magazine.

Blaine VanLeuven

Blaine is a strategic leader with more than 18 years of experience working in the biopharmaceutical industry, primarily focused on Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC), regulatory affairs and global regulatory strategy. She provides strategic solutions and services to emerging biopharma companies from concept to commercialization. She has leveraged her regulatory expertise to support a wide variety of therapeutic treatments (small molecules, antibodies, recombinant proteins, cell and gene therapies, drug/device combination products) designed to treat a broad array of diseases and conditions (hematology, oncology, autoimmune, ophthalmic, cardiovascular, endocrine, pulmonary, CNS, anti-viral, metabolic, dermatology, rare diseases, etc.).

Colin Strasser

Colin Strasser is the CEO of Montrose Software, a software development consultancy with global clients in capital markets and healthcare. Montrose delivers AI-enabled solutions for trading, analytics, compliance, and process automation. Colin also founded web development agencies U2i and Online Magic, where he guided the digital transformation of The Economist Group’s family of publications. Prior to that, he structured asset-backed securities at Lehman Brothers and wrote risk management systems for Prudential Securities. Colin is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Natalia Barkalina

Having joined Syneos in 2021, Natalia brings 15 years of experience in medical education and scientific strategy, combining clinical expertise as a medical doctor with extensive medical communications knowledge

Natalia’s focus is on the development of innovative scientific communication strategies that translate complex scientific data into engaging and impactful content for healthcare professionals, patients, and the public.

She is passionate about democratising scientific evidence and ensuring that scientific communications address real-world clinical challenges and patient needs.

Christina Furlong

As a global insights manager at Kerry, Christina creates actionable insights that fuel successful innovation. With over 10 years of experience in the food industry, she has developed a keen understanding of the consumer research, needs, preferences and behaviours that shape the global food and drink industry. She has a passion for design thinking, innovation, foresight, and trends.

Saby Roy

Saby Roy is a Technology Consulting Partner at EY, specializing in Financial Services in the UK, with 22 years of experience in Applied Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and System Integration. He has previously held leadership roles at Accenture and IBM and serves as an AI advisor for the Chair of Robotic Surgery at Kings College, London. Saby has published work on Machine Learning and AI in leading scientific journals. His expertise includes cloud services (AWS), containerization, open-source tools (Tensorflow, Keras, Python), event orchestration (Kafka, RabbitMQ), and various digital automation products. He has led significant transformation programs in the UK across sectors like Insurance, Retail, and Private Banking, focusing on cost reduction, efficiency, compliance, and data-driven process improvements.

Jon Quayle

Jon Quayle is Product Evangelist at Deepdesk, helping financial services organisations and other leading global enterprises transform customer experience with AI. Deepdesk’s Virtual Agent platform spans AI Assistants for human agents through to fully autonomous customer-facing interactions. With 17+ years in communications, CX, and AI, Jon specialises in showing enterprises how to boost productivity today while building toward the future of agentic AI.