Engineering a more sustainable food system

Facilitators

• Christina Scott Founder of BeYonder Ltd.
  

  Christina Scott

  Founder of BeYonder Ltd.

  Chrissy is the Managing Director of BeYonder Ltd., a Glasgow-based textile manufacturer specialising in prototyping, sampling and short production runs for ethical designers. She founded BeYonder in early 2013 as a profit for purpose organisation and was one of the first employers to commit to the Glasgow Living Wage. Prior to creating the textile business which she now heads, Chrissy’s background was in youth employment, training and development. Chrissy’s vision for BeYonder is a collaborative and supportive organisation which will inspire both new business start-ups and scale-ups to adopt a global perspective in all their business activities whilst retaining sensitivity to the needs of their local communities. Chrissy’s vision for BeYonder is committed to working toward a fully inclusive circular economy model. The blend of ethical entrepreneurship, environmentally friendly product manufacturing and employee-centred business leadership which she has brought to BeYonder is greatly in demand and very well-received in the growing community of independent designers who are attracted to the BeYonder label. BeYonder is a member of Wellbeing Economy Alliance & an active campaigner for inclusion.

  Through her manufacturing journey ensuring people & planet are fully at the heart of any innovation, Chrissy has co-designed a distributed manufacturing model & a fully integrated circular economy business campus which will be used as a regenerative model for rural areas and developing countries fully mapped to SDGs BeYonder Textile Hub is in the process of becoming employee owned which Chrissy is supporting the team with. DigiLoop Ltd is the new Ltd by shares business housing the modelling as the business expands down to the South of Scotland to support the delivery and growth of the modular & distributed components of the manufacturing model.

  Chrissy is an active member of Incorporation of Weavers, supporter of Kinship Care Initiative Glasgow & SmartSTEMs.

• Dr Geraint (Taff) Morgan Co-Investigator at STFC Food Network
  

  Dr Geraint (Taff) Morgan

  Co-Investigator at STFC Food Network

  Dr Geraint (Taff) Morgan is highly active in analytical chemistry and the space technology translation agenda at The Open University. The first half of his career was spent developing instruments for the Rosetta and Beagle2 space missions. Having successfully analysed a comet, he has since led research teams to develop a wide range of bespoke, high impact, sector disruptive solutions to terrestrial challenges, including developing the award-winning air quality monitoring system for use on all future UK submarines and instruments for the world’s largest flavours and fragrance company. The STFC Food Network + has allowed him to work with end-users with the aim of developing novel sniffing solutions for: determining the shelf-life of rocket salad, identifying avocados damaged or infected with fungi and earlier detection of Campylobacter in chicken farms. In partnership with the Scotch Whisky Research Institute (SWRI) and IBM Research UK his team is developing a sniffing method for detecting fake and adulterated whisky and with funding from an American Charity (Partnership for Clean Competition) they are developing a sports anti-doping screening test for WADA labs globally. He has strategic partnerships with several instrument manufacturers, most recent LECO UK Ltd. Taff is also a Founder/Director of 4 start-up companies.

• Dr Ifeyinwa Kanu CEO of IntelliDigest
  

  Dr Ifeyinwa Kanu

  CEO of IntelliDigest

  She holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering with research interest in the use of Artificial Intelligence to optimise Anaerobic Processes.

  Dr Kanu loves nature and she is passionate about engineering solutions to address environmental and societal challenges. She is leading IntelliDigest on a mission to empower global food sustainability, eliminate food waste and zero hunger.

  Dr Kanu is an Enterprise Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering and Royal Society of Edinburgh. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Associate Fellow of UK Higher Education.

  Dr Kanu is a Champion of the STFC Food Network.

• Dr. Wallace Cheng Specialist at the United Nations World Food Programme
  

  Dr. Wallace Cheng

  Specialist at the United Nations World Food Programme

  Dr. Wallace Shuaihua Cheng is a specialist at the United Nations World Food Programme, working on e-commerce, rural transformation, and food system. He has over 15 years’ research and policy advisory experience with German Development Institute, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, and Shanghai Municipal Development Research Center in the areas of global trade, digital economy, China and international development.

  Wallace is a UK Chevening Scholar, Yale University Greenberg World Fellow, Columnist for the World Economic Forum, and Member of Governing Board of China Society for WTO Studies. He was educated at the Fudan University and the University of Oxford.

• Keith Warren Chief Executive at Foodservice Equipment Association (FEA)
  

  Keith Warren

  Chief Executive at Foodservice Equipment Association (FEA)

  The Foodservice Equipment Association represents manufacturers and importers of equipment and the supply chain businesses who design and service commercial kitchens.

  Keith’s role means that he is directly engaged with the engineering developments that the industry as a whole is undertaking to meet the challenges of the sector as it seeks to meet the environmental targets and policy objectives. This includes

  energy use (gas and electricity), water use, air quality, food waste and fats oils and grease management. He will also cover the barriers to further developments and innovation.

  FEA is an active member of the European Federation of Catering Equipment Manufacturers and also the Global Foodservice Equipment and Supplies Summit which provides a wider aspect of the developments that are directly leading to the increased sustainability of the out-of-home eating sector.

• Peter Galliford FIH Director at Mechline
  

  Peter Galliford FIH

  Director at Mechline

  Peter is a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality, having qualified in Hotel and Catering Management some 40 years ago. Along with Two other Directors, Peter founded Mechline Developments in the early’90’s, essentially as a Design & Innovation manufacturing business, specialising in the development of Hygiene and Safety products, in the Foodservice & Hospitality market. Mechline have been at the forefront of product innovation, having received many accolades and awards, in their time, in fields of Hygiene, Safety, Food Waste management, Hand hygiene systems and most recently Air and Surface sanitisation systems, proven to protect food, and, significantly extend perishable food life.

• Prof Sonal Choudhary Professor of Sustainable Management, York University and Principal Investigator at Science Technology Facility Council Food Network+
  

  Prof Sonal Choudhary

  Professor of Sustainable Management, York University and Principal Investigator at Science Technology Facility Council Food Network+
• Sean Kerr Director at Sustainable Thinking Scotland CIC
  

  Sean Kerr

  Director at Sustainable Thinking Scotland CIC

  Sustainable Thinking Scotland CIC is an environmental social enterprise based in the Falkirk area. It delivers projects that encourage local sustainable food production, provides community-scale green waste recycling, and creates learning opportunities for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in the area.

• Vikram Singla Senior Strategy Director at Oracle I Board Member at CILT (UK)
  

  Vikram Singla

  Senior Strategy Director at Oracle I Board Member at CILT (UK)

  Vikram is digital transformation director at Oracle, UK. He helps supply chain and finance business leaders leverage technology to deliver meaningful business outcomes for their organisations. He also serves on the board of CILT (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport) – UK and is an advisory board member at Cranfield University’s supply chain management research centre.

  He has over 25 years’ experience in the technology sector, including deploying business transformation programmes for Fortune 500 firms. One of his initial assignment was to build digital factory models to drive capital investment decisions at an automotive major. He is an advocate of design thinking as a structured approach to manage cultural change and align the organisation around the customer.

  He is currently responsible for defining and executing the go-to-market strategy for cloud solutions in the UK. Vikram has an MBA from Warwick Business School and graduated from IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Delhi, India.

  Beyond the day job, Vikram is a brand ambassador for Cancer Research, and loves music/sports.

• Willem Baartman Bio and Circular Economy focused entrepreneur
  

  Willem Baartman

  Bio and Circular Economy focused entrepreneur

  Willem Baartman is a Bio and Circular Economy focused entrepreneur. His previous startup Afritree adapted and developed various growing methods and technologies for decentralised food production in a desert climate, using only sea water, sun and wind. He is also the founder of Laidir. Circular Mobility, a startup which is addressing the needs for affordable and circular zero emission transport and energy storage solutions. It is his goal to combine the technical with the biological towards sustainable, inclusive and resilient localised value streams.