Gary is a highly experienced professional, with 20 years experience working for a number of multinational FMCG businesses, on both agency and manufacturer side. Having worked in senior commercial, category management and insight roles Gary demonstrates a deep understanding of consumer behaviour, market dynamics, and industry trends, all backed up with strong commercial savviness.
Gary manages the UK & Europe team at Focus Insights to help clients uncover new actionable insight through agile and cost-effective research.
Jake has spent 10 years in the food industry working in product development in a range of brands including Pladis, Birds Eye Iglo and Biotiful Diary. Recently joining the Spark foods platform as Chief Innovation Officer and working with Gosh! Foods on transforming their range in the plant-based category.
Having spent 11 of his 20+ years in the food industry leading research, development, and applications for colouring foods and natural colours, Phil Cook is now the Industry Business Manager for Beverage, Dairy and Ice-Cream markets for Oterra, the World’s Largest Natural Colours company. With a combination of technical expertise and market knowledge, Phil matches customers with the best solutions, and identifies new opportunities in the colour space.
Responsible for assisting the commercial teams with inspirational materials, market insights and refreshed industry trends, Emilio manages the deployment of marketing campaigns and initiatives at a regional level across EMEA. His work closely overlaps with Oterra’s global marketing team to effectively address the specific needs of each industry territorially, whilst also maintaining the communication of the company’s global marketing and innovation agendas
Gunther has over 45 years experience working in the energy sector spending 35 years working with BP, in areas ranging from exploration right through to decommissioning in a number of senior leadership positions, followed by 5 years as Operations Director with the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), including working on the development of integrated energy hubs.
At the end of 1Q 2020 Gunther stepped down from the NSTA and started working on the development of an energy hub project called ORION (Opportunity for Renewables Integration with Offshore Networks), centred around the Shetland region, with an ambition to develop and produce green H2 for use on Shetland and export, transform Shetland dependency on fossil fuels to renewable energy, and facilitate decarbonization of the oil and gas sector.
Gunther also provides energy transition advice to other clients in Ireland and the Welsh/Cornish Celtic Sea.
Robert Murtfeld is the Policy Director at SMOOD, where he focuses on corporate communications and policy entrepreneurship. SMOOD has grown into a global business built on sustainability and youth access restriction technologies for ENDS. Prior to SMOOD, Robert worked in criminal justice at the International Criminal Court and Doughty Street Chambers, and data analytics at Cambridge Analytica. Robert graduated from the University of London with degrees in international law, psychology and economics.
As the co-founder of both North Brewing Co. and North Bar, John has played a pivotal role in redefining the craft beer landscape in the United Kingdom.
From the humble beginnings of North Bar in Leeds – the UK’s original craft beer bar to becoming a driving force in the craft beer revolution with North Brewing.
North now operate 10 bars around the UK, and a first franchise bar in Treviso, Italy. This level of commercial and critical progress is both relentless and organic. Bringing their Beer and Bao experience to the rest of the UK is their next mission.
His journey is marked by a relentless pursuit of excellence, dedication, and a knack for creating spaces where people can gather to savour unique brews and engage in meaningful conversations.
North Brewing currently brews over 5 million pints a year. The brewery supplies all of the major UK Supermarkets, exports to over 27 countries around the world and supplies the likes of Wagamama, Rudy’s, Bill’s, Gusto and Dishoom nationally.
Their new home, Springwell, is a 21,000 square foot former Victorian Tannery which North converted into a modern brewery and 700 capacity taproom, carefully restoring the building, being mindful of its heritage and creating an incredible workspace and bar.
Constantly evolving and energised by an incredible team, John continues to be an important voice in both Hospitality and the Brewing community in the UK and further afield.
