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Preliminary Speakers

More Speakers To Be Announced Soon

Abin Kuriakose serves as the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at World Business Chicago (WBC), the City of Chicago’s economic development organization. In this role, he spearheads initiatives targeting technology, innovation, and startup entrepreneurship. Abin manages a portfolio of programs aimed at fostering startup growth, attracting STEM talent, and forging partnerships with corporations, universities, and national labs to bolster the region’s innovation sector. He’s the lead organizer of the Chicago Venture Summit Future-of-Food, which saw successful editions in 2022 and 2023, including the largest summit in 2023 with over 1,000 global participants. A native of Chicagoland, Abin brings a wealth of experience in economic development and public policy, with a background in Cook County Government, one of the largest counties in the United States. Recognized as an Emerging Leader by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in 2022, Abin is also a 2018 Civic Leaders Academy Fellow of the University of Chicago. Additionally, he was appointed by Governor J.B. Pritzker in 2019 as a member of the State of Illinois’ Asian American Employment Plan Advisory Council.

Abin Kuriakose

Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer

Andrew Ive

Founder/Managing General Partner

Angela Anandappa

Annette Manusevich (she/her) is the Farming Campaign Manager at World Animal Protection, where she advocates for farmed animals and works to change perceptions around factory farming through education, outreach, and policy change. A dedicated animal advocate, Annette brings a science-focused background and years of experience to her efforts in advancing novel and sustainable solutions to improve the lives of all animals.

Annette Manusevich

Farming Campaign Manager

Ben heads investment advisory for BERA, and works closely with clients on their alternative protein investment portfolios. He has invested as an angel in plant-based, precision fermentation, and cultivated meat alternative protein companies for over a decade. Previously, he worked in investment banking at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, was an investment analyst at Allianz, headed marketing for a leading Asia hedge fund, and raised billions of dollars from institutional investors. He has an MA from the University of California, Berkeley, and has earned the right to use the CFA designation.

Ben Happ

I'm a dedicated problem-solver interested in all things food and bioprocessing. Are you looking to scale a new food ingredient, design a processing facility or equipment line, or just want to talk business strategy? I'd love to chat! I have experience working with dozens of food and industrial biotech companies developing new ingredients, products, and processes across a wide range of technologies including fermentation, commodity crops, alt protein, liquid separations, extrusion, and functional beverages. I also have led teams designing and building facilities or processes at the laboratory, pilot, or production scale. I enjoy a hands-on leadership style and am equally excited to build and develop a team as I am to dig in independently and conquer the next challenge. I am open to networking or consulting/advising opportunities, and always willing to help connect into my network of industry professionals, business leaders, job seekers, equipment manufacturers, pilot facilities, co-packers, and others.

Brian Jacobson

Associate Director of Strategic Operations

Brian P. Sylvester is a Partner at international law firm Perkins Coie, resident in the firm’s Washington DC Office. He is a leading authority on food tech regulation, and serves as a trusted advisor to global brands, startups, life science companies, investors, and trade associations. Brian’s regulatory practice spans FDA and USDA regulatory strategy and compliance from “farm to fork” and includes new product development, labeling and advertising and crisis management, corporate transactions and litigation. In the area of food and beverage, Brian has extensive experience developing regulatory strategies to commercialize a range of food tech innovations, including transgenic crops and alternative proteins like cultivated meat and fermentation-derived food ingredients. He draws on his tenure as a former regulator at USDA to counsel clients on strategic considerations around engagement with and advocacy before USDA and FDA on numerous complex issues, including those of first impression. Brian is a prolific author and frequent speaker at industry-leading events in the United States, the European Union, China, Israel, and other parts of the world, and is regularly called upon to offer insights on trending legal issues by preeminent industry and global publications.

Brian P. Sylvester

Caroline Cotto

Director, NECTAR

Chris Biondolilo

Director Bioprocessing; Sr. Project Manager

Christie Lagally is the powerhouse founder and CEO of Rebellyous Foods, a food production technology company working to make plant-based meat price-competitive with animal-based meat. Lagally began her career in the aerospace industry working on testing, designing, and manufacturing commercial airplanes at Boeing. Now at Rebellyous, she uses her expertise to pioneer novel manufacturing equipment that tackles the two most significant obstacles facing the plant-based meat industry: cost and quality at scale. Lagally isn't just a CEO; she's a visionary engineer, revolutionizing the future of food.

Christie Lagally

CEO and Founder

Winston Sun, the product manager of Angel Yeast Europe, with a food science Ph.D background, is responsible for the microbial protein of Angel Yeast, who has the biggest microbial protein production capacity in the world. Winston's tasks are to make sure the current projects run smoothly and drive innovation of the new projects.

Dr. Winston Sun

Product Manager

Elysabeth Alfano is the CEO of VegTech™ Invest, the Advisor to the Plant-based Innovation & Climate ETF, EATV, listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Elysabeth is an expert in investing in food systems transformation and speaks internationally on the intersection of investing, sustainability, and our global food supply system. She recently spoke at the U.N. Global Leaders Compact Summit, the United Nations Climate Change Summit, COP27 and COP28, Yale University and several Bloomberg Intelligence events. Elysabeth began her career with Kellogg Company working on Special K and Frosted Mini-Wheats before investing for a small family office. A graduate of Northwestern University and the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Elysabeth consults and advises, through her company Alfano Advisory Services, C-Suite Executives on the sustainable food industry landscape, direction and whitespaces. Lastly, Elysabeth hosts the Plantbased Business Hour, a podcast which features the CEOs and business leaders in the industry. The Plantbased Business Hour is considered “The Gold Standard” for those who want to understand, participate in, and capitalize on the growing Plant-based Innovation sector. She is also the host of Upside & Impact: Investing for Change, distributed on the New York Stock Exchange website platform, ETFCentral.com. Elysabeth contributes to ESG Clarity, WGN Radio, Vegconomist, CAIA and FinTechTV on a regular basis. Linkedin here.

Elysabeth Alfano

Hannah is a leader in novel food regulations and has over 15 years experience in developing veterinary, animal feed, and food products for regulatory approval in the EU and other global markets.

She is passionate about alternative proteins and foodtech, and founded Atova Regulatory Consulting in 2022 to help companies navigate the complex requirements needed for regulatory approval.

She has worked extensively on cell-cultured products, fermentation and precision fermentation products, algae and seaweeds, and traditional foods - preparing regulatory roadmaps, providing support on study design and statistics through to preparing novel food dossiers & traditional food notifications.

Hannah Lester

CEO & Principal Consultant

Kaitlin is Director of Strategic Partnerships and Public Affairs at Clever Carnivore, Chicago's first cultivated meat company, working at the intersection of strategy, partnerships, innovation, and commercial growth. Kaitlin previously worked in development for the Good Food Institute, a global alternative protein think tank and serves on the External Committee for the Chapel Hill Alt. Protein Project at her alma mater, UNC Chapel Hill.

Kaitlin Grady

Director of Strategic Partnerships and Public Affairs

Kantha Shelke, Ph.D., CFS, IFT Fellow, teaches food safety regulations at Johns Hopkins University, and is a principal at Corvus Blue LLC, a food science and research firm that expedites development and commercialization of new food products and technologies with science and sensibility. Kantha is a member of the Faculty Advisory Board on Food and Agriculture at McGill University, Montreal, and the Faculty Advisory Board at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, Tempe, Arizona. She is a contributing editor for Prepared Foods magazine, and PLMALive! video magazine. When not teaching or working with clients, she helps advance the understanding of food science and nutrition, food safety, and regulations in the marketplace.

Kantha Shelke

Senior Lecturer, Regulatory Science and Food Safety Regulation

Kim is a safety and regulatory consultant working with Vireo Advisors since 2014. She brings expertise in evaluating the safety of novel foods and helps companies achieve regulatory approval for their innovative products. She works with industrial, governmental, and academic collaborators on the safety, benefits, and risk assessment of alternative proteins and other biobased materials. She was the lead author of seminal papers on food safety considerations for the cultured meat and seafood industry (Ong et al. 2021, Ong et al. 2023), and is helping lead the New Harvest/Vireo Cultured Meat Safety Initiative (CMSI) to bring together industry, regulators, academia, non-profits, and other stakeholders to address safety questions and stimulate public research on the safety of cultured meat and seafood. She served as a Vice-Chair on the 2022 FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on the Scientific Advice on Cell-Based Food Products and Food Safety Considerations. Kim received a Ph.D. in Physiology, Cell, and Developmental Biology from the University of Alberta, a M.Sc. in Environmental Management and Policy from Lund University in Sweden.

Kimberly Ong

Safety and Regulatory Consultant

Laine Clark serves as the Senior Corporate Engagement Manager, Innovation, for the Good Food Institute. In this role, she helps emerging as well as established companies in the alternative protein sector navigate scaling milestones. In addition to founding her own company that she exited through acquisition in 2016, she has worked with numerous startups for more than 20 years. Since 2017, she has been an Entrepreneur in Residence for Georgetown University’s Entrepreneurship Initiative at the McDonough School of Business. Additionally, she has served as an entrepreneurship mentor for George Washington University’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, including engagements with the NSF I-Corps Program and the Korean Innovation Center. Laine holds a BA in Communications from Wake Forest University. She is based in Raleigh, NC.

Laine Clark

Innovation and Entrepreneurship Manager

Lou Cooperhouse is founder, President & CEO at BlueNalu, a global leader in the development of cell-cultured seafood, which will be healthy for people, humane for sea life, sustainable for our planet, and result in a food-secure solution for nations around the world.
He is recognized as a leading global authority in food innovation, business and product differentiation, technology commercialization, company formation/incubation, and industry cluster formation; and as a results-driven professional with the ability to build, develop and transform organizations and teams. His 40-year career in the food industry includes extensive entrepreneurial expertise leading cross-functional teams in a wide array of settings, including new business startups, multinational corporations, foodservice and retail operations, non-profits and trade associations, and university food incubation programs.

Lou also currently serves as Chairman of the Rutgers University Food Innovation Center, and previously served as a founder and the Executive Director of this award-winning program. He’s also served on the Board of Directors of the International Business Innovation Association; President of the New Jersey Business Incubation Network; President of the New Jersey Food Processors Association; and on the Boards of the Refrigerated Foods Association and United Fresh Produce Association.

Previously, Lou served as President & CEO of Food Spectrum, LLC, where he provided a broad array of strategic consulting and business management expertise to the food industry; as President & COO of F&S Produce, a leading regional supplier of fresh-cut produce and value-added refrigerated foods; and as Co-Founder, President and CEO of MenuDirect Corporation, a unique health, wellness, and nutrition company. Earlier in his career, Lou held positions of increasing responsibility at Campbell’s Soup, ConAgra, and Nestlé-funded Culinary Brands in areas of business development, product development, quality assurance, and operations. He received a MS in Food Science and BS in Microbiology, both from Rutgers University, and has served as an Adjunct Professor at the Rutgers Business School.

Lou Cooperhouse

Founder, President & CEO

Maria Cho

Mark Warner

Matt Spence

Managing Director and Global Head of Venture Capital Banking

Melissa Musiker, is the Interim Head of Communications at UPSIDE Foods, the leading cultivated meat company. She is also the Founder and Principal of Six Mile Creek Strategy, a strategic communications consultancy specializing in life sciences, ag tech, food tech, and biotech. Known for translating complex topics for lay audiences, she excels in driving business outcomes through science-centered storytelling; guiding companies through critical business inflection points to enhance reputation and valuation. In addition, Melissa serves as an Advisor at the Cornell Center for Life Science Ventures and Mentor at Cornell University eLab. Previously, she was Senior Director of International Public Affairs at McDonald's, overseeing global public affairs across 119 markets and a communication strategy consultant at APCO Worldwide and Mission North. Melissa holds a Master in Public Policy, Health Policy from Georgetown University and a BS in Nutritional Sciences from Cornell University. She is also a Registered Dietitian.

Melissa Musiker

Upside, Interim Head of Comms

Mervyn de Souza Ph.D. is a passionate and seasoned business leader with a unique combination of commercial and technical experience, having driven R&D innovation and commercialization of new products. He has been successful at identifying new market opportunities, connecting value delivery with financial success. Mervyn has developed and executed sustainable growth initiatives at Cargill inc., Sensient Technologies, Tate & Lyle and Edlong Flavors. Most recently he served as Entrepreneur in Residence at Ferment.co before joining Ginkgo Bioworks, where he is Senior Director, Business Development. Mervyn does not shy away from challenging the status quo, while focusing on growth opportunities and working cross-functionally to drive win-win outcomes across a wide range of disciplines. He is delighted to be on the advisory board for the FPP meeting in Chicago and have the opportunity to speak about synthetic biology solutions to realize the need for affordable, high quality, sustainable protein production globally.

Mervyn de Souza

Senior Director Business Development

Dr. Nadji Rekhif is currently a principal scientist at Nestle development center Solon Ohio, leading the Flavor stream of Frozen Meals, Pizza, and snacking food categories. Over the past 6 years, he has been driving flavoring systems development and application in meat analogues. He is a member of IFT Protein division and Food Sciences leadership. Dr. Nadji Rekhif received his Master and Ph.D. in Biotechnology and Food Industry from Poly-Technique Institute of Lorraine in Nancy, France. He’s a Senior lecturer at The University of Akron, School of Nutrition and Dietetics. He holds many scientific papers and patents.

Nadji Rekhif

Principal Scientist

Nicki Briggs

Founding Chair/Founder

Paul Shapiro

Ryan brings a diverse set of process instrumentation and automation in terms of experience, working in demanding flow applications over hygienic valves through the physical layer for signal transmission and a uniform access to device intelligence.
After his engagement with Emerson Process Management, Brooks Instrument, GEA Tuchenhagen GmbH and Turck, Ryan leads the Global Industry Division Food for the KROHNE Group.

Ryan Kromhout

Manager Global Industry Division Food

Thierry Duvanel

Director of Innovation

Thomas Vincent is the Head of Chemical Safety Policy at the Food Standards Agency, a role he has held since December 2022. Previously, he worked at the UK Health Security Agency, where he led COVID-19 contingency strategy and local policy improvement efforts. Vincent also held key roles in the Department of Health and Social Care's Joint Biosecurity Centre and the Government Office for Science. His expertise spans health security, policy development, and innovation, with experience in managing COVID-19 response strategies and coordinating biosecurity efforts across the UK government.

Thomas Vincent

Head of Chemical Safety Policy

As a Business Development Manager at Cellular Agriculture Ltd, I am at the forefront of innovation in the cultivated protein industry. Founded in 2016, Cellular Agriculture Ltd was the UK and Europe’s first company focused on enabling technologies for cultivated meat. As a company of many firsts, we pioneered enabling technologies for cultivated meat, developing novel bioreactors based on hollow fibre membranes to meet the industry’s unique scaling needs. From our first proof of concept in 2017 to World’s first public demonstration in 2019, and our initial platform system in 2022, we continue to push boundaries as we will be delivering the first semi-automated prototype system in 2025 through Innovate UK funding.

With over 12 years of experience as a Deep Tech and Life Sciences expert, I have successfully led the launch of several world-first products and technologies, positively impacting millions of lives globally. My diverse background spans food technology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, patented, innovative & generic drugs, equipping me with a unique perspective on the intersection of science and business.

I am deeply passionate about working in industries that create meaningful change in people's lives and society at large, driving innovation that addresses pressing global challenges.

Vipul Jain

Business Development Manager

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