Speakers
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Kees Cools
Executive Director
DöhlerGroupKees Cools studied Business Administration before starting his career in a Dutch fruit juice concentrate company that was a pioneer in the market as Europe’s first blender to sell standardised concentrated fruit juices. This gave him access to the fast growing European beverage industry. During the last 35 years, Kees has primarily operated at executive levels in the international ingredients business for juice and other beverages. Working for the DöhlerGroup with an integrated approach has further enhanced his particular knowledge of the global food and beverage markets. As an executive director of the DöhlerGroup he is responsible for the company’s newly founded Business Unit Juices & Fruits which requires close and frequent contact with key people in the beverage world, involving raw material producers, beverage packers and consumer and retail marketing specialists. Since 2005 Kees has been a member of the IFU executive committee.
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Thomas Hinderer
Chairman of the Executive Board
Eckes-Granini Group GmbHThomas Hinderer has served as Chairman of the Executive Board of Eckes-Granini Group GmbH in Nieder-Olm since June 2005. After completing his apprenticeship as an industrial business management assistant, Mr Hinderer graduated from university in Business Management. His first jobs included positions as a brand and product manager with Ritter Sport in Waldenbuch and Vileda in Weinheim. He later joined Birkel in Weinstadt (Danone Group), where he last served as Marketing Director. At Best Foods Deutschland (Heilbronn) – known for such brands as Knorr, Pfanni, Mondamin, Mazola and Dextro – Mr Hinderer held Managing Director positions in several different departments over a period of ten years. After managing the business affairs of the Maizena and Knorr brands, he served as Managing Director for all retail brands before advancing to the position of Supply Chain Director (responsible for plants, production, purchasing and logistics). Before joining the Eckes family, Mr Hinderer headed the Theo Müller Group of Aretsried for four years, serving initially as spokesman and later as Chairman of the Executive Board. Thomas Hinderer is married and has one daughter.
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Gary A. Hemphill
Managing Director and COO, Information Services
Beverage Marketing CorporationGary directs the company’s extensive information products and services. Gary has worked to develop and manage the only comprehensive North American beverage database. In addition, he has created and maintained proprietary beverage industry information systems for clients in the U.S. and Canada. Beverage Marketing publishes reports which cover soft drinks, bottled water, milk, beer, fruit beverages, New Age and functional beverages, wine, spirits, beverage packaging and more. Gary has more than 25 years experience in the beverage industry. He edited the trade publication Beverage Industry for ten years, and also directed new product publicity for the Pepsi-Cola Company. Gary is widely quoted in the press and has often been interviewed on both TV and radio on issues of critical importance to the beverage industry. Gary holds a bachelors degree in journalism from The Ohio State University and resides in New York City.
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Bill Hewins
Vice President, International
Welch’sBill Hewins currently serves as Vice President of International for Welch’s in Concord, Massachusetts. Bill and his Team have lead Welch’s International business to growth in excess of 10% CAGR for the past 25 years. Bill and his Team have opened and expanded the Welch’s Brand in markets from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean to Japan, China, Indonesia and the UK. Bill has worked in the consumer products industry with Bristol-Myers Drackett in Cincinnati, Ohio, and with Shaklee Corporation in San Francisco, California. Among other product categories he has extensive management experience in the food and beverage industry. Community service is important to Bill as he has served with a focus on youth and education. He believes in an active lifestyle which includes running, hiking, biking and golf.
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Robert Kay-Shuttleworth
Deputy Chairman
CanadeanAfter leaving school Robert did almost 6 years in the British army before joining a small trading house, developing a new business for them in West Africa. He then set up his own trading company which worked in Africa and the Middle East. Over time he became a specialist in Barter and Countertrade which took him to the Middle East and Eastern Europe where he also became involved in buying metals. As part of a barter deal he was involved in buying juicing oranges. Rob has worked for Canadean for 15 years and is actively involved in their work around the world. The company have expanded globally over the last decade and created regional teams to support local Canadean consultants. In recent times they have done syndicated or bespoke research in over 100 countries each year. He is a member of the Institute of Directors and Marketing Society in the UK. He is married and lives so far into the countryside that mobile phones don’t work.
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Simon Edgar
General Manager, Europe Juice
The Coca-Cola CompanySimon Edgar is the Director of The Coca-Cola Company’s European juice business. He has worked in the Coca-Cola system for the last 12 years with involvement in several juice businesses across Europe and Eurasia. As well as general oversight of Coca-Cola’s European juice business he has recently taken on operational responsibility for the business in North West Europe, including Coca-Cola’s relationship with innocent. Simon originates from New Zealand and has lived and worked in Asia/Pacific and throughout Europe.
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Michèle Lees
Director of Collaborative Research
Eurofins ScientificMichèle Lees holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Pure and Applied Chemistry from the University of Nottingham in the UK and a PhD in Molecular Chemistry from the University of Nantes in France. She has been working with Eurofins Scientific since 1990 in the Nantes laboratory in France, which hosts Eurofins Scientific’s R&D facilities and is one of the world’s leading laboratories for the use of isotopic techniques in food and beverage authentication and best known for its pioneering role in the development of the SNIF-NMR technique (Site specific Natural Isotopic Fractionation studied by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance). Michèle Lees is Director of Collaborative Research and has been principally involved in studies of food authenticity, including the management of several European funded research projects. Her main research work involves the development of new techniques to verify the authenticity of fruit juice and fruit-based products, wines and spirits, olive and other vegetal oils.
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Christian Lohbauer
President
CitrusBR – Brazilian Association of Citrus ExportersChristian Lohbauer was born in 1967. He has a Masters and a PhD in Political Science from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. From 1995 to 1997 he studied in the University of Bonn, Germany, with a scholarship of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. He was International Relations Manager of the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (FIESP) from 2002 to 2005 and during 2005 he was Deputy Secretary of International Relations of the Municipality of São Paulo. From February 2006 to March 2009 Christian was Executive Director of the Brazilian Chicken Producers and Exporters Association – ABEF. Since April 2009 he has been the President of CitrusBR, the Brazilian Association of Citrus Exporters.
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Professor Alan Crozier
Senior Research Fellow
School of Medicine, University of GlasgowProfessor Alan Crozier is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Medicine at the University of Glasgow in the UK. He has published extensively on plant hormones and purine alkaloids. The activities of his research group for the last 10-12 years have focused increasingly on dietary phenolic compounds in fruits, vegetables and beverages, including tea, coffee and fruit juices, and their fate within the body following ingestion in relation to their potentially beneficial effects on health.
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Ulrich Killeit
Head Technical Marketing EMEA
DSM Nutritional ProductsWith more than 30 years’ experience in technical marketing and application of vitamins, carotenoids and other food ingredients, Ulrich Killeit has acquired significant competence in the field of nutrification of food, beverages and healthcare supplements. Ulrich Killeit joined Roche Vitamins Division in August 1978, after he got his diploma in food technology at the university of Stuttgart-Hohenheim. He began as a Technical Service Manager for Germany, followed by various positions in marketing and regional management for Central & Eastern Europe. By 2003 Roche Vitamins Division were taken over by the Dutch company DSM. Ulrich is currently heading the Technical Marketing and Customer Applications Group for Food and Pharma, responsible for the Region Europe, Africa and Middle East.
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Roger Suddaby
Foodservice Team Manager
The Nielsen CompanyRoger Suddaby has 25 years experience in the UK Foodservice market working in manufacturer sales and consumer research. Roger’s Foodservice career experience in Beverages includes 10 years with Procter & Gamble and a similar tenure with Premier Foods. In 2005 Roger was appointed Head of Foodservice Market Research at Nielsen UK and currently works with a broad range of manufacturer and distributor clients advising on latest category trends and recommending future investment strategies. Current Soft Drinks Nielsen Foodservice clients in the UK include CCE, Pepsico, Britvic and Innocent.
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Javier Artiach
Director, Iberia and Latin America
CanadeanJavier Artiach is a board director of Canadean, responsible for the regions of Iberia and Latin America. He studied Business Administration at the University of Sarriko in Bilbao. From 1982 until 1985 he was Manager of Diaral S.L Food and Beverage Distribution Company, then from 1985-1986 he was Manager in the USA of Eurocaviar Ltd and the Spanish branch of Eurocaviar, which is the producer of Mujjol Caviara. He joined Canadean in 1988 as a consultant for Spain and Portugal. In 1993 Canadean opened a branch in Spain and he took the position of General Manager. Since then and after a consolidated position of Canadean in the Iberian Peninsula, Javier took the responsibility of Director Iberia and Latin America. Canadean operates in countries including Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia, Peru, Honduras and Guatemala as well as in 25 Caribbean countries, with the addition of Uruguay, Ecuador and Bolivia in the pipeline. From 1998 Javier is also on the board of directors in a Spanish Food Company Industrias Alimentarias de Navarra (IAN) as the President assistance with responsibilities in the company management. IAN production has production facilities in China and Spain and reach 90 M € turnover in 2006. IAN is present in the food sector in Spain since 1972 as the driver of the Vegetable Industry. Also he’s board member of a financial company looking after investment in small caps in Iberia, working closely with the financial institutions and companies in Iberia.
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Alex Masters
Business Intelligence Editor
FoodnewsAlex Masters is for Foodnews, a division of Informa. She joined the company in 2003 and spent six years reporting on food industry and financial news, with a particular focus on European markets, before becoming an editor on Foodnews. Her specialist areas include UK and European retail, company analysis and consumer trends.
