Co-founder of Leon, food campaigner, speaker and non-executive director.

Before founding Leon, Henry worked at Bain & Company, working on private equity transactions and helping large companies to develop their strategies. Previously he was a journalist at the Daily Telegraph and a commis chef at the Michelin-starred Inn on the Park restaurant in London.

Henry is a regular speaker on how to create a purpose-lead business and how to create a better food system. He is the co-founder and chair of Chefs in Schools and sits on the board of Rockfish. He also advises the CEOs of a handful of high growth leisure businesses.

Harriet Lamb is passionate about environmental and social issues with a track record in making a difference around the globe. She is an experienced CEO who built the global movement Fairtrade – a certification scheme that sets standards to make trade fairer, working with producers in the developing world as well as thousands of companies and retailers, and creating a vibrant grassroots movement.

Following 15 years with Fairtrade – as CEO of the UK Fairtrade Foundation and then of Fairtrade International – Harriet led International Alert, a peacebuilding organisation. She was then appointed CEO of Ashden, which promotes just climate solutions including sustainable energy in the UK and globally.

Harriet has won a number of awards including a CBE, Orange Businesswoman of the Year, and Cosmopolitan EcoQueen. She was also the first woman Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge

Patrick is the founder and CEO of the Sustainable Food Trust, whose mission is to work internationally to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable food and farming systems. He was Director of the Soil Association, the leading British organic farming organisation, from 1995 to 2010, where he played a leading role in developing the UK organic market. He trained in Biodynamic farming at Emerson College and has a mixed organic dairy holding in Wales. He received a CBE for services to organic farming in 2005 and in 2022 was awarded an honorary doctorate for international work in sustainable agriculture from the University of Wales Trinity St David. 

Helen farms in a family partnership on a mostly tenanted organic farm in Wiltshire with dairy, beef, pigs, cereals, agroforestry and small scale horticulture. Her products are sold through the Helen Browning’s Organic brand in retailers as well as through her hotel and restaurant/pub on the farm.

Her book ‘PIG; tales from an organic farm’, written with her partner Tim Finney, tells more about the trials and tribulations of their farming and food life.

She has been Chief Executive of the Soil Association since 2011, after a long involvement with the charity in a variety of exec and non-exec roles. Prior to rejoining the Soil Association, Helen was Director of External Affairs for the National Trust.

She is currently a Commissioner and trustee of the Food Farming and Countryside Commission and has had a number of roles in agri-politics over the years, including the Government’s Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food (‘the Curry Commission’), chaired the England Animal Health and Welfare Implementation Group and the Food Ethics Council. Helen was awarded an OBE in 1998 for her services to organic farming.

Marika McCauley Sine is the Chief Sustainability Officer of Mars Petcare – a segment of Mars, Incorporated; a family-owned business that for more than a century has made products and delivered services for people and the pets they love. Mars Petcare is a leader in pet health and nutrition and a major veterinary health care provider, with a global network of over 2,000 pet hospitals.

Marika leads Petcare’s sustainability strategies and programs worldwide, bringing together teams to progress Mars’ Sustainable in a Generation Plan. This work focuses on climate action, circular packaging, sustainable sourcing, and reaching pets in need around the world. Previously, Marika served as global head of social and economic sustainability for Mars, Incorporated, based at the company’s headquarters in Washington, DC. Marika joined Mars in 2015 after a decade at The Coca-Cola Company, where she drove a range of sustainability strategies and programs including 5by20, a global initiative to unlock economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs in emerging markets that has reached 6 million women to date. She began her career with Oxfam America addressing poverty in rural communities in Southeast Asia. Marika holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She is a First Mover Fellow of The Aspen Institute in recognition of her track record as a ‘social-intrapreneur’, has served as Co-Chair of the Consumer Goods Forum Social Sustainability Committee, and is a member of the Board of Directors of The Royal Canin Foundation.

Nina is Head of Sustainable and Ethical Sourcing for McDonald’s UK and Ireland. She has over ten years’ experience with McDonald’s within the Supply Chain Department and currently leads the sustainability, agriculture and ethical sourcing function.

Her role involves overseeing sustainability throughout the business, with a focus on agriculture, environment, climate and the sustainable sourcing of food and packaging which contributes to annual supply chain spend exceeding a billion a year.

She collaborates with a wide range of supplier partners, stakeholders and franchisees to develop and deliver progressive strategies which align to McDonald’s values and ambition around sustainability, ethical sourcing and brand trust.

Nina has been with the McDonald’s business since 2011 and previously held the positions of Agriculture Manager delivering the long-term programme, Farm Forward and Purchasing Manager responsible for the procurement of food and paper and building long-term partnerships with suppliers.

Nina previously worked for the Welsh Government and has been the Professional Adviser for Harper Adams Agricultural University. She is currently a Fellow of the Forward Institute and a member of the RSA.

Hannah is Head of Sustainability and Social Impact for Danone UK & Ireland where she is responsible for embedding the company’s Impact Journey strategy and managing the delivery of Danone’s environmental sustainability and community impact programmes.  She is passionate about supporting business growth with purpose and engaging consumers on sustainability.  Prior to joining Danone, Hannah lead CSR and sustainability strategies for BT/EE and Tesco.

Rebecca joined the FSA in April 2019 as Director of Policy.

Rebecca has extensive experience as a Senior Civil Servant in the Treasury and in the Department for Work and Pensions. Her previous civil service roles have focused on social policy – particularly benefits design and reform, labour market policy and programmes to support the most disadvantaged into work.

More recently, Rebecca has held Director of Strategy roles at Peabody, one of the UK’s largest housing associations, and at City, University of London. She has also been a Trustee of Shaw Trust  (a national charity helping people gain an education, enter work, develop their career, improve their wellbeing or rebuild their lives) and Chair of Ixion Holdings, a subsidiary of Shaw Trust delivering education and learning nationwide.

Paul leads the sustainability strategy at Greggs, with key focus on delivering against their Greggs Pledge plan and Net Zero ambition. Paul originally qualified as an industrial chemist in the coatings industry before moving into regulatory law prior to joining Greggs. Since taking on his current role he has been involved in the ongoing development of Greggs long term strategy as well as engaging with Government and other key stakeholders to shape longer term strategic direction for Greggs and the wider sect.

Dorothy Shaver is a Registered Dietitian focusing on food system transformation with unique experience in and passion for driving behaviour change for positive health and environmental outcomes. Over the past seventeen years she has worked across media, retail, health care, marketing, AI, and the fitness industry championing food choices to enable personal and planetary health.  

She led the creation of Future 50 Foods report and Cookbook, which has collectively driven close to six billion earned media impressions in more than 95 countries as part of more than 700 million media pieces. It is a collaborative thought leadership piece in which food system issues are outlined with 50 exemplary foods identified that increase the nutrient value and decrease the environmental impact of meals. It is at the core of the Knorr brand innovation and communication strategy. Most recently, Dorothy played a major role in shaping and activating Unilever’s Regenerative Agriculture Principles.  

She has been a long-term sustainable nutrition food spokesperson having spoken at global conferences and events including Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, quoted in media including TIME magazine, and featured in radio shows including NPR. In addition to this, Dorothy is a guest blogger, podcast speaker, expert contributor and food writer spreading her positive passion and drive to get the masses to fall in love with food that is good for people and the planet.   

Dorothy received her undergraduate degree from Framingham State University and her master’s degree in Public Health Education from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.  

Dorothy currently lives in a canal house in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. When you meet her, she’ll inspire you to join her in being a Varietarian moving toward the ‘Most delicious revolution that ever was’ for the benefit of people and the planet. 

Matthew Price is the General Manager of Uber Eats in the UK, Ireland & Northern Europe, responsible for leading Uber’s delivery business in over 330 markets. He is focussed on being a true partner to more than 61,000 restaurants & merchants who are active on the platform and is deeply passionate about building businesses that are a force for good. He recently joined the UK Government’s Food and Drink Sector Council and is a Fellow at the Forward Institute.Prior to his current role Matthew spent nearly seven years helping to scale Uber’s Rides business globally as General Manager of Uber Canada and Head of Strategy & Planning for the UK, Northern & Eastern Europe.  Before Uber, Matthew was a strategy consultant at Monitor Group and Monitor Deloitte in North America, focused on engagements aimed at unlocking and accelerating growth.  He holds an MBA with Distinction from INSEAD Business School (France & Singapore) and received a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University (Canada).

Toby joined Mintel as a financial services analyst, but now oversees Mintel’s portfolio of UK and Irish reports, which cover almost every area of consumer spending. He also leads Mintel’s European research into consumer confidence and how shoppers’ behaviour is being shaped by the cost of living crisis.

Wayne is the Chief Executive Officer of ReLondon (formerly the London Waste and Recycling Board), where he is responsible for helping London’s boroughs to reduce waste and increase recycling rates and accelerating the development of a low carbon circular economy. He has been working for LWARB since 2008. Prior to this he was the Head of Waste Policy at the Greater London Authority. Wayne is a trustee on the board of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management. He has 25 years’ experience in the waste and resource management industry. 

Robin grew up as a retailer, running commercial categories for both M&S and Tesco between 1998 and 2015. He joined Just Eat UK in 2015 to set up their restaurant partner perks programme building value through partnerships beginning with food wholesale, finance, card payments & utilities. Other areas of responsibility followed from sustainability and FMCG to grocery and partner e-commerce

Mattie Yeta was appointed as Chief Sustainability Officer for CGI in the UK in March 2022. A member of CGI’s UK Executive, she is responsible for working with members across the organisation to achieve common sustainability goals. Mattie provides key support to CGI’s external facing engagements in this area, continuing to develop a strong relationship with the United Nations and COP summits, and providing actionable insights for clients. Her appointment further confirmed CGI’s commitment to not only reach Net-Zero in the UK by 2026, but to bring sustainable products and solutions to our clients.

Mattie has substantial experience and expertise in sustainable development at strategic and delivery levels across the public and private sectors. She has led substantive change in the sustainable development arena through various boards she sits on. She has obtained significant experience in stakeholder engagement through her career, including at senior executive levels, strategy development, influencing and drafting industry policy, project and programme management, people management and development experience.

Mattie led the creation of the e-Sustainability Alliance, a network of 300 private sector organisations she chaired, working in partnership with the United Nations and other stakeholders. She also led the creation of the Cabinet Office One Government Cloud Strategy Sustainability Workstream, the UK Government’s Sustainable Technology Report 2017 and the Sustainability Industry Guide to help businesses achieve sustainable outcomes. Mattie has extensive experience of working with the United Nations (UNFCCC, UNEP, UNGC, UNICEF, UNDP). She received the “industry sustainability leader of the year” award, “digital leader impact award” the Civil Service award as “highly commended”, Defra’s corporate services award for “leading through change,” and was a nominee for “the most influential women in UK tech.” She has received her Majesty’s Royal Honour for her contribution to sustainability in the UK and globally and was recently announced in the top 100 sustainability power leaders.

The former Head of Sustainability for Defra IT/UK Government, and a PhD researcher specialising in corporate sustainability, green economics, and national recovery, she is also a tutor on the University of Oxford Climate Change Programme.

Donal Denvir is responsible for promoting Irish products in the UK, with a particular focus on raising
the profile of Ireland’s world-leading sustainability programme, Origin Green. Denvir joined the GB
team in 2019 from an internal position as Bord Bia Manager in Germany, where he spent just over
four years managing the awareness building programme for Irish food and drink within the DACH
region of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Denvir started his career as a Journalist and Newsreader
for Dublin’s 98FM and Newstalk 106-108, before becoming a Market Advisor for Bord Bia Germany.
He then spent four years with Synergy Flavours, Inc. working across the Bangkok Metropolitan Area,
devising and implementing senior-level marketing strategies for the Asian food and beverage market,
before re-joining as Manager of Bord Bia Germany in 2014.

Denvir speaks fluent German and holds three university degrees, a master’s in international marketing
Practice; a Masters in Journalism and a Bachelor of Commerce with German.

125%

Kirsty is a Principal at JamJar Investments, the innocent drinks founders’ venture capital fund. JamJar is a £100m seed VC investing in exceptional founding teams to help them create, nurture and scale challenger consumer brands in the UK. Investments include Deliveroo, Tails.com, Toney’s Chocolonely, Babylon Health, Skin+Me and Wild Cosmetics.

Prior to JamJar, Kirsty trained at consumer goods giant Unilever where she worked on marketing and customer analytics across a variety of brands within their personal care and food portfolios.

She holds a BA in Economics and Management from the University of Oxford and an MSc in Global Politics from The London School of Economics.

Ivo leads UNEP’s Climate Finance Unit (CFU), and oversees a growing portfolio of various initiatives and finance facilities that actively unlock public and especially private capital towards sustainable land use with positive impacts for the climate, nature and people. The team consists of 20 staff and consultants based in Geneva, Nairobi, Jakarta and Cambridge.

Since its inception, CFU has raised more than $70 million in public funding for a variety of blended finance facilities, unlocking more than $200 million in private capital for long-term impact lending and impact investment, with a target of reaching +USD 1 billion in private finance for ‘net zero, nature positive’ agriculture, forestry and land restoration by 2025. This includes initiatives such as the AGRI3 Fund (set up by Rabobank, UNEP, Mirova, FOUNT, Cardano and IDH) that stimulates long-term impact lending by providing guarantees to banks that finance corporate clients and farmers when they are able to achieve positive impacts on nature, climate and local communities, as well as a growing portfolio of business solutions to finance landscape restoration.

UNEP’s Climate Finance Unit has contributed to the capitalisation of the &Green Fund though the GEF ‘non-grant’ window (which closed several innovate deals in rubber, palm oil and soy/cattle), and created the Restoration Seed Capital Facility (RSCF) that stimulate impact investment by private equity funds in forest and land scape restoration. Lastly, CFU supports the Tropical Landscapes Finance Facility (set up by BNP Paribas, ADM Capital, UNEP, ICRAF), including a Grant Fund to build a pipeline of projects in Indonesia.

In addition, CFU advances UNEP’s normative work for example with the launch of the ‘State of Finance for Nature’ report and forthcoming publications on the need to repurpose agricultural subsidies, but also creating business and finance coalitions such as the recently-launched ‘Good Food Finance Network’ on the back of the UN Food Systems Summit (by UNEP, WBCSD, EAT Foundation, FAIRR, Food Systems f/t Future).

Ivo Mulder co-founded together with Global Canopy the Natural Capital Finance Alliance (NCFA) that was launched at the Rio+20 Earth Summit and signed by CEOs of more than 40 finance institutions. It paved the way for the newly-created Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD), the nature equivalent to the TCFD. Ivo also sits on various steering committees.

Ivo Mulder has over sixteen years of professional experience working for UNEP, private consulting firms and with non-governmental organisations. He has published more than fifty reports, blogs and articles and sits on the Steering Committee of a number of initiatives. Ivo is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and a member of the Dutch Association of Sustainable Investors (VBDO). During his free time, he pursues a variety of outdoor sports such as triathlon, diving, alpine skiing and mountain hiking.

Susan was the Senior Director of Sustainability at Asda until December 2022, since when she has been an independent consultant working to support collaboration across the healthy, sustainable foods system.  In her role at Asda Susan set out and oversaw the retailer’s “Better Planet” strategy which incorporates activity across decarbonisation, waste, and supplier and consumer engagement.  Prior to Asda, Susan held senior sales and marketing roles at PepsiCo and spent her early career at Kantar, consulting with FMCG clients on data analytics and shopper insights.  Susan is passionate about integrating the sustainability agenda into core commercial activities and spends most of her waking hours thinking about food.

Hannah Pearse is a registered nutritionist with over 15 years’ experience of leading new product innovations, strategic collaborations and driving consumer behaviour change with some of the world’s leading food and drink companies.   
  
In January 2023 Hannah joined Xampla, a Cambridge based technology B-Corp, as Nutrition Business Development Manager. She works collaboratively with brands to identify new product development opportunities in the nutrient microcapsules and plant-based edible flexible film arena. A strategic nutrition thought leader, she keeps her clients ahead of the competition by identifying applications to fortify food and beverages and replace some of the most polluting plastics.   

Staying ahead of the public health challenges and emerging consumer trends, she works with customers to deliver evidence-based solutions that make a positive impact for both health and meeting business needs

Saasha Celestial-One is Co-Founder & COO of OLIO, a free app harnessing the power of mobile technology and the sharing economy to provide a revolutionary solution to the problem of food waste. OLIO is growing quickly, empowered by 100k+ volunteers. Since 2016, 7m OLIOers have shared over 110m portions of food in 62 countries. Before OLIO, Saasha founded London’s first pay-as-you-go high street childcare provider, and prior to that she spent 13yrs at Morgan Stanley, McKinsey & American Express. Saasha was named one of the UK’s “Coolest Female Founders” by Business Insider, has an MBA from Stanford, is mum to 10-year-old Nolan, and is the proud daughter of hippy entrepreneurs.

The 21 most extraordinary women of 2021 – You Magazine

14 women who are changing the way we eat and drink in 2021 – Time Out Magazine

Who are the Top 32 ESG pioneers in the UK? – Business Leader

30 to Watch – The UK’s Top Funded Female Founders (#9) – Financial Times

Linus Pardoe is the UK Policy Manager for the Good Food Institute Europe – an international
non-profit organisation working to create a more sustainable food system by catalysing the
transition to sustainable proteins. Linus works with UK policymakers, funding bodies,
businesses, NGOs and other stakeholders to accelerate the development of plant-based and
cultivated meat.

Prior to joining GFI Europe in 2022, Linus was a researcher at the Social Market Foundation, a
cross-party think-tank in London. He holds an MSc in Social Policy and Social Research from
University College London and a BA in History from the University of Warwick.

Reniera leads the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Food Initiative. Working with industry to demonstrate how, by redesigning the way we produce our food, we can regenerate nature, restore soil health and help biodiversity thrive. Before joining the Foundation, Reniera spent 18 years in local government, focusing on housing and regeneration.

Alexander Kalis is the Managing Partner of Milltrust International LLP in the United Kingdom, which he co-founded in December 2010. At Milltrust, Mr Kalis is Group Head of Investments, Head of Sustainability & Impact. 

As a passionate leader in the fight against climate change and in channelling private sector capital into profitable impact-driven investment solutions, Mr Kalis led Milltrust’s focus towards sustainable impact investments which the firm has fully embraced under its mantra of ‘Sustainable Prosperity’.

Mr Kalis serves as Portfolio Adviser and Chairman of the Investment Advisory Committee for the award-winning Climate Impact Asia Fund, a pioneering long-only environmental ESG impact equity fund investing in the leading Asia Pacific-listed equities that are driving the shift to decarbonisation.

Mr Kalis is also the Co-Portfolio Manager of the top-performing Milltrust Global Emerging Markets Fund (ESG) and strategy, launched in 2012. 

Mr Kalis also serves on the investment committee of Milltrust’s Climate Impact, Agri Capital Markets and Future Health co-investor platforms and on the Future Health SPV, a venture capital fund seeking to tap into the secular growth trends in healthcare by investing in high potential companies with a focus on the science of ageing and technology that enables early detection and management of illness, leading to better outcomes in the key areas of immunisation, diagnostics, telehealth, medical devices, mental health, artificial intelligence and sustainable food & proteins. 

Leveraging his multi-disciplinary experience, Mr Kalis was appointed an Independent Expert at EIT Climate-KIC in November 2019, Europe’s largest public-private partnership and supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), with responsibilities for addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation, evaluating innovation and entrepreneurship project proposals and monitoring the progress, outcome and impact of these programmes. 

Until the successful acquisition in November 2021 of Milltrust’s subsidiary and Agtech and Science-Focused adviser, Milltrust Agricultural Investments and associated investment funds, Mr Kalis served as the Portfolio Manager of The British Innovation Fund, an impact-driven venture capital fund investing in UK-wide university science and technology spin-outs and start-ups that have commercialised pioneering and protected IP emanating from world-class university research in the fields of healthcare, medical technology, life sciences, biotech, food-tech, sustainable protein, and agri-tech, offering real-world impactful solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. Mr Kalis was also the Portfolio Manager of the Milltrust Australia and New Zealand Buy & Lease Sustainable Agriculture Funds that focused on purchasing Australian and New Zealand farmland (real assets) and leasing these farms to regional and international operators, sustainably generating a range of agricultural produce across various crops, dairy and livestock. 

Mr Kalis is a seasoned investment and business professional with a long track record managing institutional capital including two decades at top-tier asset management firms. Between 2007 and 2009, Mr Kalis was Portfolio Manager of the Optimal Asian Opportunities (Ireland) Fund (US$ 300m AUM). The Optimal Asian Opportunities (Ireland) Fund ranked one of the top 10 Asia Pacific funds during the Global Financial Crisis. Mr Kalis was previously overseeing Asia research at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management in London between 2002-2007, exclusively dedicated to the Asian Capital Holdings Fund which grew from USD 200 million to USD 1.3 billion during his tenure. The fund achieved strong performance as one of the best performing Asia Pacific funds in the industry and won the award for Best Asian Fund by Eurekahedge in 2004. Immediately prior to co-founding Milltrust, he was Managing Partner at Think Alternative Advisors LLP, an Emerging Markets research and advisory firm he founded which was acquired by Milltrust International Group in 2010. 

He is a frequent commentator at industry conferences and in the financial media. He speaks fluent English, French and Dutch, and holds a Master’s in Management from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium.

Dr David Bryngelsson is a climate-tech entrepreneur, and founder and chief executive officer of CarbonCloud, the food industry’s climate-intelligence platform. Dr Bryngelsson spent eight years immersed in climate-change mitigation as a published researcher and lecturer at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, before mobilising a team of scientists, developers and climate-accountable business developers to build the digital infrastructure for climate transparency throughout the food supply chain. Today he steers CarbonCloud towards empowering the food system to mitigate climate change, and shares insights and solutions in forums around the world.

Jo leads the Thematic Research and Corporate Innovation team and has oversight of FAIRR’s technical research and engagement efforts. She provides strategic direction to the development of bespoke and collaborative engagements as well as research across themes impacting the food and agriculture sector including biodiversity, AMR, climate and dietary transitions. Jo also works closely with investor members to develop and integrate sustainable food systems as a key priority into stewardship strategies.

Prior to this, she was an Assistant-Manager at KPMG UK in their Investment Management and Funds Team, advising investment managers on risk management as well as working cross-functionally with the Sustainability Team on climate change risk for private equity firms. Jo began her career with Alliance Trust as an analyst.

Jo holds a first-class degree in BA (Hons) Geography from the University of Leeds and an MSc in Development Studies at SOAS, for which she was awarded a Distinction. She passed CFA Level 1 and holds the Investment Management Certificate (IMC).

Sara Warden joined Czarnikow in 2021 as a commodity journalist after a brief period covering commodities and leveraged finance at several London-based news outlets. In the four years prior, Sara lived in Mexico City, where she worked as a bilingual journalist and editor across several key industries. Since joining Czarnikow, she has led the creation of content that uses data to present key trends related to agriculture and the food supply chain. She graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 2014 with joint honours in Journalism and Spanish and is currently studying a Master’s degree in Food Policy.

Saif Hameed is the founder and CEO of Altruistiq, a market-leading emissions data management platform. Saif’s 20+ years of sustainability experience has spanned public and private sectors as well as nonprofit organisations. This includes leading sustainability practices for government initiatives as well as McKinsey, where Saif advised Fortune 500 companies for 8 years. Saif is also co-founder of the Pakistan Environment Trust, Pakistan’s leading environmental charity.

Daina Spedding is an Investor at BGF and is responsible for finding and completing new investment opportunities, as well as supporting the boards of the investee companies. Daina has led numerous investments at BGF since joining the team in 2019, with a particular focus on the consumer and e-commerce sectors. She is passionate about backing female founders in particular and developing BGF’s Diversity and Inclusion strategy.

Before joining BGF’s London team, she worked at Blue Coast Capital, a single family backed investment group focusing on consumer investments globally. Daina has also spent five years in PwC’s transaction services team, specialising in company valuations and analysis. Daina is CFA qualified and holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Management from EDHEC Business School in France. She is married and has two young sons who keep her on her toes at all times.

Martin Koehring has recently joined Forum for the Future as Global Director of Impact. Before joining Forum, he held various leadership positions at Economist Impact, which is part of The Economist Group. He was the head of Economist Impact’s World Ocean Initiative, inspiring bold thinking, new partnerships and the most effective action to build a sustainable ocean economy. He also led Economist Impact’s Sustainability, Climate Change and Natural Resources practice in the EMEA region and was the editorial lead of the award-winning Sustainability Project.

Martin’s previous roles at The Economist Group included managing editor, global health lead and Europe editor at The Economist Intelligence Unit. As part of my wider engagement on sustainability, he is a trustee of the New Economics Foundation (a think tank focusing on social, economic and environmental justice); sits on the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s Inclusive Economies Advisory Group and the Sustainable Brands Turkey Global Advisory Board. He has also been a member of the Advisory Committee for the UN Environment Programme’s Global Environment Outlook for Business, a senior rapporteur at World Water Week, a faculty member in the Food & Sustainability Certificate Program provided by the European Institute of Innovation for Sustainability and a judge at the Reuters Events Responsible Business Awards.

Martin earned a bachelor of economic and social studies in international relations from Aberystwyth University and a master’s degree in diplomacy and international relations from the College of Europe.

Jacob Thundil is a London based entrepreneur. He is passionate about sustainability, healthy food and cooking. In 2005 Jacob founded Cocofina “The Coconut Experts’ from his kitchen table while working for his former employer. Consumer demand for Cocofina products was overwhelming is now enjoyed in 28 countries worldwide.

During lockdown Jacob started two more food businesses. Sozye, who brew organic certified soya, fish and oyster sauce alternatives in the UK using sustainable Scottish seaweed instead of Soya and a Moxcha a fully dissolving patent pending tea product.

Jacob qualified as a Mechanical Engineer and holds an MBA in International Finance. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur Jacob worked in the Telecom and Banking sectors. 

In 2021 he was bestowed with an MBE for services to International Trade. Other interests include cooking, music, antiques and inventing.

Sofía joined the FAIRR Initiative in April 2021 as Investor Outreach Manager. She leads FAIRR’s investor outreach efforts in francophone and hispanophone countries and supports outreach activities globally. She also coordinates FAIRR’s involvement in the multi-stakeholder initiative ‘Investor Action on AMR’. Previously, she led the Innovative Finance Programme of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN).

Sofía joined the FAIRR Initiative in April 2021 and is responsible for investor outreach. Prior to this, she led the Innovative Finance Programme of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). She has also worked as a Strategy Specialist at the World Economic Forum and an Analyst at J.P. Morgan.

Sofía holds a BA in International Relations and Economics from the University of Geneva, an MA in International Development and Economics from the Graduate Institute of Geneva, as well as an MSc in Public Health and Health Economics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). She also holds a CFA certificate in ESG Investing. Sofía has worked on projects and initiatives in Europe, Latin America, and Africa and is fluent in English, Spanish, and French.

Safia Qureshi, Architect and Designer based in London, founded CLUBZERØ (formerly CupClub) in 2015. CLUBZERØ is the pioneer of reusability in consumer food and beverage packaging, having delivered the service at scale commercially for major NextGen food and beverage brands. Key awards include Best UX Design 2019 Fast Company and New Plastics Economy Winner from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. 

Providing a key focus for the team to serve customers across the EU and North America in the drinks category was a strategic decision with the aim to build out a commercially scalable solution. As of March 2020, CLUBZERØ completed over half a million customer orders, using only a stock volume of standardised 10,000 reusable packaging items. Safia has led on product, helping the company define universal drop point design and standardised reusable packaging for scalability, allowing brands to develop their own packaging to operate across the platform. 

Safia also directed the company to design and publish it’s work in sustainability with a focus on delivering an LCA methodology that calculates impact down to every reuse by tracking reusable packaging with a digital ID across the platform.  

See video here : https://vimeo.com/405428110

As a result, CLUBZERØ is market leading with a record return rate of 95% across retail and 99% across closed buildings. Customers include NextGen consortium brands Starbucks, McDonald’s, Coca Cola, Yum Brands, Nestle, Wendy’s as well as leading food service company Baxter Storey, Cushman & Wakefield and retailer John Lewis & Partners.

LinkedIn

Contact: safia@clubzero.co

Twitter: @safiaqureshi
Instagram: @safia_qureshi

Ivan has been an active venture capital investor for the last 25 years and he is the co-founder of Five Seasons Ventures, the first European venture fund fully focused on consumer Foodtech.

He is passionate about product and technology innovation aimed at solving big challenges in the food industry: from alternative sources of proteins, to functional foods, from new models of food distribution, to the reduction of food waste.  At Five Seasons he invested, among others, in Butternut Box (DNVB pet nutrition), THIS.co (plant-based meat alternatives), Cortilia (D2C fresh food retailer), La Fourche (D2C organic groceries), Air-Up (reusable water bottle + flavour pods), KoRo (D2C natural healthy snaking), YFood Labs (meal replacements) and Just Spices (D2C spices; acq. by Kraft Heinz)

His experience includes structuring investments, organizational and strategy development, setting up governance for growth and planning for successful exits. 

In his spare time, he enjoys family life, fly fishing, and practicing jiu-jitsu with his son Adam.

Juliane Caillouette-Noble came to the Sustainable Restaurant Association as Development Director in 2016 after five years of running Jamie Oliver’s programmes for improving school food and food education across the UK.

The SRA is a not for profit membership organisation committed to accelerating change toward an environmentally restorative and socially progressive hospitality sector in the UK. As Development Director, Juliane’s role included designing and developing strategic partnerships and campaigns, ensuring that the impact and influence of the SRA grows along with the size of the membership body. Juliane became the Managing Director of the SRA in January and looks forward to working with the industry to build back better and greener post Covid.

Andrew is the founder of Big Idea Ventures (BIV). BIV’s purpose is to solve the world’s biggest challenges by supporting the world’s best entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers. Our first fund called the New Protein Fund I invests in plant-based, cell-based and fermentation enabled foods and ingredients to impact climate change, animal welfare and personal health. Investors include Tyson Foods, Temasek, Buhler, Givaudan, AAK, Bel Group, Avril and others.

BIV’s second fund is focused on working with Top US universities to create the future of food companies in rural communities and regions.

Andrew is an Advisory Board member for Tufts Nutrition Council. Friedman School Entrepreneurship Advisor. Harvard Business School graduate, Procter & Gamble brand management trained, Andrew spent a number of years as an entrepreneur growing companies.

Andrew is married, has a daughter and the toughest 10 lb fluffy white dog resembling Snowy from the Tin Tin books.

Sara is a conscious innovator, expert in how to buy consciously,  impact entrepreneur, and a transformational mentor. Her list of accomplishments include pioneering the world’s first 100% sustainable luxury denim brand and being the recipient of Grazia magazine’s award for sustainable entrepreneur of the year.

Alex has a wealth of expertise in the commercial and marketing sectors, as well as public services.

Her most recent role as Head of Marketing for NHS Blood and Transplant, focussed on engaging the public to support lifesaving blood and organ donation throughout the pandemic. Before that she was at Head of Marketing at Marks & Spencer, having worked across a number of categories during her time with the retailer, including produce, protein, hospitality, convenience and CSR policy with Plan A. She developed her FMCG experience at Ferrero working across a number of confectionery brands, including Kinder Chocolate and Ferrero Rocher.

She is also a board trustee for UFI VocTech Trust and Chair of their Ventures Committee a charitable trust which exists to further the development and adoption of technology to support vocational training.

Co-founder of Leon, food campaigner, speaker and non-executive director.

Before founding Leon, Henry worked at Bain & Company, working on private equity transactions and helping large companies to develop their strategies. Previously he was a journalist at the Daily Telegraph and a commis chef at the Michelin-starred Inn on the Park restaurant in London.

Henry is a regular speaker on how to create a purpose-lead business and how to create a better food system. He is the co-founder and chair of Chefs in Schools and sits on the board of Rockfish. He also advises the CEOs of a handful of high growth leisure businesses.

Harriet Lamb is passionate about environmental and social issues with a track record in making a difference around the globe. She is an experienced CEO who built the global movement Fairtrade – a certification scheme that sets standards to make trade fairer, working with producers in the developing world as well as thousands of companies and retailers, and creating a vibrant grassroots movement.

Following 15 years with Fairtrade – as CEO of the UK Fairtrade Foundation and then of Fairtrade International – Harriet led International Alert, a peacebuilding organisation. She was then appointed CEO of Ashden, which promotes just climate solutions including sustainable energy in the UK and globally.

Harriet has won a number of awards including a CBE, Orange Businesswoman of the Year, and Cosmopolitan EcoQueen. She was also the first woman Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge

Patrick is the founder and CEO of the Sustainable Food Trust, whose mission is to work internationally to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable food and farming systems. He was Director of the Soil Association, the leading British organic farming organisation, from 1995 to 2010, where he played a leading role in developing the UK organic market. He trained in Biodynamic farming at Emerson College and has a mixed organic dairy holding in Wales. He received a CBE for services to organic farming in 2005 and in 2022 was awarded an honorary doctorate for international work in sustainable agriculture from the University of Wales Trinity St David. 

Helen farms in a family partnership on a mostly tenanted organic farm in Wiltshire with dairy, beef, pigs, cereals, agroforestry and small scale horticulture. Her products are sold through the Helen Browning’s Organic brand in retailers as well as through her hotel and restaurant/pub on the farm.

Her book ‘PIG; tales from an organic farm’, written with her partner Tim Finney, tells more about the trials and tribulations of their farming and food life.

She has been Chief Executive of the Soil Association since 2011, after a long involvement with the charity in a variety of exec and non-exec roles. Prior to rejoining the Soil Association, Helen was Director of External Affairs for the National Trust.

She is currently a Commissioner and trustee of the Food Farming and Countryside Commission and has had a number of roles in agri-politics over the years, including the Government’s Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food (‘the Curry Commission’), chaired the England Animal Health and Welfare Implementation Group and the Food Ethics Council. Helen was awarded an OBE in 1998 for her services to organic farming.

Marika McCauley Sine is the Chief Sustainability Officer of Mars Petcare – a segment of Mars, Incorporated; a family-owned business that for more than a century has made products and delivered services for people and the pets they love. Mars Petcare is a leader in pet health and nutrition and a major veterinary health care provider, with a global network of over 2,000 pet hospitals.

Marika leads Petcare’s sustainability strategies and programs worldwide, bringing together teams to progress Mars’ Sustainable in a Generation Plan. This work focuses on climate action, circular packaging, sustainable sourcing, and reaching pets in need around the world. Previously, Marika served as global head of social and economic sustainability for Mars, Incorporated, based at the company’s headquarters in Washington, DC. Marika joined Mars in 2015 after a decade at The Coca-Cola Company, where she drove a range of sustainability strategies and programs including 5by20, a global initiative to unlock economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs in emerging markets that has reached 6 million women to date. She began her career with Oxfam America addressing poverty in rural communities in Southeast Asia. Marika holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She is a First Mover Fellow of The Aspen Institute in recognition of her track record as a ‘social-intrapreneur’, has served as Co-Chair of the Consumer Goods Forum Social Sustainability Committee, and is a member of the Board of Directors of The Royal Canin Foundation.

Nina is Head of Sustainable and Ethical Sourcing for McDonald’s UK and Ireland. She has over ten years’ experience with McDonald’s within the Supply Chain Department and currently leads the sustainability, agriculture and ethical sourcing function.

Her role involves overseeing sustainability throughout the business, with a focus on agriculture, environment, climate and the sustainable sourcing of food and packaging which contributes to annual supply chain spend exceeding a billion a year.

She collaborates with a wide range of supplier partners, stakeholders and franchisees to develop and deliver progressive strategies which align to McDonald’s values and ambition around sustainability, ethical sourcing and brand trust.

Nina has been with the McDonald’s business since 2011 and previously held the positions of Agriculture Manager delivering the long-term programme, Farm Forward and Purchasing Manager responsible for the procurement of food and paper and building long-term partnerships with suppliers.

Nina previously worked for the Welsh Government and has been the Professional Adviser for Harper Adams Agricultural University. She is currently a Fellow of the Forward Institute and a member of the RSA.

Hannah is Head of Sustainability and Social Impact for Danone UK & Ireland where she is responsible for embedding the company’s Impact Journey strategy and managing the delivery of Danone’s environmental sustainability and community impact programmes.  She is passionate about supporting business growth with purpose and engaging consumers on sustainability.  Prior to joining Danone, Hannah lead CSR and sustainability strategies for BT/EE and Tesco.

Rebecca joined the FSA in April 2019 as Director of Policy.

Rebecca has extensive experience as a Senior Civil Servant in the Treasury and in the Department for Work and Pensions. Her previous civil service roles have focused on social policy – particularly benefits design and reform, labour market policy and programmes to support the most disadvantaged into work.

More recently, Rebecca has held Director of Strategy roles at Peabody, one of the UK’s largest housing associations, and at City, University of London. She has also been a Trustee of Shaw Trust  (a national charity helping people gain an education, enter work, develop their career, improve their wellbeing or rebuild their lives) and Chair of Ixion Holdings, a subsidiary of Shaw Trust delivering education and learning nationwide.

Paul leads the sustainability strategy at Greggs, with key focus on delivering against their Greggs Pledge plan and Net Zero ambition. Paul originally qualified as an industrial chemist in the coatings industry before moving into regulatory law prior to joining Greggs. Since taking on his current role he has been involved in the ongoing development of Greggs long term strategy as well as engaging with Government and other key stakeholders to shape longer term strategic direction for Greggs and the wider sect.

Dorothy Shaver is a Registered Dietitian focusing on food system transformation with unique experience in and passion for driving behaviour change for positive health and environmental outcomes. Over the past seventeen years she has worked across media, retail, health care, marketing, AI, and the fitness industry championing food choices to enable personal and planetary health.  

She led the creation of Future 50 Foods report and Cookbook, which has collectively driven close to six billion earned media impressions in more than 95 countries as part of more than 700 million media pieces. It is a collaborative thought leadership piece in which food system issues are outlined with 50 exemplary foods identified that increase the nutrient value and decrease the environmental impact of meals. It is at the core of the Knorr brand innovation and communication strategy. Most recently, Dorothy played a major role in shaping and activating Unilever’s Regenerative Agriculture Principles.  

She has been a long-term sustainable nutrition food spokesperson having spoken at global conferences and events including Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, quoted in media including TIME magazine, and featured in radio shows including NPR. In addition to this, Dorothy is a guest blogger, podcast speaker, expert contributor and food writer spreading her positive passion and drive to get the masses to fall in love with food that is good for people and the planet.   

Dorothy received her undergraduate degree from Framingham State University and her master’s degree in Public Health Education from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.  

Dorothy currently lives in a canal house in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. When you meet her, she’ll inspire you to join her in being a Varietarian moving toward the ‘Most delicious revolution that ever was’ for the benefit of people and the planet. 

Matthew Price is the General Manager of Uber Eats in the UK, Ireland & Northern Europe, responsible for leading Uber’s delivery business in over 330 markets. He is focussed on being a true partner to more than 61,000 restaurants & merchants who are active on the platform and is deeply passionate about building businesses that are a force for good. He recently joined the UK Government’s Food and Drink Sector Council and is a Fellow at the Forward Institute.Prior to his current role Matthew spent nearly seven years helping to scale Uber’s Rides business globally as General Manager of Uber Canada and Head of Strategy & Planning for the UK, Northern & Eastern Europe.  Before Uber, Matthew was a strategy consultant at Monitor Group and Monitor Deloitte in North America, focused on engagements aimed at unlocking and accelerating growth.  He holds an MBA with Distinction from INSEAD Business School (France & Singapore) and received a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University (Canada).

Toby joined Mintel as a financial services analyst, but now oversees Mintel’s portfolio of UK and Irish reports, which cover almost every area of consumer spending. He also leads Mintel’s European research into consumer confidence and how shoppers’ behaviour is being shaped by the cost of living crisis.

Wayne is the Chief Executive Officer of ReLondon (formerly the London Waste and Recycling Board), where he is responsible for helping London’s boroughs to reduce waste and increase recycling rates and accelerating the development of a low carbon circular economy. He has been working for LWARB since 2008. Prior to this he was the Head of Waste Policy at the Greater London Authority. Wayne is a trustee on the board of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management. He has 25 years’ experience in the waste and resource management industry. 

Robin grew up as a retailer, running commercial categories for both M&S and Tesco between 1998 and 2015. He joined Just Eat UK in 2015 to set up their restaurant partner perks programme building value through partnerships beginning with food wholesale, finance, card payments & utilities. Other areas of responsibility followed from sustainability and FMCG to grocery and partner e-commerce

Mattie Yeta was appointed as Chief Sustainability Officer for CGI in the UK in March 2022. A member of CGI’s UK Executive, she is responsible for working with members across the organisation to achieve common sustainability goals. Mattie provides key support to CGI’s external facing engagements in this area, continuing to develop a strong relationship with the United Nations and COP summits, and providing actionable insights for clients. Her appointment further confirmed CGI’s commitment to not only reach Net-Zero in the UK by 2026, but to bring sustainable products and solutions to our clients.

Mattie has substantial experience and expertise in sustainable development at strategic and delivery levels across the public and private sectors. She has led substantive change in the sustainable development arena through various boards she sits on. She has obtained significant experience in stakeholder engagement through her career, including at senior executive levels, strategy development, influencing and drafting industry policy, project and programme management, people management and development experience.

Mattie led the creation of the e-Sustainability Alliance, a network of 300 private sector organisations she chaired, working in partnership with the United Nations and other stakeholders. She also led the creation of the Cabinet Office One Government Cloud Strategy Sustainability Workstream, the UK Government’s Sustainable Technology Report 2017 and the Sustainability Industry Guide to help businesses achieve sustainable outcomes. Mattie has extensive experience of working with the United Nations (UNFCCC, UNEP, UNGC, UNICEF, UNDP). She received the “industry sustainability leader of the year” award, “digital leader impact award” the Civil Service award as “highly commended”, Defra’s corporate services award for “leading through change,” and was a nominee for “the most influential women in UK tech.” She has received her Majesty’s Royal Honour for her contribution to sustainability in the UK and globally and was recently announced in the top 100 sustainability power leaders.

The former Head of Sustainability for Defra IT/UK Government, and a PhD researcher specialising in corporate sustainability, green economics, and national recovery, she is also a tutor on the University of Oxford Climate Change Programme.

Donal Denvir is responsible for promoting Irish products in the UK, with a particular focus on raising
the profile of Ireland’s world-leading sustainability programme, Origin Green. Denvir joined the GB
team in 2019 from an internal position as Bord Bia Manager in Germany, where he spent just over
four years managing the awareness building programme for Irish food and drink within the DACH
region of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Denvir started his career as a Journalist and Newsreader
for Dublin’s 98FM and Newstalk 106-108, before becoming a Market Advisor for Bord Bia Germany.
He then spent four years with Synergy Flavours, Inc. working across the Bangkok Metropolitan Area,
devising and implementing senior-level marketing strategies for the Asian food and beverage market,
before re-joining as Manager of Bord Bia Germany in 2014.

Denvir speaks fluent German and holds three university degrees, a master’s in international marketing
Practice; a Masters in Journalism and a Bachelor of Commerce with German.

125%

Kirsty is a Principal at JamJar Investments, the innocent drinks founders’ venture capital fund. JamJar is a £100m seed VC investing in exceptional founding teams to help them create, nurture and scale challenger consumer brands in the UK. Investments include Deliveroo, Tails.com, Toney’s Chocolonely, Babylon Health, Skin+Me and Wild Cosmetics.

Prior to JamJar, Kirsty trained at consumer goods giant Unilever where she worked on marketing and customer analytics across a variety of brands within their personal care and food portfolios.

She holds a BA in Economics and Management from the University of Oxford and an MSc in Global Politics from The London School of Economics.

Ivo leads UNEP’s Climate Finance Unit (CFU), and oversees a growing portfolio of various initiatives and finance facilities that actively unlock public and especially private capital towards sustainable land use with positive impacts for the climate, nature and people. The team consists of 20 staff and consultants based in Geneva, Nairobi, Jakarta and Cambridge.

Since its inception, CFU has raised more than $70 million in public funding for a variety of blended finance facilities, unlocking more than $200 million in private capital for long-term impact lending and impact investment, with a target of reaching +USD 1 billion in private finance for ‘net zero, nature positive’ agriculture, forestry and land restoration by 2025. This includes initiatives such as the AGRI3 Fund (set up by Rabobank, UNEP, Mirova, FOUNT, Cardano and IDH) that stimulates long-term impact lending by providing guarantees to banks that finance corporate clients and farmers when they are able to achieve positive impacts on nature, climate and local communities, as well as a growing portfolio of business solutions to finance landscape restoration.

UNEP’s Climate Finance Unit has contributed to the capitalisation of the &Green Fund though the GEF ‘non-grant’ window (which closed several innovate deals in rubber, palm oil and soy/cattle), and created the Restoration Seed Capital Facility (RSCF) that stimulate impact investment by private equity funds in forest and land scape restoration. Lastly, CFU supports the Tropical Landscapes Finance Facility (set up by BNP Paribas, ADM Capital, UNEP, ICRAF), including a Grant Fund to build a pipeline of projects in Indonesia.

In addition, CFU advances UNEP’s normative work for example with the launch of the ‘State of Finance for Nature’ report and forthcoming publications on the need to repurpose agricultural subsidies, but also creating business and finance coalitions such as the recently-launched ‘Good Food Finance Network’ on the back of the UN Food Systems Summit (by UNEP, WBCSD, EAT Foundation, FAIRR, Food Systems f/t Future).

Ivo Mulder co-founded together with Global Canopy the Natural Capital Finance Alliance (NCFA) that was launched at the Rio+20 Earth Summit and signed by CEOs of more than 40 finance institutions. It paved the way for the newly-created Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD), the nature equivalent to the TCFD. Ivo also sits on various steering committees.

Ivo Mulder has over sixteen years of professional experience working for UNEP, private consulting firms and with non-governmental organisations. He has published more than fifty reports, blogs and articles and sits on the Steering Committee of a number of initiatives. Ivo is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and a member of the Dutch Association of Sustainable Investors (VBDO). During his free time, he pursues a variety of outdoor sports such as triathlon, diving, alpine skiing and mountain hiking.

Susan was the Senior Director of Sustainability at Asda until December 2022, since when she has been an independent consultant working to support collaboration across the healthy, sustainable foods system.  In her role at Asda Susan set out and oversaw the retailer’s “Better Planet” strategy which incorporates activity across decarbonisation, waste, and supplier and consumer engagement.  Prior to Asda, Susan held senior sales and marketing roles at PepsiCo and spent her early career at Kantar, consulting with FMCG clients on data analytics and shopper insights.  Susan is passionate about integrating the sustainability agenda into core commercial activities and spends most of her waking hours thinking about food.

Hannah Pearse is a registered nutritionist with over 15 years’ experience of leading new product innovations, strategic collaborations and driving consumer behaviour change with some of the world’s leading food and drink companies.   
  
In January 2023 Hannah joined Xampla, a Cambridge based technology B-Corp, as Nutrition Business Development Manager. She works collaboratively with brands to identify new product development opportunities in the nutrient microcapsules and plant-based edible flexible film arena. A strategic nutrition thought leader, she keeps her clients ahead of the competition by identifying applications to fortify food and beverages and replace some of the most polluting plastics.   

Staying ahead of the public health challenges and emerging consumer trends, she works with customers to deliver evidence-based solutions that make a positive impact for both health and meeting business needs

Saasha Celestial-One is Co-Founder & COO of OLIO, a free app harnessing the power of mobile technology and the sharing economy to provide a revolutionary solution to the problem of food waste. OLIO is growing quickly, empowered by 100k+ volunteers. Since 2016, 7m OLIOers have shared over 110m portions of food in 62 countries. Before OLIO, Saasha founded London’s first pay-as-you-go high street childcare provider, and prior to that she spent 13yrs at Morgan Stanley, McKinsey & American Express. Saasha was named one of the UK’s “Coolest Female Founders” by Business Insider, has an MBA from Stanford, is mum to 10-year-old Nolan, and is the proud daughter of hippy entrepreneurs.

The 21 most extraordinary women of 2021 – You Magazine

14 women who are changing the way we eat and drink in 2021 – Time Out Magazine

Who are the Top 32 ESG pioneers in the UK? – Business Leader

30 to Watch – The UK’s Top Funded Female Founders (#9) – Financial Times

Linus Pardoe is the UK Policy Manager for the Good Food Institute Europe – an international
non-profit organisation working to create a more sustainable food system by catalysing the
transition to sustainable proteins. Linus works with UK policymakers, funding bodies,
businesses, NGOs and other stakeholders to accelerate the development of plant-based and
cultivated meat.

Prior to joining GFI Europe in 2022, Linus was a researcher at the Social Market Foundation, a
cross-party think-tank in London. He holds an MSc in Social Policy and Social Research from
University College London and a BA in History from the University of Warwick.

Reniera leads the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Food Initiative. Working with industry to demonstrate how, by redesigning the way we produce our food, we can regenerate nature, restore soil health and help biodiversity thrive. Before joining the Foundation, Reniera spent 18 years in local government, focusing on housing and regeneration.

Alexander Kalis is the Managing Partner of Milltrust International LLP in the United Kingdom, which he co-founded in December 2010. At Milltrust, Mr Kalis is Group Head of Investments, Head of Sustainability & Impact. 

As a passionate leader in the fight against climate change and in channelling private sector capital into profitable impact-driven investment solutions, Mr Kalis led Milltrust’s focus towards sustainable impact investments which the firm has fully embraced under its mantra of ‘Sustainable Prosperity’.

Mr Kalis serves as Portfolio Adviser and Chairman of the Investment Advisory Committee for the award-winning Climate Impact Asia Fund, a pioneering long-only environmental ESG impact equity fund investing in the leading Asia Pacific-listed equities that are driving the shift to decarbonisation.

Mr Kalis is also the Co-Portfolio Manager of the top-performing Milltrust Global Emerging Markets Fund (ESG) and strategy, launched in 2012. 

Mr Kalis also serves on the investment committee of Milltrust’s Climate Impact, Agri Capital Markets and Future Health co-investor platforms and on the Future Health SPV, a venture capital fund seeking to tap into the secular growth trends in healthcare by investing in high potential companies with a focus on the science of ageing and technology that enables early detection and management of illness, leading to better outcomes in the key areas of immunisation, diagnostics, telehealth, medical devices, mental health, artificial intelligence and sustainable food & proteins. 

Leveraging his multi-disciplinary experience, Mr Kalis was appointed an Independent Expert at EIT Climate-KIC in November 2019, Europe’s largest public-private partnership and supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), with responsibilities for addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation, evaluating innovation and entrepreneurship project proposals and monitoring the progress, outcome and impact of these programmes. 

Until the successful acquisition in November 2021 of Milltrust’s subsidiary and Agtech and Science-Focused adviser, Milltrust Agricultural Investments and associated investment funds, Mr Kalis served as the Portfolio Manager of The British Innovation Fund, an impact-driven venture capital fund investing in UK-wide university science and technology spin-outs and start-ups that have commercialised pioneering and protected IP emanating from world-class university research in the fields of healthcare, medical technology, life sciences, biotech, food-tech, sustainable protein, and agri-tech, offering real-world impactful solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. Mr Kalis was also the Portfolio Manager of the Milltrust Australia and New Zealand Buy & Lease Sustainable Agriculture Funds that focused on purchasing Australian and New Zealand farmland (real assets) and leasing these farms to regional and international operators, sustainably generating a range of agricultural produce across various crops, dairy and livestock. 

Mr Kalis is a seasoned investment and business professional with a long track record managing institutional capital including two decades at top-tier asset management firms. Between 2007 and 2009, Mr Kalis was Portfolio Manager of the Optimal Asian Opportunities (Ireland) Fund (US$ 300m AUM). The Optimal Asian Opportunities (Ireland) Fund ranked one of the top 10 Asia Pacific funds during the Global Financial Crisis. Mr Kalis was previously overseeing Asia research at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management in London between 2002-2007, exclusively dedicated to the Asian Capital Holdings Fund which grew from USD 200 million to USD 1.3 billion during his tenure. The fund achieved strong performance as one of the best performing Asia Pacific funds in the industry and won the award for Best Asian Fund by Eurekahedge in 2004. Immediately prior to co-founding Milltrust, he was Managing Partner at Think Alternative Advisors LLP, an Emerging Markets research and advisory firm he founded which was acquired by Milltrust International Group in 2010. 

He is a frequent commentator at industry conferences and in the financial media. He speaks fluent English, French and Dutch, and holds a Master’s in Management from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium.

Dr David Bryngelsson is a climate-tech entrepreneur, and founder and chief executive officer of CarbonCloud, the food industry’s climate-intelligence platform. Dr Bryngelsson spent eight years immersed in climate-change mitigation as a published researcher and lecturer at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, before mobilising a team of scientists, developers and climate-accountable business developers to build the digital infrastructure for climate transparency throughout the food supply chain. Today he steers CarbonCloud towards empowering the food system to mitigate climate change, and shares insights and solutions in forums around the world.

Jo leads the Thematic Research and Corporate Innovation team and has oversight of FAIRR’s technical research and engagement efforts. She provides strategic direction to the development of bespoke and collaborative engagements as well as research across themes impacting the food and agriculture sector including biodiversity, AMR, climate and dietary transitions. Jo also works closely with investor members to develop and integrate sustainable food systems as a key priority into stewardship strategies.

Prior to this, she was an Assistant-Manager at KPMG UK in their Investment Management and Funds Team, advising investment managers on risk management as well as working cross-functionally with the Sustainability Team on climate change risk for private equity firms. Jo began her career with Alliance Trust as an analyst.

Jo holds a first-class degree in BA (Hons) Geography from the University of Leeds and an MSc in Development Studies at SOAS, for which she was awarded a Distinction. She passed CFA Level 1 and holds the Investment Management Certificate (IMC).

Sara Warden joined Czarnikow in 2021 as a commodity journalist after a brief period covering commodities and leveraged finance at several London-based news outlets. In the four years prior, Sara lived in Mexico City, where she worked as a bilingual journalist and editor across several key industries. Since joining Czarnikow, she has led the creation of content that uses data to present key trends related to agriculture and the food supply chain. She graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 2014 with joint honours in Journalism and Spanish and is currently studying a Master’s degree in Food Policy.

Saif Hameed is the founder and CEO of Altruistiq, a market-leading emissions data management platform. Saif’s 20+ years of sustainability experience has spanned public and private sectors as well as nonprofit organisations. This includes leading sustainability practices for government initiatives as well as McKinsey, where Saif advised Fortune 500 companies for 8 years. Saif is also co-founder of the Pakistan Environment Trust, Pakistan’s leading environmental charity.

Daina Spedding is an Investor at BGF and is responsible for finding and completing new investment opportunities, as well as supporting the boards of the investee companies. Daina has led numerous investments at BGF since joining the team in 2019, with a particular focus on the consumer and e-commerce sectors. She is passionate about backing female founders in particular and developing BGF’s Diversity and Inclusion strategy.

Before joining BGF’s London team, she worked at Blue Coast Capital, a single family backed investment group focusing on consumer investments globally. Daina has also spent five years in PwC’s transaction services team, specialising in company valuations and analysis. Daina is CFA qualified and holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Management from EDHEC Business School in France. She is married and has two young sons who keep her on her toes at all times.

Martin Koehring has recently joined Forum for the Future as Global Director of Impact. Before joining Forum, he held various leadership positions at Economist Impact, which is part of The Economist Group. He was the head of Economist Impact’s World Ocean Initiative, inspiring bold thinking, new partnerships and the most effective action to build a sustainable ocean economy. He also led Economist Impact’s Sustainability, Climate Change and Natural Resources practice in the EMEA region and was the editorial lead of the award-winning Sustainability Project.

Martin’s previous roles at The Economist Group included managing editor, global health lead and Europe editor at The Economist Intelligence Unit. As part of my wider engagement on sustainability, he is a trustee of the New Economics Foundation (a think tank focusing on social, economic and environmental justice); sits on the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s Inclusive Economies Advisory Group and the Sustainable Brands Turkey Global Advisory Board. He has also been a member of the Advisory Committee for the UN Environment Programme’s Global Environment Outlook for Business, a senior rapporteur at World Water Week, a faculty member in the Food & Sustainability Certificate Program provided by the European Institute of Innovation for Sustainability and a judge at the Reuters Events Responsible Business Awards.

Martin earned a bachelor of economic and social studies in international relations from Aberystwyth University and a master’s degree in diplomacy and international relations from the College of Europe.

Jacob Thundil is a London based entrepreneur. He is passionate about sustainability, healthy food and cooking. In 2005 Jacob founded Cocofina “The Coconut Experts’ from his kitchen table while working for his former employer. Consumer demand for Cocofina products was overwhelming is now enjoyed in 28 countries worldwide.

During lockdown Jacob started two more food businesses. Sozye, who brew organic certified soya, fish and oyster sauce alternatives in the UK using sustainable Scottish seaweed instead of Soya and a Moxcha a fully dissolving patent pending tea product.

Jacob qualified as a Mechanical Engineer and holds an MBA in International Finance. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur Jacob worked in the Telecom and Banking sectors. 

In 2021 he was bestowed with an MBE for services to International Trade. Other interests include cooking, music, antiques and inventing.

Sofía joined the FAIRR Initiative in April 2021 as Investor Outreach Manager. She leads FAIRR’s investor outreach efforts in francophone and hispanophone countries and supports outreach activities globally. She also coordinates FAIRR’s involvement in the multi-stakeholder initiative ‘Investor Action on AMR’. Previously, she led the Innovative Finance Programme of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN).

Sofía joined the FAIRR Initiative in April 2021 and is responsible for investor outreach. Prior to this, she led the Innovative Finance Programme of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). She has also worked as a Strategy Specialist at the World Economic Forum and an Analyst at J.P. Morgan.

Sofía holds a BA in International Relations and Economics from the University of Geneva, an MA in International Development and Economics from the Graduate Institute of Geneva, as well as an MSc in Public Health and Health Economics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). She also holds a CFA certificate in ESG Investing. Sofía has worked on projects and initiatives in Europe, Latin America, and Africa and is fluent in English, Spanish, and French.

Safia Qureshi, Architect and Designer based in London, founded CLUBZERØ (formerly CupClub) in 2015. CLUBZERØ is the pioneer of reusability in consumer food and beverage packaging, having delivered the service at scale commercially for major NextGen food and beverage brands. Key awards include Best UX Design 2019 Fast Company and New Plastics Economy Winner from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. 

Providing a key focus for the team to serve customers across the EU and North America in the drinks category was a strategic decision with the aim to build out a commercially scalable solution. As of March 2020, CLUBZERØ completed over half a million customer orders, using only a stock volume of standardised 10,000 reusable packaging items. Safia has led on product, helping the company define universal drop point design and standardised reusable packaging for scalability, allowing brands to develop their own packaging to operate across the platform. 

Safia also directed the company to design and publish it’s work in sustainability with a focus on delivering an LCA methodology that calculates impact down to every reuse by tracking reusable packaging with a digital ID across the platform.  

See video here : https://vimeo.com/405428110

As a result, CLUBZERØ is market leading with a record return rate of 95% across retail and 99% across closed buildings. Customers include NextGen consortium brands Starbucks, McDonald’s, Coca Cola, Yum Brands, Nestle, Wendy’s as well as leading food service company Baxter Storey, Cushman & Wakefield and retailer John Lewis & Partners.

LinkedIn

Contact: safia@clubzero.co

Twitter: @safiaqureshi
Instagram: @safia_qureshi

Ivan has been an active venture capital investor for the last 25 years and he is the co-founder of Five Seasons Ventures, the first European venture fund fully focused on consumer Foodtech.

He is passionate about product and technology innovation aimed at solving big challenges in the food industry: from alternative sources of proteins, to functional foods, from new models of food distribution, to the reduction of food waste.  At Five Seasons he invested, among others, in Butternut Box (DNVB pet nutrition), THIS.co (plant-based meat alternatives), Cortilia (D2C fresh food retailer), La Fourche (D2C organic groceries), Air-Up (reusable water bottle + flavour pods), KoRo (D2C natural healthy snaking), YFood Labs (meal replacements) and Just Spices (D2C spices; acq. by Kraft Heinz)

His experience includes structuring investments, organizational and strategy development, setting up governance for growth and planning for successful exits. 

In his spare time, he enjoys family life, fly fishing, and practicing jiu-jitsu with his son Adam.

Juliane Caillouette-Noble came to the Sustainable Restaurant Association as Development Director in 2016 after five years of running Jamie Oliver’s programmes for improving school food and food education across the UK.

The SRA is a not for profit membership organisation committed to accelerating change toward an environmentally restorative and socially progressive hospitality sector in the UK. As Development Director, Juliane’s role included designing and developing strategic partnerships and campaigns, ensuring that the impact and influence of the SRA grows along with the size of the membership body. Juliane became the Managing Director of the SRA in January and looks forward to working with the industry to build back better and greener post Covid.

Andrew is the founder of Big Idea Ventures (BIV). BIV’s purpose is to solve the world’s biggest challenges by supporting the world’s best entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers. Our first fund called the New Protein Fund I invests in plant-based, cell-based and fermentation enabled foods and ingredients to impact climate change, animal welfare and personal health. Investors include Tyson Foods, Temasek, Buhler, Givaudan, AAK, Bel Group, Avril and others.

BIV’s second fund is focused on working with Top US universities to create the future of food companies in rural communities and regions.

Andrew is an Advisory Board member for Tufts Nutrition Council. Friedman School Entrepreneurship Advisor. Harvard Business School graduate, Procter & Gamble brand management trained, Andrew spent a number of years as an entrepreneur growing companies.

Andrew is married, has a daughter and the toughest 10 lb fluffy white dog resembling Snowy from the Tin Tin books.

Sara is a conscious innovator, expert in how to buy consciously,  impact entrepreneur, and a transformational mentor. Her list of accomplishments include pioneering the world’s first 100% sustainable luxury denim brand and being the recipient of Grazia magazine’s award for sustainable entrepreneur of the year.

Alex has a wealth of expertise in the commercial and marketing sectors, as well as public services.

Her most recent role as Head of Marketing for NHS Blood and Transplant, focussed on engaging the public to support lifesaving blood and organ donation throughout the pandemic. Before that she was at Head of Marketing at Marks & Spencer, having worked across a number of categories during her time with the retailer, including produce, protein, hospitality, convenience and CSR policy with Plan A. She developed her FMCG experience at Ferrero working across a number of confectionery brands, including Kinder Chocolate and Ferrero Rocher.

She is also a board trustee for UFI VocTech Trust and Chair of their Ventures Committee a charitable trust which exists to further the development and adoption of technology to support vocational training.

Co-founder of Leon, food campaigner, speaker and non-executive director.

Before founding Leon, Henry worked at Bain & Company, working on private equity transactions and helping large companies to develop their strategies. Previously he was a journalist at the Daily Telegraph and a commis chef at the Michelin-starred Inn on the Park restaurant in London.

Henry is a regular speaker on how to create a purpose-lead business and how to create a better food system. He is the co-founder and chair of Chefs in Schools and sits on the board of Rockfish. He also advises the CEOs of a handful of high growth leisure businesses.

Harriet Lamb is passionate about environmental and social issues with a track record in making a difference around the globe. She is an experienced CEO who built the global movement Fairtrade – a certification scheme that sets standards to make trade fairer, working with producers in the developing world as well as thousands of companies and retailers, and creating a vibrant grassroots movement.

Following 15 years with Fairtrade – as CEO of the UK Fairtrade Foundation and then of Fairtrade International – Harriet led International Alert, a peacebuilding organisation. She was then appointed CEO of Ashden, which promotes just climate solutions including sustainable energy in the UK and globally.

Harriet has won a number of awards including a CBE, Orange Businesswoman of the Year, and Cosmopolitan EcoQueen. She was also the first woman Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge

Patrick is the founder and CEO of the Sustainable Food Trust, whose mission is to work internationally to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable food and farming systems. He was Director of the Soil Association, the leading British organic farming organisation, from 1995 to 2010, where he played a leading role in developing the UK organic market. He trained in Biodynamic farming at Emerson College and has a mixed organic dairy holding in Wales. He received a CBE for services to organic farming in 2005 and in 2022 was awarded an honorary doctorate for international work in sustainable agriculture from the University of Wales Trinity St David. 

Helen farms in a family partnership on a mostly tenanted organic farm in Wiltshire with dairy, beef, pigs, cereals, agroforestry and small scale horticulture. Her products are sold through the Helen Browning’s Organic brand in retailers as well as through her hotel and restaurant/pub on the farm.

Her book ‘PIG; tales from an organic farm’, written with her partner Tim Finney, tells more about the trials and tribulations of their farming and food life.

She has been Chief Executive of the Soil Association since 2011, after a long involvement with the charity in a variety of exec and non-exec roles. Prior to rejoining the Soil Association, Helen was Director of External Affairs for the National Trust.

She is currently a Commissioner and trustee of the Food Farming and Countryside Commission and has had a number of roles in agri-politics over the years, including the Government’s Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food (‘the Curry Commission’), chaired the England Animal Health and Welfare Implementation Group and the Food Ethics Council. Helen was awarded an OBE in 1998 for her services to organic farming.

Marika McCauley Sine is the Chief Sustainability Officer of Mars Petcare – a segment of Mars, Incorporated; a family-owned business that for more than a century has made products and delivered services for people and the pets they love. Mars Petcare is a leader in pet health and nutrition and a major veterinary health care provider, with a global network of over 2,000 pet hospitals.

Marika leads Petcare’s sustainability strategies and programs worldwide, bringing together teams to progress Mars’ Sustainable in a Generation Plan. This work focuses on climate action, circular packaging, sustainable sourcing, and reaching pets in need around the world. Previously, Marika served as global head of social and economic sustainability for Mars, Incorporated, based at the company’s headquarters in Washington, DC. Marika joined Mars in 2015 after a decade at The Coca-Cola Company, where she drove a range of sustainability strategies and programs including 5by20, a global initiative to unlock economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs in emerging markets that has reached 6 million women to date. She began her career with Oxfam America addressing poverty in rural communities in Southeast Asia. Marika holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She is a First Mover Fellow of The Aspen Institute in recognition of her track record as a ‘social-intrapreneur’, has served as Co-Chair of the Consumer Goods Forum Social Sustainability Committee, and is a member of the Board of Directors of The Royal Canin Foundation.

Nina is Head of Sustainable and Ethical Sourcing for McDonald’s UK and Ireland. She has over ten years’ experience with McDonald’s within the Supply Chain Department and currently leads the sustainability, agriculture and ethical sourcing function.

Her role involves overseeing sustainability throughout the business, with a focus on agriculture, environment, climate and the sustainable sourcing of food and packaging which contributes to annual supply chain spend exceeding a billion a year.

She collaborates with a wide range of supplier partners, stakeholders and franchisees to develop and deliver progressive strategies which align to McDonald’s values and ambition around sustainability, ethical sourcing and brand trust.

Nina has been with the McDonald’s business since 2011 and previously held the positions of Agriculture Manager delivering the long-term programme, Farm Forward and Purchasing Manager responsible for the procurement of food and paper and building long-term partnerships with suppliers.

Nina previously worked for the Welsh Government and has been the Professional Adviser for Harper Adams Agricultural University. She is currently a Fellow of the Forward Institute and a member of the RSA.

Hannah is Head of Sustainability and Social Impact for Danone UK & Ireland where she is responsible for embedding the company’s Impact Journey strategy and managing the delivery of Danone’s environmental sustainability and community impact programmes.  She is passionate about supporting business growth with purpose and engaging consumers on sustainability.  Prior to joining Danone, Hannah lead CSR and sustainability strategies for BT/EE and Tesco.

Rebecca joined the FSA in April 2019 as Director of Policy.

Rebecca has extensive experience as a Senior Civil Servant in the Treasury and in the Department for Work and Pensions. Her previous civil service roles have focused on social policy – particularly benefits design and reform, labour market policy and programmes to support the most disadvantaged into work.

More recently, Rebecca has held Director of Strategy roles at Peabody, one of the UK’s largest housing associations, and at City, University of London. She has also been a Trustee of Shaw Trust  (a national charity helping people gain an education, enter work, develop their career, improve their wellbeing or rebuild their lives) and Chair of Ixion Holdings, a subsidiary of Shaw Trust delivering education and learning nationwide.

Paul leads the sustainability strategy at Greggs, with key focus on delivering against their Greggs Pledge plan and Net Zero ambition. Paul originally qualified as an industrial chemist in the coatings industry before moving into regulatory law prior to joining Greggs. Since taking on his current role he has been involved in the ongoing development of Greggs long term strategy as well as engaging with Government and other key stakeholders to shape longer term strategic direction for Greggs and the wider sect.

Dorothy Shaver is a Registered Dietitian focusing on food system transformation with unique experience in and passion for driving behaviour change for positive health and environmental outcomes. Over the past seventeen years she has worked across media, retail, health care, marketing, AI, and the fitness industry championing food choices to enable personal and planetary health.  

She led the creation of Future 50 Foods report and Cookbook, which has collectively driven close to six billion earned media impressions in more than 95 countries as part of more than 700 million media pieces. It is a collaborative thought leadership piece in which food system issues are outlined with 50 exemplary foods identified that increase the nutrient value and decrease the environmental impact of meals. It is at the core of the Knorr brand innovation and communication strategy. Most recently, Dorothy played a major role in shaping and activating Unilever’s Regenerative Agriculture Principles.  

She has been a long-term sustainable nutrition food spokesperson having spoken at global conferences and events including Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, quoted in media including TIME magazine, and featured in radio shows including NPR. In addition to this, Dorothy is a guest blogger, podcast speaker, expert contributor and food writer spreading her positive passion and drive to get the masses to fall in love with food that is good for people and the planet.   

Dorothy received her undergraduate degree from Framingham State University and her master’s degree in Public Health Education from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.  

Dorothy currently lives in a canal house in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. When you meet her, she’ll inspire you to join her in being a Varietarian moving toward the ‘Most delicious revolution that ever was’ for the benefit of people and the planet. 

Matthew Price is the General Manager of Uber Eats in the UK, Ireland & Northern Europe, responsible for leading Uber’s delivery business in over 330 markets. He is focussed on being a true partner to more than 61,000 restaurants & merchants who are active on the platform and is deeply passionate about building businesses that are a force for good. He recently joined the UK Government’s Food and Drink Sector Council and is a Fellow at the Forward Institute.Prior to his current role Matthew spent nearly seven years helping to scale Uber’s Rides business globally as General Manager of Uber Canada and Head of Strategy & Planning for the UK, Northern & Eastern Europe.  Before Uber, Matthew was a strategy consultant at Monitor Group and Monitor Deloitte in North America, focused on engagements aimed at unlocking and accelerating growth.  He holds an MBA with Distinction from INSEAD Business School (France & Singapore) and received a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University (Canada).

Toby joined Mintel as a financial services analyst, but now oversees Mintel’s portfolio of UK and Irish reports, which cover almost every area of consumer spending. He also leads Mintel’s European research into consumer confidence and how shoppers’ behaviour is being shaped by the cost of living crisis.

Wayne is the Chief Executive Officer of ReLondon (formerly the London Waste and Recycling Board), where he is responsible for helping London’s boroughs to reduce waste and increase recycling rates and accelerating the development of a low carbon circular economy. He has been working for LWARB since 2008. Prior to this he was the Head of Waste Policy at the Greater London Authority. Wayne is a trustee on the board of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management. He has 25 years’ experience in the waste and resource management industry. 

Robin grew up as a retailer, running commercial categories for both M&S and Tesco between 1998 and 2015. He joined Just Eat UK in 2015 to set up their restaurant partner perks programme building value through partnerships beginning with food wholesale, finance, card payments & utilities. Other areas of responsibility followed from sustainability and FMCG to grocery and partner e-commerce

Mattie Yeta was appointed as Chief Sustainability Officer for CGI in the UK in March 2022. A member of CGI’s UK Executive, she is responsible for working with members across the organisation to achieve common sustainability goals. Mattie provides key support to CGI’s external facing engagements in this area, continuing to develop a strong relationship with the United Nations and COP summits, and providing actionable insights for clients. Her appointment further confirmed CGI’s commitment to not only reach Net-Zero in the UK by 2026, but to bring sustainable products and solutions to our clients.

Mattie has substantial experience and expertise in sustainable development at strategic and delivery levels across the public and private sectors. She has led substantive change in the sustainable development arena through various boards she sits on. She has obtained significant experience in stakeholder engagement through her career, including at senior executive levels, strategy development, influencing and drafting industry policy, project and programme management, people management and development experience.

Mattie led the creation of the e-Sustainability Alliance, a network of 300 private sector organisations she chaired, working in partnership with the United Nations and other stakeholders. She also led the creation of the Cabinet Office One Government Cloud Strategy Sustainability Workstream, the UK Government’s Sustainable Technology Report 2017 and the Sustainability Industry Guide to help businesses achieve sustainable outcomes. Mattie has extensive experience of working with the United Nations (UNFCCC, UNEP, UNGC, UNICEF, UNDP). She received the “industry sustainability leader of the year” award, “digital leader impact award” the Civil Service award as “highly commended”, Defra’s corporate services award for “leading through change,” and was a nominee for “the most influential women in UK tech.” She has received her Majesty’s Royal Honour for her contribution to sustainability in the UK and globally and was recently announced in the top 100 sustainability power leaders.

The former Head of Sustainability for Defra IT/UK Government, and a PhD researcher specialising in corporate sustainability, green economics, and national recovery, she is also a tutor on the University of Oxford Climate Change Programme.

Donal Denvir is responsible for promoting Irish products in the UK, with a particular focus on raising
the profile of Ireland’s world-leading sustainability programme, Origin Green. Denvir joined the GB
team in 2019 from an internal position as Bord Bia Manager in Germany, where he spent just over
four years managing the awareness building programme for Irish food and drink within the DACH
region of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Denvir started his career as a Journalist and Newsreader
for Dublin’s 98FM and Newstalk 106-108, before becoming a Market Advisor for Bord Bia Germany.
He then spent four years with Synergy Flavours, Inc. working across the Bangkok Metropolitan Area,
devising and implementing senior-level marketing strategies for the Asian food and beverage market,
before re-joining as Manager of Bord Bia Germany in 2014.

Denvir speaks fluent German and holds three university degrees, a master’s in international marketing
Practice; a Masters in Journalism and a Bachelor of Commerce with German.

125%

Kirsty is a Principal at JamJar Investments, the innocent drinks founders’ venture capital fund. JamJar is a £100m seed VC investing in exceptional founding teams to help them create, nurture and scale challenger consumer brands in the UK. Investments include Deliveroo, Tails.com, Toney’s Chocolonely, Babylon Health, Skin+Me and Wild Cosmetics.

Prior to JamJar, Kirsty trained at consumer goods giant Unilever where she worked on marketing and customer analytics across a variety of brands within their personal care and food portfolios.

She holds a BA in Economics and Management from the University of Oxford and an MSc in Global Politics from The London School of Economics.

Ivo leads UNEP’s Climate Finance Unit (CFU), and oversees a growing portfolio of various initiatives and finance facilities that actively unlock public and especially private capital towards sustainable land use with positive impacts for the climate, nature and people. The team consists of 20 staff and consultants based in Geneva, Nairobi, Jakarta and Cambridge.

Since its inception, CFU has raised more than $70 million in public funding for a variety of blended finance facilities, unlocking more than $200 million in private capital for long-term impact lending and impact investment, with a target of reaching +USD 1 billion in private finance for ‘net zero, nature positive’ agriculture, forestry and land restoration by 2025. This includes initiatives such as the AGRI3 Fund (set up by Rabobank, UNEP, Mirova, FOUNT, Cardano and IDH) that stimulates long-term impact lending by providing guarantees to banks that finance corporate clients and farmers when they are able to achieve positive impacts on nature, climate and local communities, as well as a growing portfolio of business solutions to finance landscape restoration.

UNEP’s Climate Finance Unit has contributed to the capitalisation of the &Green Fund though the GEF ‘non-grant’ window (which closed several innovate deals in rubber, palm oil and soy/cattle), and created the Restoration Seed Capital Facility (RSCF) that stimulate impact investment by private equity funds in forest and land scape restoration. Lastly, CFU supports the Tropical Landscapes Finance Facility (set up by BNP Paribas, ADM Capital, UNEP, ICRAF), including a Grant Fund to build a pipeline of projects in Indonesia.

In addition, CFU advances UNEP’s normative work for example with the launch of the ‘State of Finance for Nature’ report and forthcoming publications on the need to repurpose agricultural subsidies, but also creating business and finance coalitions such as the recently-launched ‘Good Food Finance Network’ on the back of the UN Food Systems Summit (by UNEP, WBCSD, EAT Foundation, FAIRR, Food Systems f/t Future).

Ivo Mulder co-founded together with Global Canopy the Natural Capital Finance Alliance (NCFA) that was launched at the Rio+20 Earth Summit and signed by CEOs of more than 40 finance institutions. It paved the way for the newly-created Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD), the nature equivalent to the TCFD. Ivo also sits on various steering committees.

Ivo Mulder has over sixteen years of professional experience working for UNEP, private consulting firms and with non-governmental organisations. He has published more than fifty reports, blogs and articles and sits on the Steering Committee of a number of initiatives. Ivo is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and a member of the Dutch Association of Sustainable Investors (VBDO). During his free time, he pursues a variety of outdoor sports such as triathlon, diving, alpine skiing and mountain hiking.

Susan was the Senior Director of Sustainability at Asda until December 2022, since when she has been an independent consultant working to support collaboration across the healthy, sustainable foods system.  In her role at Asda Susan set out and oversaw the retailer’s “Better Planet” strategy which incorporates activity across decarbonisation, waste, and supplier and consumer engagement.  Prior to Asda, Susan held senior sales and marketing roles at PepsiCo and spent her early career at Kantar, consulting with FMCG clients on data analytics and shopper insights.  Susan is passionate about integrating the sustainability agenda into core commercial activities and spends most of her waking hours thinking about food.

Hannah Pearse is a registered nutritionist with over 15 years’ experience of leading new product innovations, strategic collaborations and driving consumer behaviour change with some of the world’s leading food and drink companies.   
  
In January 2023 Hannah joined Xampla, a Cambridge based technology B-Corp, as Nutrition Business Development Manager. She works collaboratively with brands to identify new product development opportunities in the nutrient microcapsules and plant-based edible flexible film arena. A strategic nutrition thought leader, she keeps her clients ahead of the competition by identifying applications to fortify food and beverages and replace some of the most polluting plastics.   

Staying ahead of the public health challenges and emerging consumer trends, she works with customers to deliver evidence-based solutions that make a positive impact for both health and meeting business needs

Saasha Celestial-One is Co-Founder & COO of OLIO, a free app harnessing the power of mobile technology and the sharing economy to provide a revolutionary solution to the problem of food waste. OLIO is growing quickly, empowered by 100k+ volunteers. Since 2016, 7m OLIOers have shared over 110m portions of food in 62 countries. Before OLIO, Saasha founded London’s first pay-as-you-go high street childcare provider, and prior to that she spent 13yrs at Morgan Stanley, McKinsey & American Express. Saasha was named one of the UK’s “Coolest Female Founders” by Business Insider, has an MBA from Stanford, is mum to 10-year-old Nolan, and is the proud daughter of hippy entrepreneurs.

The 21 most extraordinary women of 2021 – You Magazine

14 women who are changing the way we eat and drink in 2021 – Time Out Magazine

Who are the Top 32 ESG pioneers in the UK? – Business Leader

30 to Watch – The UK’s Top Funded Female Founders (#9) – Financial Times

Linus Pardoe is the UK Policy Manager for the Good Food Institute Europe – an international
non-profit organisation working to create a more sustainable food system by catalysing the
transition to sustainable proteins. Linus works with UK policymakers, funding bodies,
businesses, NGOs and other stakeholders to accelerate the development of plant-based and
cultivated meat.

Prior to joining GFI Europe in 2022, Linus was a researcher at the Social Market Foundation, a
cross-party think-tank in London. He holds an MSc in Social Policy and Social Research from
University College London and a BA in History from the University of Warwick.

Reniera leads the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Food Initiative. Working with industry to demonstrate how, by redesigning the way we produce our food, we can regenerate nature, restore soil health and help biodiversity thrive. Before joining the Foundation, Reniera spent 18 years in local government, focusing on housing and regeneration.

Alexander Kalis is the Managing Partner of Milltrust International LLP in the United Kingdom, which he co-founded in December 2010. At Milltrust, Mr Kalis is Group Head of Investments, Head of Sustainability & Impact. 

As a passionate leader in the fight against climate change and in channelling private sector capital into profitable impact-driven investment solutions, Mr Kalis led Milltrust’s focus towards sustainable impact investments which the firm has fully embraced under its mantra of ‘Sustainable Prosperity’.

Mr Kalis serves as Portfolio Adviser and Chairman of the Investment Advisory Committee for the award-winning Climate Impact Asia Fund, a pioneering long-only environmental ESG impact equity fund investing in the leading Asia Pacific-listed equities that are driving the shift to decarbonisation.

Mr Kalis is also the Co-Portfolio Manager of the top-performing Milltrust Global Emerging Markets Fund (ESG) and strategy, launched in 2012. 

Mr Kalis also serves on the investment committee of Milltrust’s Climate Impact, Agri Capital Markets and Future Health co-investor platforms and on the Future Health SPV, a venture capital fund seeking to tap into the secular growth trends in healthcare by investing in high potential companies with a focus on the science of ageing and technology that enables early detection and management of illness, leading to better outcomes in the key areas of immunisation, diagnostics, telehealth, medical devices, mental health, artificial intelligence and sustainable food & proteins. 

Leveraging his multi-disciplinary experience, Mr Kalis was appointed an Independent Expert at EIT Climate-KIC in November 2019, Europe’s largest public-private partnership and supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), with responsibilities for addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation, evaluating innovation and entrepreneurship project proposals and monitoring the progress, outcome and impact of these programmes. 

Until the successful acquisition in November 2021 of Milltrust’s subsidiary and Agtech and Science-Focused adviser, Milltrust Agricultural Investments and associated investment funds, Mr Kalis served as the Portfolio Manager of The British Innovation Fund, an impact-driven venture capital fund investing in UK-wide university science and technology spin-outs and start-ups that have commercialised pioneering and protected IP emanating from world-class university research in the fields of healthcare, medical technology, life sciences, biotech, food-tech, sustainable protein, and agri-tech, offering real-world impactful solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. Mr Kalis was also the Portfolio Manager of the Milltrust Australia and New Zealand Buy & Lease Sustainable Agriculture Funds that focused on purchasing Australian and New Zealand farmland (real assets) and leasing these farms to regional and international operators, sustainably generating a range of agricultural produce across various crops, dairy and livestock. 

Mr Kalis is a seasoned investment and business professional with a long track record managing institutional capital including two decades at top-tier asset management firms. Between 2007 and 2009, Mr Kalis was Portfolio Manager of the Optimal Asian Opportunities (Ireland) Fund (US$ 300m AUM). The Optimal Asian Opportunities (Ireland) Fund ranked one of the top 10 Asia Pacific funds during the Global Financial Crisis. Mr Kalis was previously overseeing Asia research at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management in London between 2002-2007, exclusively dedicated to the Asian Capital Holdings Fund which grew from USD 200 million to USD 1.3 billion during his tenure. The fund achieved strong performance as one of the best performing Asia Pacific funds in the industry and won the award for Best Asian Fund by Eurekahedge in 2004. Immediately prior to co-founding Milltrust, he was Managing Partner at Think Alternative Advisors LLP, an Emerging Markets research and advisory firm he founded which was acquired by Milltrust International Group in 2010. 

He is a frequent commentator at industry conferences and in the financial media. He speaks fluent English, French and Dutch, and holds a Master’s in Management from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium.

Dr David Bryngelsson is a climate-tech entrepreneur, and founder and chief executive officer of CarbonCloud, the food industry’s climate-intelligence platform. Dr Bryngelsson spent eight years immersed in climate-change mitigation as a published researcher and lecturer at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, before mobilising a team of scientists, developers and climate-accountable business developers to build the digital infrastructure for climate transparency throughout the food supply chain. Today he steers CarbonCloud towards empowering the food system to mitigate climate change, and shares insights and solutions in forums around the world.

Jo leads the Thematic Research and Corporate Innovation team and has oversight of FAIRR’s technical research and engagement efforts. She provides strategic direction to the development of bespoke and collaborative engagements as well as research across themes impacting the food and agriculture sector including biodiversity, AMR, climate and dietary transitions. Jo also works closely with investor members to develop and integrate sustainable food systems as a key priority into stewardship strategies.

Prior to this, she was an Assistant-Manager at KPMG UK in their Investment Management and Funds Team, advising investment managers on risk management as well as working cross-functionally with the Sustainability Team on climate change risk for private equity firms. Jo began her career with Alliance Trust as an analyst.

Jo holds a first-class degree in BA (Hons) Geography from the University of Leeds and an MSc in Development Studies at SOAS, for which she was awarded a Distinction. She passed CFA Level 1 and holds the Investment Management Certificate (IMC).

Sara Warden joined Czarnikow in 2021 as a commodity journalist after a brief period covering commodities and leveraged finance at several London-based news outlets. In the four years prior, Sara lived in Mexico City, where she worked as a bilingual journalist and editor across several key industries. Since joining Czarnikow, she has led the creation of content that uses data to present key trends related to agriculture and the food supply chain. She graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 2014 with joint honours in Journalism and Spanish and is currently studying a Master’s degree in Food Policy.

Saif Hameed is the founder and CEO of Altruistiq, a market-leading emissions data management platform. Saif’s 20+ years of sustainability experience has spanned public and private sectors as well as nonprofit organisations. This includes leading sustainability practices for government initiatives as well as McKinsey, where Saif advised Fortune 500 companies for 8 years. Saif is also co-founder of the Pakistan Environment Trust, Pakistan’s leading environmental charity.

Daina Spedding is an Investor at BGF and is responsible for finding and completing new investment opportunities, as well as supporting the boards of the investee companies. Daina has led numerous investments at BGF since joining the team in 2019, with a particular focus on the consumer and e-commerce sectors. She is passionate about backing female founders in particular and developing BGF’s Diversity and Inclusion strategy.

Before joining BGF’s London team, she worked at Blue Coast Capital, a single family backed investment group focusing on consumer investments globally. Daina has also spent five years in PwC’s transaction services team, specialising in company valuations and analysis. Daina is CFA qualified and holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Management from EDHEC Business School in France. She is married and has two young sons who keep her on her toes at all times.

Martin Koehring has recently joined Forum for the Future as Global Director of Impact. Before joining Forum, he held various leadership positions at Economist Impact, which is part of The Economist Group. He was the head of Economist Impact’s World Ocean Initiative, inspiring bold thinking, new partnerships and the most effective action to build a sustainable ocean economy. He also led Economist Impact’s Sustainability, Climate Change and Natural Resources practice in the EMEA region and was the editorial lead of the award-winning Sustainability Project.

Martin’s previous roles at The Economist Group included managing editor, global health lead and Europe editor at The Economist Intelligence Unit. As part of my wider engagement on sustainability, he is a trustee of the New Economics Foundation (a think tank focusing on social, economic and environmental justice); sits on the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s Inclusive Economies Advisory Group and the Sustainable Brands Turkey Global Advisory Board. He has also been a member of the Advisory Committee for the UN Environment Programme’s Global Environment Outlook for Business, a senior rapporteur at World Water Week, a faculty member in the Food & Sustainability Certificate Program provided by the European Institute of Innovation for Sustainability and a judge at the Reuters Events Responsible Business Awards.

Martin earned a bachelor of economic and social studies in international relations from Aberystwyth University and a master’s degree in diplomacy and international relations from the College of Europe.

Jacob Thundil is a London based entrepreneur. He is passionate about sustainability, healthy food and cooking. In 2005 Jacob founded Cocofina “The Coconut Experts’ from his kitchen table while working for his former employer. Consumer demand for Cocofina products was overwhelming is now enjoyed in 28 countries worldwide.

During lockdown Jacob started two more food businesses. Sozye, who brew organic certified soya, fish and oyster sauce alternatives in the UK using sustainable Scottish seaweed instead of Soya and a Moxcha a fully dissolving patent pending tea product.

Jacob qualified as a Mechanical Engineer and holds an MBA in International Finance. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur Jacob worked in the Telecom and Banking sectors. 

In 2021 he was bestowed with an MBE for services to International Trade. Other interests include cooking, music, antiques and inventing.

Sofía joined the FAIRR Initiative in April 2021 as Investor Outreach Manager. She leads FAIRR’s investor outreach efforts in francophone and hispanophone countries and supports outreach activities globally. She also coordinates FAIRR’s involvement in the multi-stakeholder initiative ‘Investor Action on AMR’. Previously, she led the Innovative Finance Programme of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN).

Sofía joined the FAIRR Initiative in April 2021 and is responsible for investor outreach. Prior to this, she led the Innovative Finance Programme of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). She has also worked as a Strategy Specialist at the World Economic Forum and an Analyst at J.P. Morgan.

Sofía holds a BA in International Relations and Economics from the University of Geneva, an MA in International Development and Economics from the Graduate Institute of Geneva, as well as an MSc in Public Health and Health Economics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). She also holds a CFA certificate in ESG Investing. Sofía has worked on projects and initiatives in Europe, Latin America, and Africa and is fluent in English, Spanish, and French.

Safia Qureshi, Architect and Designer based in London, founded CLUBZERØ (formerly CupClub) in 2015. CLUBZERØ is the pioneer of reusability in consumer food and beverage packaging, having delivered the service at scale commercially for major NextGen food and beverage brands. Key awards include Best UX Design 2019 Fast Company and New Plastics Economy Winner from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. 

Providing a key focus for the team to serve customers across the EU and North America in the drinks category was a strategic decision with the aim to build out a commercially scalable solution. As of March 2020, CLUBZERØ completed over half a million customer orders, using only a stock volume of standardised 10,000 reusable packaging items. Safia has led on product, helping the company define universal drop point design and standardised reusable packaging for scalability, allowing brands to develop their own packaging to operate across the platform. 

Safia also directed the company to design and publish it’s work in sustainability with a focus on delivering an LCA methodology that calculates impact down to every reuse by tracking reusable packaging with a digital ID across the platform.  

See video here : https://vimeo.com/405428110

As a result, CLUBZERØ is market leading with a record return rate of 95% across retail and 99% across closed buildings. Customers include NextGen consortium brands Starbucks, McDonald’s, Coca Cola, Yum Brands, Nestle, Wendy’s as well as leading food service company Baxter Storey, Cushman & Wakefield and retailer John Lewis & Partners.

LinkedIn

Contact: safia@clubzero.co

Twitter: @safiaqureshi
Instagram: @safia_qureshi

Ivan has been an active venture capital investor for the last 25 years and he is the co-founder of Five Seasons Ventures, the first European venture fund fully focused on consumer Foodtech.

He is passionate about product and technology innovation aimed at solving big challenges in the food industry: from alternative sources of proteins, to functional foods, from new models of food distribution, to the reduction of food waste.  At Five Seasons he invested, among others, in Butternut Box (DNVB pet nutrition), THIS.co (plant-based meat alternatives), Cortilia (D2C fresh food retailer), La Fourche (D2C organic groceries), Air-Up (reusable water bottle + flavour pods), KoRo (D2C natural healthy snaking), YFood Labs (meal replacements) and Just Spices (D2C spices; acq. by Kraft Heinz)

His experience includes structuring investments, organizational and strategy development, setting up governance for growth and planning for successful exits. 

In his spare time, he enjoys family life, fly fishing, and practicing jiu-jitsu with his son Adam.

Juliane Caillouette-Noble came to the Sustainable Restaurant Association as Development Director in 2016 after five years of running Jamie Oliver’s programmes for improving school food and food education across the UK.

The SRA is a not for profit membership organisation committed to accelerating change toward an environmentally restorative and socially progressive hospitality sector in the UK. As Development Director, Juliane’s role included designing and developing strategic partnerships and campaigns, ensuring that the impact and influence of the SRA grows along with the size of the membership body. Juliane became the Managing Director of the SRA in January and looks forward to working with the industry to build back better and greener post Covid.

Andrew is the founder of Big Idea Ventures (BIV). BIV’s purpose is to solve the world’s biggest challenges by supporting the world’s best entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers. Our first fund called the New Protein Fund I invests in plant-based, cell-based and fermentation enabled foods and ingredients to impact climate change, animal welfare and personal health. Investors include Tyson Foods, Temasek, Buhler, Givaudan, AAK, Bel Group, Avril and others.

BIV’s second fund is focused on working with Top US universities to create the future of food companies in rural communities and regions.

Andrew is an Advisory Board member for Tufts Nutrition Council. Friedman School Entrepreneurship Advisor. Harvard Business School graduate, Procter & Gamble brand management trained, Andrew spent a number of years as an entrepreneur growing companies.

Andrew is married, has a daughter and the toughest 10 lb fluffy white dog resembling Snowy from the Tin Tin books.

Sara is a conscious innovator, expert in how to buy consciously,  impact entrepreneur, and a transformational mentor. Her list of accomplishments include pioneering the world’s first 100% sustainable luxury denim brand and being the recipient of Grazia magazine’s award for sustainable entrepreneur of the year.

Alex has a wealth of expertise in the commercial and marketing sectors, as well as public services.

Her most recent role as Head of Marketing for NHS Blood and Transplant, focussed on engaging the public to support lifesaving blood and organ donation throughout the pandemic. Before that she was at Head of Marketing at Marks & Spencer, having worked across a number of categories during her time with the retailer, including produce, protein, hospitality, convenience and CSR policy with Plan A. She developed her FMCG experience at Ferrero working across a number of confectionery brands, including Kinder Chocolate and Ferrero Rocher.

She is also a board trustee for UFI VocTech Trust and Chair of their Ventures Committee a charitable trust which exists to further the development and adoption of technology to support vocational training.