Suzanne Van De Briel
Suzanne has a thorough understanding of what drives success in Food Innovation. Working for international companies Mars, FrieslandCampina and Bavaria.
With an MSc in Food Science and Technology from Wageningen University and more than 12 years of food marketing and innovation experience, she has successfully worked on the development and marketing of different food products and was responsible for several breakthrough product innovations.
Suzanne has successfully developed and introduced a new range of meat replacers based on dairy. In addition, she has launched several successful brand campaigns. She knows how to quickly respond to trends and to translate consumer insights into new products and communication concepts and she has a thorough understanding of how consumer behaviour can be influenced through communication.
Prior to her move to Singapore, Suzanne was marketing responsible for the #1 pasta and pasta sauces brand in the Netherlands, working on the brand strategy, the brand campaign and new product launches.
Suzanne’s interests are in the field of sustainable innovations. She truly believes that innovation is essential in addressing growing sustainability challenges worldwide. She is eager to work on innovations that are both sustainable and attractive from a commercial point of view and likes to challenge businesses and governments to work together to address growing issues through innovation.
She is currently undertaking a Masters in Tri Sector Collaboration at SMU.
DRAGOS
NECULA
Dragos is the successful founder of two purpose-led businesses serving the Asean market.
The first is Etrican, which he co-founded, back in 2009. At the time, it was one of the very few organic cotton clothing brands in South East Asia. Its supply chain is fully certified by the GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard), ensuring high social and environmental standards are observed throughout. The company has produced custom apparel for organisations such as Standard Chartered, Ascendas, NTUC, UWC South East Asia, Acres, NTU, NUS etc and has seen its consumer range being repeatedly featured in all the major local media publications, including Straits Times, Style Magazine, Seventeen, Elle, Business Times, etc.
The second venture is black&green, which he started in 2013, a boutique digital marketing agency, founded in response to a perceived gap in the market - offering digital services in Singapore. Over the past few years, the agency conceptualised and helped execute digital activation campaigns and branding initiatives for clients such as SMRT Strides, Thomson Medical, Delifrance, RISIS, Guardian etc
Prior to this, Dragos began his career in 2005 in Tokyo, where he took on a consultant role in a boutique Executive Search firm focusing on the tech sector. Within three years he rose through the ranks to become the highest individual revenue contributor in the company with international clients including NXP (Philips Semiconductor), GE Automation, Freescale or Continental Automotive. In 2008 he closed the highest-grossing project in the company’s history, successfully placing the President of NXP Japan. Shortly after, having just been offered a partnership in his recruitment firm, Dragos opted instead for a new challenge in pursuit of his interest in sustainability, moving to Singapore to co-found his first enterprise Etrican.
Dragos holds a BSc degree in Cognitive Science for The University of Leeds, UK.
He prefers football to jogging, krav maga to yoga and calisthenics to weight training. Other than that, he likes spending time with his three large rescued dogs, has an interest in permaculture and AI and tries to cultivate a no frills zero waste lifestyle.
Areas of specialty: Sustainable Fashion, Clothing Supply Chain, Digital Outreach & Strategy.
JONATHAN TOSTEVIN
Jonathan has a background in international development and social enterprise. His expertise lies in growth strategy and operations management, enjoying working on both the bigger picture as well as the nuts and bolts of implementation. He is a skilled organiser and coalition builder and has solved complex systemic social issues.
Most recently, he focused on water and plastic waste issues as Head of Business Intelligence & Strategic Projects Lead at Belu Water, an award-winning ethical business based in the UK. He also worked as Strategic Advisor to an innovative education charity to scale their existing operation and plan their long-term growth.
He is currently working on a range of social and sustainability initiatives in Singapore, including working with the food and beverage industry to reduce consumption of plastic straws.
Prior to this, he worked on the UK Government’s development programme to Africa, developing policy and advising Ministers on a range of issues. He was Head of UK Operations for the Ebola crisis managing a £33 million programme, working closely with a large number of diverse UK and international partners to implement a nationwide response.
Areas of interest: Plastic, Circular Economy, Growth, Social Impact, Operations
Marco
ANGELES
Marco founded Seraphm to support businesses, startups, and social enterprises in developing ideas into testable design prototypes.
These prototypes and other design artefacts serve as the foundation for product development and helps visualize the vision for stakeholders and investors alike.
With 15 years combined experience in design, Marco has designed for advertising and marketing agencies, and SaaS product companies. As a freelance product designer, his expertise compliments development teams from sprint 0, making sure that the product being built paves the way to solving customer problems, on top of meeting business goals.
Going beyond design deliverables, he tinkers with applications and integrations that helps clients achieve their targets and understand their customers better. He works smart and has extensive experience working with multi-disciplinary teams across different timezones.
Marco has a Bachelor in Fine Arts, Major in Advertising degree in Manila, but his learning journey has taken him to become a Neilsen Norman Group certified UX professional, and an MIT Entrepreneurship and Innovation Bootcamp participant. He is also a seasoned designer for hackathons, tackling problems in travel, social impact and smart energy.
He is an explorer in the role and form of design in circular economy, social enterprises, blockchain, and other forthcoming technologies.
Areas of speciality: Product Design, User Experience Design and Strategy, Art Direction, Branding and Identity.
Marc
ALLEN
Marc is a chemical engineer, specialising in greenhouse gas (GHG), sustainability and renewable energy, with close to 20 years experience in both operational and consulting roles across a wide range of industries including mining, mineral processing, oil and gas and chemicals/heavy industry.
Marc currently works in the greenhouse gas and energy space helping businesses understand the risks of climate change - both from a financial/transition point of view, as well as potential physical risks. This includes the development of corporate GHG strategy, risk management for GHG issues, analysis of external factors relating to legislation changes and social license, reporting of energy and emissions, identification/evaluation of carbon and energy abatement opportunities and assisting with the management of carbon liabilities. Prior to this, Marc spent many years working in greenhouse gas and energy management as the GHG technical manager for a multinational oil company, and for Australia's largest specialist energy and greenhouse gas advisory consultancy.