Dairy Innovation Awards 2013 judging panel announced

The awards provide the perfect platform to demonstrate the dairy industry’s continued commitment to innovation. The 18 awards in six categories range from new products and ingredients to breakthroughs in packaging and sustainability, as well as initiatives in health education and marketing.

Entries for the Dairy Innovation Awards 2013 close on 23 April. Finalists and winners will be announced at a special gala dinner during the 7th Global Dairy Congress on 19 June in Lucerne, Switzerland.

The awards are kindly sponsored by Sidel.

THE PANEL

Max Duclot – Sidel vice president business development for sensitive products

Max started working in the food industry as sales manager at Koma BV, a Dutch company manufacturing deep freezing unit for bakeries and pastries. He later joined Guerin Systems as international key account manager and developed his acquaintance with aseptic technology: first with powder handling, then with aseptic filling within the company Remy Equipment, acquired in 1996 by Sidel. Since then, he has never stopped promoting new technologies in aseptic filling worldwide and is now in charge of business development for sensitive beverages at Sidel. Max Duclot also champions the unique Predis dry preforms decontamination system.

Mareike Preller – senior officer, nutrition policies, European Dairy Association

Mareike currently serves as a senior officer for nutrition policies at the European Dairy Association (EDA) based in Brussels, Belgium, where she provides scientific and technical support in the areas of nutrition, health and nutrition claims as well as food and nutrition labelling for the lobbying activities of the European dairy industry to ensure an optimal regulatory environment and to promote milk products as an important part of the daily diet. Mareike has an educational background in human nutrition science and worked as an associate scientist for DSM Nutrition Products in Switzerland and as an intern at the World Health Organisation before joining EDA in 2005. Ms Preller is also representing EDA towards different European and international organisations such as EFSA, FoodDrinkEurope, IDF and the Global Dairy Platform.

Hamish Renton – Hamish Renton Associates

After leaving Cambridge in the early 1990s, Hamish has spent the majority of his career in the food and dairy industry with Tesco, St Ivel, Milk Link (Arla), much of which spent at board level. He holds an MBA from Henley Business School, is on the SW board of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and Ambassador to the Food, Drink and Agriculture Sectors and is an Associate of the Market Research Society. He set up his own business, Hamish Renton Associates in 2011 and helps dairy clients tackle marketing, NPD and commercial challenges and import into and export from the UK. With a strong knowledge of UK retail and manufacturing he helps dairy clients large and small unlock the potential of the UK and EU marketplaces.

Donna Berry – Dairy & Food Communications

Donna Berry is the owner of Dairy & Food Communications, a company that specialises in business-to-business writing, speaking and consulting projects in the dairy, beverage and food industries. She has a Bachelors Degree in Food Science from the University of Illinois and product development industry experience with Kraft Foods. She has been writing for the dairy trade since 1993; she opened her own business in 2000.

Donna writes for numerous trade publications, including Dairy Business News, Food Business News, Food Product Design, Meat & Poultry and Baking & Snack. She recently started her own website, aptly named BerryOnDairy.com, which includes an email newsletter called Daily Dose of Dairy that focuses on innovations in dairy products and related beverages.

Donna is a native of Chicago, where she currently resides with her husband, two sons and dog. Donna enjoys traveling, both domestically and abroad, and makes grocery store visits a priority in every city she visits, which enables her to be an authority on ingredient technology and new product trends.

Bjarne Solberg – board member at ACE and manager, market strategy at BillerudKorsnäs AB

Bjarne is a member of the board at ACE, The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment. Bjarne is educated in the UK with a degree in Management Sciences from University of Manchester. He started his career with the Norwegian Export Council before moving on to Tetra Pak where he worked for more than ten years within sales and marketing. After a few years in the telecom business he returned to packaging and is currently working with market strategy for liquid packaging at BillerudKorsnäs, a Swedish carton manufacturer.

Peter Gregson – Peter Gregson Studio

Peter Gregson Studio was established in 2005 by Peter Gregson, Jovan Trkulja and Marijana Zari?. Based in Novi Sad, Serbia, it is an independent graphic design studio with a reputation for delivering intelligent and engaging creative solutions. Working with clients both large and small, in Serbia and overseas, Peter Gregson Studio produces a diverse range of work across multiple disciplines. The studio’s team bring a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm to every new project and offer a scope of capabilities that includes editorial, exhibition, signage, corporate literature, websites, brand identities and packaging design.

Kuldeep Sharma – chief thinking officer at Think Dairy Inc (Suruchi Consultants)

Kuldeep Sharma is a dairy technologist and an MBA with specialisation in marketing and finance. He is also a lead auditor in HACCP and ISO 22000 from Tuv Sud South Asia. He founded Suruchi Consultants in 1990. Currently, he is training budding entrepreneurs in the dairy processing sector at the Entrepreneurship and Technology Development Centre in Noida. His dream is to convert Suruchi Consultants into a virtual incubator for all budding entrepreneurs. He is also associated with CBI (Government of Netherlands) for capacity building of SMEs to export to EU countries. He has also written a vision 2020 document for dairy industry. He instills innovation at each and every level of business modelling while developing solutions for small dairy farmers and budding entrepreneurs.

Gregory D Miller PhD MACN – president, Dairy Research Institute; executive vice president research, regulatory and scientific affairs, Dairy Management Inc/US National Dairy Council

Dr Miller graduated in 1978 from Michigan State University with a BS degree in nutrition and in 1982 earned a MS degree in nutrition (toxicology) from the Pennsylvania State University, followed by a PhD in nutrition (toxicology) in 1986. Dr Miller was a research scientist for Kraft Inc from 1986 to 1989 and was a senior research scientist from 1989 to 1992. He was vice president of nutrition research for the National Dairy Council from 1992 – 2001. From 2001 – 2004 he was senior vice president for nutrition and scientific affairs. In 2004, he became senior vice president for nutrition and product innovation and was promoted in 2005 to executive vice president science and research. In 2007 he became executive vice president research, regulatory and scientific affairs at DMI/NDC. In 2010, DMI created the Dairy Research Institute and appointed Dr Miller the president of that organisation.

Esther Renfrew – market intelligence director, Zenith International

Esther is a graduate in International Management and Modern Languages and a fluent French speaker. She is a dairy specialist, project managing Zenith’s major dairy studies and co-ordinating a growing number of projects in whey, cheese and fresh dairy. She is responsible for all of Zenith’s Market Intelligence activity, which includes market reports and global databases for soft drinks, bottled water, dairy and other food categories. She regularly publishes articles in trade magazines.

Geoff Platt – independent dairy industry journalist

Geoff Platt has been reporting and writing about the dairy industry since the early 1980s. He started writing for the UK trade magazine Milk Industry in 1982 and was a regular contributor for the next 17 years. In 1999 he became full-time Editor, a post for the next six years. In 2005, Geoff joined FoodBev Media to help launch and develop Dairy Innovation magazine. In August 2012 Geoff returned to the freelance world as an editor and journalist, reporting on food & beverage, but specialising in dairy matters.

Claire Phoenix – FoodBev Media managing editor – magazines

Claire is responsible for editorial content across FoodBev Media’s magazine portfolio, including Dairy Innovation. A trained journalist, Claire has been a director of FoodBev Media Ltd since 2000 and set up the company’s international awards schemes, including the Dairy Innovation Awards. Claire is a trend spotter and regular speaks at international food and beverage events.

Chairman of the judges – Bill Bruce, group editorial director, FoodBev Media

Bill co-founded FoodBev Media in 2000. A trained graphic designer and editor, he oversees content across FoodBev’s portfolio and chairs the company’s successful international awards schemes, including the Dairy Innovation Awards and this year’s Beverage Innovation Awards @ drinktec. Bill is a trend spotter and regular speaks at international food and beverage events.

Celebrating innovation

“Innovation continues to be the key driver in the dairy industry,” said FoodBev Media’s Bill Bruce, “and that is evident in tasty new products, new packaging ideas, use of new ingredients, great new marketing campaigns and a huge variety of nutrition and environmental projects that interact with consumers and the wider community.

“All this activity helps to make the dairy sector an exciting food and beverage category. The Dairy Innovation Awards helps us shine a spotlight on the sector and helps us celebrate what’s going on.

“It will be interesting to see how major dairy companies and small energetic entrepreneurs alike are faring. And with dairy having such a long and established history, it will be great to see how dairy companies of all sizes are using the modern opportunities provided by social media and the digital age.

“We are looking forward to revealing the finalists and winners at the 7th Global Dairy Congress on 19 June in Lucerne, Switzerland. See you there.”

Enter the Dairy Innovation Awards 2013

Dairy Innovation Awards 2013 Categories

PRODUCTS