Sofia is a digital transformation leader passionate about shaping the future of Smart Manufacturing. She has played key parts in transformation journeys for global companies like Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca and Mars, combining expertise in OT/IT Foundations, Agile Product Lifecycle Management, and AI/Advanced Analytics to help organisations scale innovation and unlock data-driven value.

With a career spanning some of the UK’s best-known food and drink brands, Helen brings deep expertise in embedding sustainability into commercial strategy. She supports businesses at every stage of their journey - building cross-functional capability, unlocking organisational momentum and designing climate-positive roadmaps that stick. Before joining Future Food Movement, Helen led transformational sustainability work at Sainsbury’s, Costa Coffee and Cafédirect, integrating ESG into finance, strategy, product, brand and supply chains. She’s passionate about collaborative learning, systems thinking and empowering teams to move from intent to action - ensuring sustainability becomes everyone’s business, not just a function.

Ed has over 10 years of experience within the food, beverage, and food supplement industry, including regulatory compliance and nutritional review of current and innovative products and brands. He holds an MSc in Human Nutrition and Metabolism from the University of Aberdeen, an Executive MBA from HULT Ashridge Business School, and is a registered nutritionist (RNutr). At Ashbury, Ed focuses on identifying future regulatory changes and trends to provide regulatory advice to a wide range of industry clients within retail and manufacturing.

Keith Thornhill started his career completing an apprenticeship with British Rail Engineering Ltd in Crewe and entered the automation industry in 1986 as an internal sales engineer. After key account management and business manager roles, Keith joined Siemens in 2001 as a business development manager and now heads up the Food and Beverage business for Siemens UK and Ireland Keith’s career has mainly been focused on encouraging innovation for UK packaging machinery manufactures and latterly is identifying the operational efficiency and production flexibility benefits that Integrated automation technology and digitalisation will deliver to food and beverage manufacturers.

Keith was previously Chairman of the Industry Advisory Board for the National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University and is a member of the IMechE Food and Drink committee.

Antony So is a London-based consultant and analyst specialising in food policy and the politics of food systems.

He has lived, worked and studied in Switzerland, Paris, Brussels, Washington, D.C, and the UK. He has previously worked with major universities and research institutes, international and national trade associations, multinational companies, chambers of commerce, strategic communications agencies and on several political campaigns.

He holds Master’s degrees from the Centre for Food Policy (City University of London) and the European Institute (London School of Economics).

Michelle works with global food and beverage brands to support digitalisation programmes that drive compliance, innovation, and sustainability through connected ecosystems. She helps organisations enable growth, reduce risk, and improve digital operations by bringing supplier, product, and regulatory data together.

Dominic focuses on regulatory compliance and defence for the food, retail & hospitality sectors; he helps clients launch and maintain products on the market.

Food law is incredibly diverse - from launching products in multiple member states to judicially reviewing the Department of Health to keep clients' products on the market to food safety prosecutions. He was heavily involved in advising on the horsemeat scandal and have a deep interest in supply chain management.

Although based in the UK Dominic's practice is global. He has advised on the launch of new retailer stores and the adaption of UK policies to become compliant in the Netherlands (covering safety, trading law and alcohol licensing) as well as Netherlands-based website delivery. He has advised on food launches in over a dozen member states simultaneously and product recalls in Germany as well as providing support for the launch of cosmetics products across UAE.

Evette leads the Technical team at PrepWorld, where she oversees compliance, food safety, quality, brand integrity, and sustainability-linked business continuity. Since joining in early 2024, she has played a pivotal role in shaping frameworks that protect product availability and elevate quality standards, ensuring the brand continues to deliver with confidence and consistency.

With over 15 years of experience across growing, supply chain, processing, and retail in the fresh produce sector, Evette brings both deep expertise and a passion for practical problem-solving. Her leadership is rooted in data-driven risk analysis, horizon scanning, and empowering teams to tackle challenges head-on. Evette is passionate about building strong, values-led cultures and believes in creating space for people to grow and thrive. Her fresh thinking and technical insight have helped PrepWorld remain resilient through recent supply chain volatility, strengthening its commitment to quality and innovation.

Carl McInerney is commercial director UK & Ireland at Connected Load Carrier, driving a collaborative ecosystem and setting the standard for digital supply chains. With over 30 years in international FMCG and Food & Grocery including Coca-Cola and Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD), he helps retailers, producers and service providers turn physical supply chains into digital advantages. His focus is on helping organisations improve resilience, collaboration and performance across multi-party supply chains.

Siska Lannoo has spent the past decade building and scaling B2B software across industries, with a consistent focus on customer adoption, operational fit, and real business impact. Since the early 2010s, she has guided thousands of software implementations, ensuring technology supports how people actually work, not the other way around. Through hands-on experience applying AI in regulated environments, Siska developed a strong conviction: AI should reduce administrative burden without replacing human judgment. As founder of Backbone, Siska works closely with food manufacturers to explore practical, high-impact uses of AI in quality and compliance - helping teams focus on decisions, risk, and improvement rather than documentation and manual checks.

Darren is the Business Development Director for Performance Solutions by Milliken and has a career spanning more than 25 years, holding senior roles in Continuous Improvement, Health & Safety & Site Leadership. Darren has supported global and pan-European clients across several countries/languages/cultures in the chemical, automotive, textile, food and paper/packaging industries. Darren in an SME in Cultural, Operational, Health & Safety & Supply Chain Excellence, partnering with organisations at all levels in the strategic and tactical implementation of excellence & improvement. Darren holds a bachelor’s degree in safety, health & environmental Management, is a six-sigma black belt who also holds diplomas in Industrial Engineering and Management.

Stephen is responsible for leading IFST policy development and engagement on scientific and technical issues, and policy relevant to IFST mission in education, skills and professional recognition. In addition, he supports the External Affairs Advisory Committee and Consultations Group. In this role, Stephen engages with key government departments from the UK nations, key opinion leader academics, and food sector industry leaders to support the IFST mission. Since graduating from University of Sheffield with a BSc. (Hons) in Physiology and a Ph.D. in Gastrointestinal Physiology and Nutrition, Stephen had an academic career in research and teaching prior to joining Mars Inc. During his time with Mars Inc., Stephen worked in a variety of research and Scientific and Regulatory Affairs roles for the organisation in European and Global roles, and in Confectionery, Food, and Petfood sectors of the business.

Amanda Johnston is Director of Innovation at Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Food Innovation Centre (AFIC), where she provides strategic leadership for the Centre’s innovation portfolio. Her work drives sustainable income growth, high performing external partnerships, impactful regional and national engagement, and strengthened knowledge exchange and commercial outcomes.

Amanda began her career in the food industry, holding management roles at Northern Foods and Cadbury Trebor Bassett. Over more than eight years, she gained extensive hands on experience in blue chip food manufacturing before moving into academia. She has spent nearly two decades at Sheffield Hallam University, leading research, innovation, project delivery and external engagement activities, and has been part of AFIC since its launch in 2014.

Her work centres on delivering healthy and sustainable innovation for the food and drink sector by bringing together industry, academia and wider stakeholders. Amanda’s expertise spans deep sector knowledge, partnership brokering at regional, national and international levels, securing funding to accelerate research and innovation, and identifying practical applications for emerging technologies across the food and drink industry. In addition to her role at AFIC, Amanda is part of the Food and Federation’s Technology Task Force and serves on the board of Made Smarter Yorkshire & Humber, supporting the strategic development and delivery of the region’s manufacturing digital adoption programme.

Max James leads transformation across the food and drink industry, working across every stage of the end‑to‑end supply chain and consistently delivering bottom‑line benefits for clients in the tens of millions per annum. He is particularly passionate about addressing the knock‑on effects of well‑intentioned but siloed decision‑making, ensuring that consumers ultimately receive the right products at the right price.