Matt has a strong passion for all things flavour. He studied Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Nottingham and later went on to complete management studies at the Irish Management Institute. He started his career as a research scientist, before progressing through the R&D functions into the role he has today.
Matt spends his free time hiking, running, or cooking. He has a love for the fermentation of foods, developing home-made kombuchas and freshly baked sourdough loaves as a hobby. He loves to travel, and has held various global roles within Synergy, working with the dairy portfolio in Ireland and the coffee, tea, and hops portfolio in the United States.
In 2023 he relocated with his partner to Trieste, Italy, where he leads the natural extract design and manufacturing technologies platform for Synergy Flavours Europe.
Italian born, Paola is fascinated by the variety of Italian regional cuisine, enjoys cooking for family and friends and is passionate about nutrition and healthy living. She loves travelling and hiking with her family and their chocolate Labrador.
Now European Marketing Director for Synergy Flavours, Paola started her FMCG marketing career in Italy with Nestlé. She then moved to the UK with McCormick where she has held both local and central organisation marketing roles.
Paola also set up her own management consulting company and has worked for some time with SMEs and charities on strategic growth road maps, brand positioning, communication, change management and team reorganisation and development.
Paola graduated from Universita’ di Genova and holds a Master degree in Business Administration and a Certificate in Company Direction from the Institute of Directoes (IoD).
Mark Cunningham is Managing Director of WhenFresh Ltd, the leading residential property data provider, which he co-founded in 2012 and is now part of the PriceHubble family.
Mark is a Graduate of University College Dublin, a serial entrepreneur, thought leader and regular speaker at events in Financial Services and the related sectors which WhenFresh & PriceHubble serve.
Thomas Mühlbacher has a PhD from TU Wien in computer science, and is a co-founder (CTO) of Visplore GmbH, a VC-backed leader for self-service analytics software. Thomas was involved in supervising the development team, IT and the customer success team. He has been ensuring successful use cases of key accounts in energy and industry for more than 10 years. His PhD thesis about making AI more accessible for subject matter experts received an Europe-wide Best Thesis award in the field of data visualization.
Harald Piringer studied informatics at the Vienna University of Technology where he also did his PhD. For more than 10 years, Harald Piringer was the head of the Visual Analytics group at the VRVis research center in Vienna / Austria, where he did applied research in close collaboration with leading players from the energy sector. Harald Piringer (co-)authored more than 30 international publications. In 2020, he founded Visplore as its CEO to boost digitalization in the energy sector. Today, Visplore is a fast-growing venture-capital backed leader in self-service analytics for the energy sector.
Dr. Tim Sandle is a pharmaceutical microbiologist, science writer, and journalist. Dr. Sandle is a chartered biologist and holds a first-class honors degree in Applied Biology; a master’s degree in education; and a doctorate from Keele University.
Dr. Sandle has over twenty-five years of experience in microbiological research, quality assurance, and biopharmaceutical processing. This includes experience in designing, validating, and operating a range of microbiological tests including sterility testing, bacterial endotoxin testing, bioburden and microbial enumeration, environmental monitoring, particle counting, and water testing. In addition, Dr. Sandle is experienced in quality risk assessment, root cause analysis, and investigation.
Dr. Sandle acts as a consultant, expert witness, and technical adviser to sterile and non-sterile manufacturing facilities, microbiology laboratories, the medical device industry, and hospitals. Dr. Sandle has also undertaken many technical writing and review projects.
Sarah is the strategic mind behind Dycem Contamination Control’s marketing in the US. With a background in Six Sigma and process improvement, she is constantly refining marketing strategies to effectively reach B2B audiences. Sarah focuses on practical approaches to enhance outreach and engagement efforts. Dedicated to efficiency, she ensures that every campaign is optimized for maximum impact.
Outside of the office, Sarah enjoys pursuing adventure, whether it’s seeking ski trails or discovering new culinary experiences.
