Future Food-Tech London 2026

Richie Gray is Vice President and Global Head of Mondelez SnackFutures, the Venture Investment Hub of Mondelez International. Originally from Scotland, now based in Zurich, Switzerland, Richie's career in the CPG industry spans more than 30 years and has taken him all over the world in sales, marketing, strategy and general management roles. In recent years he has led the Gum and Candy and then Bakery and Meals Categories for Mondelez in North and Central Europe and has a strong track record of driving growth, business turnarounds, building brands, M&A and developing high performing teams. Richie's mission for Mondelez SnackFutures is to build a high growth portfolio of snacking game changers that help achieve Mondelez 's vision to lead the future of snacking. Richie and his team identify, invest in and collaborate with highly disruptive scale-up and early-stage businesses around the world that align to the company's core categories of chocolate, biscuits and baked snacks. Richie is married to Philippa and has 3 'kids' in their early twenties. He is a lover of adventure and endurance sports, competing in Ironman events and enjoying skiing in the Swiss and French Alps, and is a passionate Scottish rugby supporter.

Matthieu Vincent is the co-founder of DigitalFoodLab, a consultancy focused on the Future of Food. With its team of experts, DigitalFoodLab helps large agrifood businesses plan for their future, understand and act on the parts of their business that are threatened by disruption, and identify areas of opportunity. Previously, he was the founder of WeCook, one of France's first food tech startups, and one of only a handful with a successful exit. Matthieu is also an angel investor, advisor, and board member to 10+ food tech startups.

Dr Sophie Attwood (PhD, CPsych) is a Cambridge-trained behavioural scientist and founder of Behaviour Global. With over a decade of experience, she helps governments, companies and NGOs apply behavioural science to health and sustainability. Her work spans features in top journals and media including The Guardian and National Geographic. A speaker at global forums like COP27 and the UN, Sophie also holds academic posts and is a certified psychologist with the British Psychological Society.

Owen is the CEO of Meatly. In just three years, spending only £5m, Meatly is the first company in Europe to ever sell cultivated meat. They have also developed industry-leading media formulations, and low-cost equipment. Backed by DSM-Firmenich, Agronomics, and Pets at Home, they are now fundraising to build Europe’s first commercial cultivated meat facility.

Clément has over 9 years of experience in the start-up ecosystem as a co-founder of YOMARO, a frozen yogurt franchise company, and as a co-initiator of NX-Food, Metro's food innovation hub. Currently, Clément is working as the Head of FoodTech at REWE Group. At YOMARO, Cl'ment was responsible for expansion and finances, growing the company from a single store to a total of 19 locations throughout Germany. At NX-Food, Clément served as the Head of Innovation & Partnerships for the FoodTech division, and among other initiatives, implemented the start-up shelf program for food and beverage start-ups. In his current role at REWE Group, along with his dedicated FoodTech team, Clément plays a pivotal role in integrating and promoting FoodTech topics. They work on strategic collaborations, building networks, as well as developing, validating, and implementing new food concepts and product innovations, while also guiding the corporate venturing activities in the FoodTech space. Clément's professional journey is dedicated to fostering innovation in the food industry, with a focus on sustainable and forward-looking solutions.

Prof. Anwesha Sarkar is a full Professor of Colloids and Surfaces at the University of Leeds, UK. She serves as the Projection Leader and the Co-Director of the National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC), UK. Prof. Sarkar received her PhD from Massey University, New Zealand in 2010 and worked in Nestlé Research Centre and Nestlé Global Headquarters in Switzerland before establishing her independent group at Leeds in 2014. Sarkar’s group focuses on multi-scale understanding of oral tribological performance to pave the way for design of sustainable food structure with optimized mouthfeel. To date, Prof. Sarkar has published more than 150 international research articles and 10 edited book chapters and is the inventor of 8 worldwide patents. She is the founder of University of Leeds spinout MicroLub Ltd. Prof. Sarkar has been the recipient of several awards and honorary fellowships, including the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Research and Development Award, USA, Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) McBain Medal, UK (2024), Leeds Women of Achievement Award (2021), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Food Junior medal (2019), Horizon 2020 European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant (2017). She serves as an Editorial Board Member of journals Food Hydrocolloids, Food Hydrocolloids for Health, Food Structure, Journal of Texture Studies, Sustainable Food Proteins and Tribology Letters. She is a regular keynote speaker in major national and international conferences.

Bodil Sidén is General Partner at Copenhagen based early-stage food tech VC Kost Capital, investing in Better food for more people. Before Kost, Bodil was partner at blq invest VC, been advising scale-ups for 8+ years, is ex-Uber and have a background in Swedish politics. Bodil brings her experiences from tech, politics and vc to double down on the climate opportunity of the century: food.

Didier Toubia is the Co-Founder and CEO of Aleph Farms, an Israel-based cellular agriculture company. It designs new ways to grow quality animal products that improve sustainability, food security and animal welfare in our food systems. Under its first product brand, Aleph Cuts, the company will launch the world’s first cultivated steaks. Prior to Aleph Farms, Didier co-founded and led IceCure, which went public in 2010, and served as the CEO of NLT Spine, which was acquired by SeaSpine in 2016. Didier was trained as a Food Engineer and Biologist at AgroSup Dijon, gained a specialized master’s degree from ESCP Business school, and holds a joint executive MBA from Kellogg and Recanati. Didier holds over 40 patents. He is also Co-Founder of BlueTree and Yeap.