Speaker Biographies

Speaker Biographies

Moderator

Anna Maria Corazza Bildt

Member, European Parliament

Anna Maria Corazza Bildt is a Member of the European Parliament. She was elected in June 2009 by the votes of the Swedish people for the “Moderate” Party and she is part of the European People Party group (EPP). She is a member of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, the Civil liberties, Home Affairs and Migration Committee, the EU Turkey Joint Parliamentary Commission and the Delegation for the countries of the Arab peninsula (DARP).

Her professional career started in 1987 in the field of development cooperation - working for UNESCO, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome, at the Delegation to the OECD and the World Bank in Paris - and in the field of human rights for the United Nations in Geneva.

Anna Maria Corazza Bildt was the longest serving civilian in the peace missions during the Balkan wars, for 6 years, from 1992 to 1996 for the United Nations in Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, and from 1996 to 1998 for the first European Union post war reconstruction operation in Sarajevo. She lived in the besieged Sarajevo and moved to Stockholm directly from Sarajevo in 1999 after having married Carl Bildt.

Anna Maria Corazza Bildt is also an active entrepreneur. She is Co-founder of ItalianTradition.com -which specialises in promoting and selling Italian quality food in Europe, in particular traditional and typical foods from her region - and of the "Antico Borgo di Tabiano Castello", which manages the Relais de Charme in the historic town of her family in the Parma hills.

In 2002 she published the Swedish bestseller, “From Parma with love, people, food and tradition”. She is a member of the Board of the Italian Chamber of Commerce for Sweden. Quality of food has been her core issue in her professional and political career. For her commitment, she was awarded many prices such as the “Grand Officer in the Order of the Star of the Italian Solidarity” by the Italian President Giorgio Napolitano for the high merits acquired as Italian living abroad, in particularly in contributing to the diffusion of Italian genuine food products in the Swedish markets. She was also given the “Silver sun” Women entrepreneur of the year, by Italian handicrafts organization Confartigianato in 2009, and she was awarded the Price Axel Munthe, Villa San Michele for promoting good relations between Italy and Sweden and for her commitment for human rights during the Balkan wars also in 2009.

Anna Maria has been rapporteur in the European Parliament on "A more efficient and fairer retail market in Europe" and has recently been appointed rapporteur for "An internal market for services: state of play and next steps". She has been responsible for an opinion from the Internal Market Committee on "How to avoid food wastage - strategies for a more efficient food chain in the EU". Besides this she runs her own campaign "Basta to Food Waste" where she try to raise awareness and influence stakeholders and the public opinion to throw away less food.

She speaks fluent English, French, Italian and Swedish. She also understands Spanish, German and to some extent Serbo-Croatian. She is a tennis instructor and has played at high level.

Eric Poudelet

Director, Safety of the food chain, DG Health and Consumers, European Commission

Eric Poudelet graduated from the Veterinary School of Maisons-Alfort in 1975, then in Tropical Veterinary Medicine in 1976.

From 1977 to 1983, he worked in Reunion Island (French Overseas Department) first as responsible of a 3.000 bovine farm, then as Deputy Departmental Director of Veterinary Services.

From 1983 to 1988, he was appointed Departmental Director of Veterinary Services of Vendée (800.000 bovines, 500.000 habitants). He joined the European Commission in 1988. First as National Detached Expert for 3 years in the Veterinary Inspection Office (DG AGRI), then he was appointed European Civil Servant in September 1991. In 1998 he was transferred with this Office to DG XXIV. In Mars 1999, he was appointed Head of Unit in DG AGRI (Legislation, public health, veterinary). This unit was transferred to DG SANCO in 2000 and integrated in the new directorate in charge of food safety; Since January 2009, he is Director at the Direction "Safety of the Food Chain" of the Health & Consumers Directorate General.

Richard Swannell

Director of Design & Waste Prevention, WRAP

Richard has spent his career working on ways of reducing our impact on the environment. Richard joined WRAP in 2004 where he led the team that created and delivered the innovative ‘Courtauld Commitment’. This was the first agreement of its kind between WRAP and all the main UK retailers to reduce packaging and food waste. His current remit is to lead WRAP’s Design & Waste Prevention where he is responsible for driving improved design and resource efficiency in key resource intensive sectors such as Food and Drink, and Construction. This includes the Love Food Hates Waste campaign that has helped consumers reduce the amount of food waste they throw away.

Julian Hilton-Johnson

Vice-President Corporate Relations & Chief of Staff to the President, McDonald's Europe

As Chief of Staff, Julian is responsible for the co-ordination of our pan-European planning activities, working with a broad range of McDonald’s business and functional leaders. He also has responsibility for our Corporate Relations strategies in Europe including media relations, external communications and public affairs, as well as internal communication and crisis management.

Julian joined McDonald’s in 1999 and has held various positions in corporate relations, human resources and legal services in McDonald’s Europe, Northern Europe and the UK. He has also acted as Chair of the UK Pension Scheme and a trustee of Ronald McDonald House Charities. Most recently he was responsible for Human Resources in Europe.

Prior to McDonald’s, Julian held positions within Diageo at Burger King Europe, Middle East, Africa and at Freshfields, solicitors, in London and Madrid. He was previously a Research Assistant at the House of Commons.

Sophie Hieke

Consumer Insights Manager, European Food Information Council

Dr. Sophie Hieke is the Consumer Insights Manager at the European Food Information Council (EUFIC), a non-profit organisation aiming at providing science-based information on food safety & quality and health & nutrition to the media, health and nutrition professionals and educators, in a way that promotes consumer understanding. She is also the Principal Coordinator of the EU FP7 funded project CLYMBOL – Role of health claims and symbols in consumer behaviour.
Sophie studied Business Administration at Munich School of Management, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and Universidad Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo, followed by a Master of Business Research and a PhD at the Institute for Market-based Management. Her dissertation was titled "Marketing & Public Policy: The Case of Nutrition Labelling on Foodstuffs" where, among others, she dealt with empirical consumer research on perception, attitude, and comprehension of food labels. Her main areas of research include quantitative methods and experimental research on consumer behaviour. She is a research fellow at the Munich Centre of Health Sciences and the Center for Marketing and Public Policy Research at Villanova Business School, Philadelphia. Sophie further serves as a lecturer as well as a thesis supervisor at the Munich Business School.
Sophie regularly attends notable international conferences on marketing and public policy and has several publications, including in the Journal of Consumer Affairs, Public Health Nutrition and the Journal of Brand Management. She also serves as a reviewer for Public Health Nutrition, Appetite, International Journal of Advertising, and the Journal of Brand Management.

Adela Torres Calatayud

Environment Manager, Mercadona, S.A.

Adela Torres is a biologist. She specialized in molecular genetics, and worked as a technician in the European Arabidopsis Genome Sequencing Project. Later she worked for five years as a research assistant in the field of plant genetics at Oregon State University (USA).

She currently works at the Environment Department in Mercadona, which she joined in 2007

Philippe Thery

VP sourcing & manufacturing , McCain, Continental Europe

Since January 21ST 2013, Philippe Théry was appointed Vice-Président Procurement Continental Europe.

Prior to his current job, Philippe Théry had been in charge of all McCain facilities in Continental Europe since November 2008 and responsible for driving the Safety and Environmental agenda for the region as well as the regional technical services department.

The McCain Continental Europe manufacturing network is made of 8 facilities located in 4 countries (The Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and France).

Philippe Théry served as Production Director for the French and the Polish plants and also held different positions within manufacturing among which a most significant one as plant manager, responsible for the start up of the newly built Matougues facility (26 tons output/hour).

Holder of a Food Technology Engineering degree, Philippe started his career in McCain in 1990 in manufacturing. He grew within the organization in various positions in manufacturing in Continental Europe and in Canada, as production manager and early in his career actively participated in the commissioning of major investments (line capacity increase in Harnes both flakes and frozen French Fries).

Philippe also broadened his skills as Sales Director for our key customer McDonald’s in the former Southern Europe McCain region and in the meantime getting an MBA from the University of Lille.

Richard China

Director, Liaison Office with the European Union and Belgium, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations

Richard Alan China, a national of the United Kingdom, holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from the University of Wales and a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Extension from the University of Reading. He started his career in 1977 with the United Kingdom’s Overseas Development Administration serving in the Solomon Islands and then in Liberia.

From 1981 to 1991 he worked in Angola, Brazil, Ethiopia, Libya, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Portugal, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Togo on projects financed by the International Financing Institutions, the private sector and the United Nations.

He joined the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Investment Centre in 1992, leading the preparation of programmes and projects in Africa and Asia financed by the International Financing Institutions. In 2002, he was appointed Chief, Rehabilitation and Humanitarian Policies in the Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation Division.

In 2008 he was appointed Director, Policy and Programme Development Support Division. Effective 1 November 2012 he was appointed Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the European Union and Belgium.

Else Krueck

Director, Environment & CSR, McDonald´s Europe

Else is an acknowledged expert in CSR and environmental issues within McDonald´s and has worked for the company for over 20 years.

She is passionate about the sustainability cause and ensures that strategies and measures that make economic, operational and sustainability sense are implemented in Europe and shared across the system.

She joined the McDonald´s Europe Development Company in 1989 in London - working as Assistant to the President.

She relocated to McDonald´s Germany in 1991 to become part of the newly founded Environment Department to create the environmental programme - initially, to address the challenges of packaging and recycling, then moving on to secure the overall improvement of the environmental footprint of the restaurants.

In 1999, Else returned to McDonald´s Europe to lead the development of the overall environmental strategy for the European markets, including the implementation of minimum standards in all restaurants across Europe.

This has evolved to the current role of supporting the broader sustainability framework and further integrating sustainability across all areas of the business, developing signature programs, and leading efforts specifically on Environmental Responsibility and Community.

Jan Broeze

Senior Scientist, Sustainable Processing, Wageningen UR Food & Biobased Research and FUSIONS project

From an integrative perspective Jan Broeze and his collegues work on effective mapping of agro-food chain inefficiencies (including losses and suboptimal valorisation of side streams). He combines his background on applied mathematics (University of Twente) with product and process research of collegue scientist and other research partners in national and international projects.

Typical applied results of his work are process innovations by food processors resulting in substantially reduced product losses. Other solutions he works on is increasing shelf life for reduction of spoilage and and more valuable valorisations of by-products. He develops mathematical models for sustainability assessment (LCA-exergy methods).

Olaf Fennis

Project Developer, Waste to Biobased, Attero

Olaf Fennis is a passionate specialist in organic waste and its contribution to the biobased economy.

Olaf is active at Attero in the field of digestion since 2010. First through secondment as projectmanager and interim plantmanager, but nowadays as a business developer ‘Waste to Biobased’. Currently Attero is investing and innovating in a transition from waste treatment towards production of high value resources out of waste. Chain approach, cooperation, knowledge sharing and good communication are the key success factors in this subject. Production of bioplastics and proteins out of organic waste are examples of existing innovation projects within Attero in which Olaf is involved.

Olaf started his career as an environmental engineer in the year 2000. He built up experience with consulting companies in the operable sector, such as waste treatment. In 2007 Olaf switched to Royal Haskoning as a project manager in waste treatment techniques such as combustion, gasification and composting. He developed himself to a specialist in the field of biomass and digestion of solid organic (food) waste.

This led to his function as market manager biomass for Royal Haskoning in January 2011. In that role he developed the Biobased Economy Platform in which he linked several industries and Governments together to realise the transition towards a sustainable future.

Attero is a strong and dynamic player on the Dutch waste market. Although the name Attero only exists since 2009, we are active in waste treatment since the year 1929. Attero processes domestic, organic and mineral waste for 40% of all Dutch households (or over 6 million people) in almost 20 treatment plants. Next to that we also treat commercial waste streams. Part of this is organic waste from the food industry. For this McDonalds is one of our respected clients.

Jacki Davis

Managing Director, Meade Davis Communications

Jacki Davis is a leading commentator and analyst on European Union affairs. She is an experienced journalist, speaker and moderator of high-level events both in Brussels and in EU national capitals, the editor of many publications, a regular broadcaster on television and radio news programmes, and a Senior Adviser to the European Policy Centre think tank. Jacki has been based in Brussels for 19 years, and was previously Communications Director of the European Policy Centre; editor-in-chief of E!Sharp, a magazine on the EU launched in 2001; and launch editor of European Voice, a Brussels-based weekly newspaper on EU affairs owned by The Economist Group, from 1995-2000.