The judging panel for the World Beverage Innovation Awards 2022, sponsored by Ecolean, in association with drinktec, has now been announced.
This year’s panel includes recognised and reputable names from across the global beverage industry and between them, they will be responsible for deciding the winners of the World Beverage Innovation Awards, taking place in September 2022.
There are 23 trophies to be won in total, and being shortlisted provides a hallmark of success that will prevail long after the awards draw to a close. To find out more information, including how to enter, click here.
A full list of the 2022 judges can be seen below.
Aparna Oak
Vice President – Flavor Innovation & Regulatory, Imbibe
Aparna Oak is a Certified Flavour Chemist and has been active in the flavour industry since 2005. Her successful career has been built on her inherent skills, aptitude for tasting and her breadth of knowledge about flavour compounds, which has allowed her to master the art and science of flavour creation.
As the Vice President of Flavour Innovation & Regulatory at Imbibe, she provides technical guidance to the two teams on customer and proactive innovation while coming up with a technical strategy on creation as well as compliance. She is also involved in some organisational level strategic initiatives to help fuel the growth at Imbibe. She has applied her skillset as a flavourist to guide the company’s initial extension into Flavour Applications and the development of sophisticated masking tools. Her cross-functional work includes collaborating with Marketing and Business Development to help identify marketplace gaps and support the growth of food and beverage brands of all sizes.
She is the current chairperson of the membership committee of the Society of Flavour Chemists. Some of her insights were published by Perfumer and Flavorist (2019) in an article titled: Plant to Glass, Oat Milk from a Flavorist’s Lens.
Click here to view Aparna’s LinkedIn profile
Bo Sten Hansen
Managing Director & Co-Founder of Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Company
Bo Sten Hansen is the Managing Director & Co-Founder of Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Company, and this year will be his second time judging. Bo had many years in business consulting, but gastronomy and especially the beverage industry has always been a great passion of his.
Alongside business consulting he therefore also ran a wine export company for some years. However, in 2017 he fully dove into the beverage industry, and together with his business partner and award-winning sommelier, Jacob Kocemba, they founded Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Company.
During the company’s young age (five years), they’ve managed to make the new beverage category ‘Sparkling Tea’ an international sensation. They’re now exporting to 30 countries and their low-/non-alcoholic Sparkling Teas are served at more than 60 Michelin restaurants worldwide.
Their journey with Sparkling Tea is motivated by the belief that one should never have to compromise, when it comes to taste, because everybody deserves a good glass of bubbles.
Click here to view Bo’s LinkedIn profile
Jamal Benmiloud
Chief Inventor, Earn Studios
Jamal led the marketing teams at both Red Bull and Monster Energy, before launching his own innovation business called Earn Studios for brands that want to invent products for the social media generation.
He shares many of his learnings in his book ‘Brand Love: How to build a brand worth talking about’ which focuses on how businesses can grow faster with help from their fans.
Jamal is currently an Advisor to the Global Marketing team at ABInbev, the world’s biggest beer company, and board of Huel, the fastest growing plant based food brand.
Click here to view Jamal’s LinkedIn profile
Jessica Munro
Beverage Innovation Manager, UK&I MONIN
Jessica has worked in the Food and Beverage industry for 15 years across a variety of roles, each one helping to guide and build her in-depth understanding and knowledge of all things drink related.
Her work with MONIN has seen her develop hundreds of beverages for National Account chains across the On-Trade and Coffee sector as well as local restaurant groups.
Since joining the MONIN Beverage Expert team, she works with customers all over the globe and helps MONIN distributor partners with training, trend research and custom menu creation, delivering quality and continent at scale.
She excels at identifying current and future flavour trends, recognising the significance of consumer demands and delivers those insights to decision makers in the industry with confidence.
Prior to MONIN, Jessica worked in the Gin Industry for Tarquin’s Cornish Gin and Pinkster Gin, and holds many years of experience working On Trade in the Beverage industry, to which she credits her fascination and approach to innovation today.
Click here to view Jessica’s LinkedIn profile
Lauren Ford
News Reporter, FoodBev Media
Lauren is a news reporter at FoodBev Media, a food and beverage industry publication, and along with the news team at FoodBev, she is consistently scouting new trends and innovations within the food and beverage sector.
She has witnessed the rise in better-for-you functional products as well as plant-based beverage formulations and the growth of the hard-seltzer sector. Lauren will be looking for innovative trends that are disrupting the beverage market, as well as brand-new applications meeting the ever-changing consumer demand.
Click here to view Lauren’s LinkedIn profile
Nicolas Gomez Gonzalez
Marketing and Sales Manager, AB-InBev
A passionate marketer leader, Nik is known as highly committed to developing consumer-loved brands.
Born and raised in his native Buenos Aires, Nik has used his foundations to build upon his global experience across both emerging and developed markets. These include Argentina, France, and the UK for some of the most renowned FMCG industry giants such as L’Oréal, Danone, Funkin Cocktails, and AB-Inbev.
With a strategic, agile, and digital mindset that puts the consumer at the heart of every decision, Nik’s robust commercial acumen has enabled him to succeed in repositioning global brands and regain market leadership. Likewise, his impressive track record of scaling more emerging names to drive innovation and meet current consumer needs is testament to his unique visionary talent.
Click here to view Nicolas’ LinkedIn profile
Nicolás Hernández Ospina
Manager of Innovation & Premium Brands at HEINEKEN
Experience acquired as an entrepreneur, working for a FMCG Colombian company and alumni of an international postgraduate program in London, New York and Boston. Achieving two intense master’s in international business and Marketing that complement his studies in finances and international relations. Founder of a dark chocolate manufacturing start-up in Colombia and escalating it to an exports and internationally recognised company, which was sold in November 2021.
Currently working for The Heineken Company based in Panama as Innovation and Premium Brands Manager. Created three socially responsible, entrepreneurial businesses, two sold and operationally focused. Firmly believe businesses succeed by doing good. Organised his businesses to change people’s lives and livelihoods through economic development and education with the right use of innovation in it.
Click here to view Nicolás’ LinkedIn profile
Petra Westphal
Director, drinktec
Petra Westphal has been in charge of Project Group 4.2 in Business Unit IV of Messe München GmbH since 2010. In that position, the 56-year-old is responsible for drink technology India (dti) in addition to drinktec, the world’s leading trade fair for the beverage and liquid food industry as well as INTERFORST, international key trade fair for forestry and forest technology. Petra Westphal’s portfolio also includes CHINA BREW CHINA BEVERAGE (CBB) in Beijing, in which Messe München acts as co-organizer.
Ms. Westphal has many years of experience in trade fair management. The trained hotel manager has worked for Messe München since 1993, including two years as technical assistant, seven years as project manager and eight years as a project director of drinktec.
Click here to view Petra’s LinkedIn profile
Rafael Rozenson
Founder & CEO at Vieve Protein Water
Rafael Rozenson is the Founder & CEO of Vieve. After using sports nutrition supplements for 20 years and spending a career working on prestigious FMCG brands like Evian, Bacardi, P&G, Disney, Danone and Mars, Rafael spotted an opportunity to apply his product development and marketing experience and create his own product.
Over the course of two years, Rafael worked with dieticians, nutritionists, creatives and manufacturers to create the perfect protein water drink, and one of the world’s first protein waters.
Vieve was launched in 2018 and after four years is now available in 500 outlets across 12 countries in Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa. The brand has gained over 1000+ 5 star reviews and won or been nominated for several prestigious awards including a World Beverage Innovation and Women’s’ Health Award. The brand is also one of the top selling protein drinks in the UK on Amazon and Ocado, outselling much larger and established brands.
Click here to view Rafael’s LinkedIn profile
Rohan Carvalho
Founding Partner, Bar Square – India
Rohan brings over 20 years of experience in the Bar and beverage industry: ranging from years of training beverage professionals to countless hours of R&D on drinks development for leading liquor brands, drinking establishments and India’s largest cafe retail chain.
He has been on the jury panel for several Bar Awards and has organised & judged numerous bartending competitions nationwide.
Rohan shared his inspiring story at TedX Lavelle road and still remains the ‘go-to’ man, helping his comrades & novice beverage professionals with life and the likes.
Click here to view Rohan’s LinkedIn profile
Thea Bourianne
Senior Manager, Data Strategy & Solutions, NielsenIQ
Thea Bourianne, MBA, RD, LDN is a licensed and registered dietitian based in Chicago. Specialising in nutrition, US and international food regulation, and food composition makes her uniquely positioned to work strategically with global CPG and retail clients to build data-driven, customer-centric solutions.
In her current role at NielsenIQ, a company that provides insights on food label data, Bourianne supports retailers, CPG brands, US government, technology companies, researchers, and other entities by crafting and applying high order attribution to products in-store and online. Bourianne is passionate about safe, transparent, sustainable, wholesome products and strides for best-in-class customer experiences to make the healthy choice the easy choice.
Prior to working at NielsenIQ, Bourianne’s previous positions have included product development, commercialisation, fresh and frozen food manufacturing, and regulatory affairs with companies and clients such as Taco Bell Corp., Wilton Brands, Starbucks, Ahold, Walgreens and 7-Eleven, among others.
Click here to view Thea’s LinkedIn profile
Are you a beverage industry innovator worthy of our judges attention?
Enter the World Beverage Innovation Awards 2022 now!
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