V Fórum Cárnico y de la Proteína Alternativa

Athena is a former corporate lawyer from Australia with 8+ years of legal experience in the Australian hospitality, food & beverage, and franchising industry. Athena completed her MBA at IESE Business School in Barcelona in 2022 to pursue her passion for the food tech sector in a commercial capacity. Athena joined as Chief of Staff at Libre Foods, a biotech startup producing fungi based products, where she works hand in hand with the Founder and CEO supporting Libre Foods’ high-level strategy and day-to-day operations.

Biochemist from the University of Navarra. After his master's degree in Biotechnology he started working in private companies until he created his own businesses: Biotech Service and MOA Foodtech. MOA was born from the need to reduce the impact of the agri-food industry on the environment: MOA Foodtech combines biotechnology and artificial intelligence to convert waste and by-products from the agri-food industry into a ''next generation protein'' with high nutritional value and 100% sustainable.

Carlotte Lucas is the corporate engagement manager at the Good Food Institute Europe. The Good Food Institute Europe is an international NGO helping to build a more sustainable, healthy and just food system by transforming meat production. Carlotte works with companies and investors across the globe to drive investment, accelerate innovation, and scale the supply chain of alternative proteins—all faster than market forces alone would allow.

Daria Feldman, Ph.D.- Daria researched fungal growth and development for over 10 years at the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Daria received many awards for her research, including a prestigious scholarship from the president of Israel and the innovation prize of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Daria is the co-founder and CTO of Kinoko-tech, a food tech startup focused on fungal-based alternative protein.

Estefanía is a bioprocess engineer (PhD) from the University of Oviedo (ES), with a master in integrated management systems (quality, environment and occupational risk prevention). She has held positions as assistant lecturer at the University of Oviedo, JAE-DOC post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Food Science Research (CIAL-CSIC, ES), postdoctoral researcher at the KU Leuven (BE), scientific project manager at the European branch of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI Europe, BE) and senior scientist at the Norwegian Food Research Institute (Nofima, NO). Since 2020, she works as a scientific officer at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA, IT), with focus on the safety assessment of novel foods. Throughout her career, she has participated in 36 (inter)national research and innovation projects; she has co-authored 48 research articles, 7 EFSA scientific opinions, 1 book chapter, 92 contributions to (inter)national scientific conferences and 1 patent; she has co-supervised 46 (BSc, MSc and PhD) students; and she has carried out research stays at the Loughborough University (UK), Institute of Food Research (UK), University of Reading (UK) and Elea GmbH (DE).

Esteve Espuña Sargatal is a Computer Science engineer with an MBA from IESE (2012) and GMP from Harvard Business School (2021). Esteve led a career with a focus on innovation, first as an engineer, co-founding Noctua Tech, and later moving into Marketing at Samsung in South Korea. In 2014 Esteve joined the family business where he started the USA subsidiary, in 2019 he assumed the role of CEO. Esteve is also the president of INNOVACC an association that promotes innovation among Catalan companies in the meat and alternative protein area.

Pablo is a young biologist-entrepreneur who connects science with business. He received his degree in biological sciences from the University of Buenos Aires, where he wrote his thesis on the potential of fungi for water treatment and studied the interaction between bacteria-fungi. Since 2014, he has been working on the applicability of fungi in several projects. The most important was the evaluation and subsequent production of enzymes of agricultural interest. Now, he is Founder & COO at Innomy, he works on R&D projects, and he is going to start his PhD, whose objective is to optimize the use of mycelial networks, covering their potential use in multiple industries.

Raquel is a biochemist from Zaragoza, Spain. She studied the inner workings of cells using high resolution microscopy during her PhD in Heidelberg and Tübingen (Germany) and postdoc in Boulder, Colorado (USA) before her passion for science, food, and the environment brought her to Impossible Foods as a research scientist in 2021. Now, she researches and innovates the best proteins and fats to create nutritious and sustainable meat from plants in order to mitigate the climate change footprint of our modern food systems.

Licenciada y Doctora en Farmacia por la UB. Actualmente es Responsable del Programa de Seguridad y Funcionalidad Alimentarias y miembro del equipo de Coordinación Científica del IRTA (Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries). Su actividad de investigación se enfoca en la mejora de la seguridad y vida útil de los alimentos a través de tecnologías de procesado y (bio)conservación; en particular en el estudio y modelización del comportamiento de microorganismos patógenos, alterantes o de interés tecnológico mediante y ensayos de laboratorio (“challenge tests”, ensayos de deterioro) y microbiología predictiva, para su aplicación en la evaluación y gestión de riesgos microbiológicos. Ha liderado y participado en numerosos proyectos de investigación nacionales e internacionales. Co-autora de más de 100 publicaciones científicas, además de dictámenes científicos, artículos técnicos y capítulos de libro. Regularmente, contribuye como organizadora, ponente o docente en jornadas de transferencia del conocimiento, seminarios y docencia universitaria de grado y post-grado. Es miembro del comité editorial del International Journal of Food Microbiology y Secretaria de la Junta Ejecutiva del International Committee of Food Microbiology and Hygiene (ICFMH). Es miembro del Panel BIOHAZ de la Autoridad Europea en Seguridad Alimentaria (EFSA) y del Comité Científico Asesor de Seguridad Alimentaria de la Agencia Catalana de Seguridad Alimentaria (ACSA).

Wilco Meijer has been trained as a biologist at the University of Groningen. After his PhD at the Agricultural University Wageningen he joined NIZO food research as business development manager. Since 2003 he has been active as R&D leader in the dairy ingredient industry. From 2021 he is employed as head of Science and Technology at Quorn Foods.

Agricultural engineering (Polytechnic University of Catalonia, UPC, 1991) and PhD in agricultural engineering from the University of Lleida (1995). He has been Head of Postharvest Technical Service at the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA) from 2002 until 2018, when he became the Chief Executive Officer of IRTA. As a researcher, he has been involved in 37 national and international research projects and has published several articles in journals of scientific impact and dissemination. He has carried out research stays in several centers in the United States, Portugal and New Zealand. From the Postharvest Technical Service at IRTA, he has had constant interaction with the private sector and he has been involved in more than 20 major contracts and three patents.

With a degree in Journalism from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2003), he got involved in the exciting agri-food sector when he joined the Nova Ágora Group in 2008. He has coordinated the editorial staff of the publications Interempresas Agricultura, Grandes Cultivos, TecnoCARNE, iFood, ENEO and Almazaras, among others, being since 2016 the Head of Agri-food Area at Interempresas Media. Now, he manages all the sectors included in the Area at both commercial and editorial level.