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Adri Venter
Adri Venter holds a B.SC Dietetics degree and a postgraduate diploma in Marketing Management. With 12 years’ experience in the food ingredients industry, she has acquired broad knowledge of functional ingredients. As part of her role as Business Manager at Savannah Fine Chemicals, she is the product manager for BENEO – leading chicory derived prebiotic fiber manufacturer. She served on the dietary fibre working committee with the purpose to address draft regulation R429 – Regulations relating to the labelling and advertising of foods.
Nicole Lau
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Crown Food Group
Total Duration2 yrs 4 mos
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TitleProduct Management and Innovations Executive
Dates EmployedFeb 2019 – Present
Employment Duration7 mos
LocationCape Town Area, South Africa
Managing the Innovations Department consisting of sectors Dairy and Beverages, Sauces and condiments, Meat and Culinary. Liaising with blue-chip key accounts, translating new product ideas into realities. Innovating proactive technologies, utilising Principal ingredients for speciality functional blends.
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TitlePrincipal Specialist: Hydrocolloids
Dates EmployedMay 2017 – Jan 2019
Employment Duration1 yr 9 mos
LocationCape Town Area, South Africa
An Exco member managing the growth of current Hydrocolloid Principal Portfolios. Sourcing of new raw materials for supply and production into the food industry in Southern Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Executed the role of HoD for Dairy and Beverage Innovations, managing and developing the dairy brand. Technical resource to commercial and research and development divisions.
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Martin Dovey
Martin graduated from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2004 with a PhD in organic chemistry, and joined FlavourCraft a Durban based savoury flavours and seasonings business. In 2011 he joined Kerry with the acquisition of FlavourCraft and has filled a number of R&D roles within the organisation since then. In 2017 he took up a position in Business Development, focusing on dairy and beverage EUMs and was promoted to Business Development Director in 2019 with an overall responsibility for that function in SSA.
Professor Olaniyi Fawole
Dr. Olaniyi Fawole is a Senior Researcher and Principal Investigator in the Department of Horticultural Science, Stellenbosch University. He holds a Ph.D in Postharvest Technology (Horticulture) from Stellenbosch University. His research strives to better understand the effects of various biotic and abiotic factors on horticultural food crops in order to develop appropriate postharvest management protocols/tools that enable safety, environmental sustainability and reduce postharvest losses.
Dr. Fawole works with stakeholders in the Ag-sector for capacity building, knowledge transfer and adoption, and commercialisation of new and smart solutions.
To date, he has supervised or co-supervised 16 postgraduate students and authored over 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals (>1250 citations, H-index 20 and i10-index 29; GoogleScholar) and has also attended over 30 international conferences and seminars.
Cindy Chin
Cindy Chin is a registered dietitian with a Bachelor of Science Degree from Wits University and a Bachelor of Science Medical Honours Degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Cape Town. She has worked in a diverse set of roles both locally and internationally, with a combined experience of more than 20 years, starting in private clinical practice, with a focus on the dietary management of chronic diseases of lifestyle and obesity. Her current role at Woolworths entails driving strategic health and wellness initiatives in a variety of business areas, including product development, communications and food labelling, and is passionate about incorporating evidence-based nutrition science principles into the interpretation of product trends and innovation.
Matthew Ballenden
Matthew Ballenden is the founder and owner of exciting local brand, Fresh Earth Bake House, a bakery dedicated to the production of a range of premium gluten free products. Matthew’s experience and desire for creating food that is as close to nature as possible prompted him to develop products for the increasing number of wheat and gluten intolerant people, as well as those who aspire to lead a healthier lifestyle.
The Fresh Earth Bake House has the capacity to manufacture private label gluten free baked goods for commercial mainstream bakeries, retailers, restaurants and catering businesses. Currently the bakery supplies leading retail stores such as Dischem and Pick ‘n Pay across the country.
“A fresh earth is exactly what I would like to see in the future, so I named my businesses after my biggest dream. My passion lies in creating a new understanding of health and sustainability through a combination of modern world creations and the reintroduction of some forgotten principles” said Ballenden.
Apart from the day to day running of his company, Matthew run the Fresh Earth Food Store, teaches Nutritional Cooking classes and gives cooking demonstrations to schools and corporates with an emphasis on maintaining the nutritional value of the food as well as making it tasty. His objective is to increase the understanding and benefits of gluten and wheat free baked goods, which may be used to aid weight loss and are suitable for vegetarians.
Xolile Mbatha
My name is Xolile Mbatha. I am the Research, Nutrition and Technology Director at Kelloggs SA. I have 13+ years in the FMCG industry, mainly in the Research and Development area. My passion is to see product ideas come to live through technology, and to create food that enjoyed and nutritionally beneficial to consumers.
My qualifications are as follows:
- MBA (Henley Business School)
- Bcom Marketing (UNISA)
- BTech Food Technology (DUT)
- ND Food Technology (DUT)
Lara Mare van Niekerk
Having grown up on a farm she appreciates the importance of real, ‘home-grown’ foods and is passionate about providing farmers (who incur so much of the risk) greater access to the market. When one considers that between 20-50% of post-harvest produce, depending on the crop, goes to waste in South Africa and that 34.6% of premature deaths and diseases globally are linked to poor diets she believes we should all be conscious of what we eat and where we source it. Education is ineffective if the food environment is against you and so her goal is to in some small way influence policy makers, retailers and food manufacturers to consider their role in creating a food chain that is better for people and better for the planet. Whilst spending a number of years in Banking and Strategy Consulting she studied both Psychology and Perinatal Health, Fitness and Nutrition where she drew even greater links between nutrition and one’s overall health and wellbeing and uses those daily at Rush Nutrition which looks to pioneer innovative functional food and beverages solutions.
Bruce Cohen
Bruce Cohen is publisher/editor of Food & Beverage Reporter, the leading trade mag for the sector. He has worked in the media industry since the 1970s and has been closely involved in food and beverage matters since 2004 when he founded whole foods company Absolute Organix.
Tyron Sharnock
Generalist leader with a focus on sales & marketing, go to market and innovation. Completes Masters Research in exploring consumer behaviour with regards to innovative, customer-centric business models such as meal kit delivery services like uCook.
Using my knowledge on the topics to consult with startups and business on how to effectively implement strategies to disrupt and/or avoid being disrupted…
Johann Mocke
Johann is a seasoned fast moving consumer goods specialist and has played a key role in developing and launching successful brands in Southern Africa. Johann has 12 years’ experience with The South African Breweries (AB Inbev), functioning in numerous sales roles from Sales Manager, Project manager and Key account manager and ending as National Retail and Wholesale Channel Manager.
Johann joined Clover SA as National Sales Development manager in 2012 and managed the development and structure of the Clover sales force. As a Sales development manager, Johann also managed the in-store marketing team which included POS development as well as the Category Management that ensured optimum placement of Clover brands in all major retail groups.
Johann got his first exposure to the meat industry when he joined Cavalier in 2015 as a Sales and Marketing executive. The business owns the whole value chain from farms, feedlot and abattoir to a state of the art manufacturing and packaging facility.
Mbali Nwoko
Mbali Nwoko is the CEO of Green Terrace (Pty) Ltd which is an agribusiness based in Boksburg, Johannesburg that farms high-value vegetable crops namely Green Peppers, Baby Marrows and Green Beans and supplies to leading retailers and processing companies throughout South Africa.
Mbali is an ardent entrepreneur and prior to establishing her agribusiness, she previously co-owned a successful headhunting talent organization named ClientScape (Pty) Ltd for 3 years which niched in headhunting professional engineers and artisans for the manufacturing, engineering and chemical companies.
Mbali is a BCom Industrial Psychology graduate from the University of Johannesburg (Kingsway Campus) and further studied her MBA with Regenesys Business School, however, due to business demands, she put her studies on hold to focus on building her farm enterprise. She is currently completing a business course at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) sponsored by J.P Morgan.
In addition to being featured on a number of radio interviews and other media houses, below are some of the highlights of her career/business achievements:
• 702 Small Business Awards with Sage One Finalist – 2014: ClientScape
• 702 Small Business Awards with Sage One Finalist – 2017: Green Terrace
• Women in Agri feature on True Love Magazine July Issue – 2018
• Featured on Rapid Learning Africa in July 2018
• Film feature in the Nation in Conversation Series and Drum Magazine – 2018
• Omnia Farmer of the Year for the Highveld Region, Finalist, 2018
• New Farmer Feature on Farmers Weekly Magazine – Aug 2018
• Nominated by the Agricultural Writers SA for Female Farmer of the Year for 2018
• Mail and Guardian Women Changing South Africa – Aug 2018
Miles Kubheka
Miles Kubheka, the entrepreneur, refreshing keynote speaker and author, is the poster child for the audacity of hope. Having once been employed by a leading multinational, he went out on a limb and ingeniously created a restaurant with the same name and branding as a fictional restaurant portrayed in a famous ‘beeg beeg dreamer’ TV ad campaign. In doing so, he catapulted into media
stardom, and soon translated his innovative thinking into entrepreneurial success.
When occupying centre stage at a business symposium and delivering a keynote, Miles has a clear message of hope for multinationals and small businesses alike. If you hire the right people with an entrepreneurial mindset, you can build new business models within your company, rather than have disgruntled employees leave and start a business in competition to your own. Miles is also a firm believer that entrepreneurial mindsets can be fostered within an organisation. He encourages organisations to build a culture that supports employees to become intrepreneurs: people who behave like an entrepreneur whilst being employed.
While Miles’s compelling rags-to-riches story speaks to any audience – his message is universal – it serves as a platform from which to address some of the pressing issues in business today, such as competition, retaining good staff, changing company culture and investing in the future. Both an analytic and creative thinker, who holds a Master’s degree in Business and a post-graduate Business Diploma from a leading business school, Miles believes companies who want to generate wealth, rather than to preserve it, need to offer new products and services. He shares his vision with businesses that are ready to ‘think out of the box’ when it comes to leadership, teamwork, branding and reputation management. In Miles’ own words: “It is okay to build a new business on the back of a legacy business – but will it look like lipstick on a bulldog or a new puppy?”
His accomplishments include starting a chain of pharmacies and co-owning an IT software solutions company. His never-say-die message about going back out there every day, even when times are tough (he almost experienced bankruptcy), is something all South Africans in the business world can relate to. Driven by tenacity, optimism and self-belief, Miles is uniquely capable of inspiring audiences to dream big but execute with practicality.
Accomplishments
• He holds a Master’s Degree in Business from Wits University and post-graduate Business Diploma from GIBS Business School.
• Chef
• The host of At The Table TV show, SABC 3 20:30.
• Writes for Entrepreneur magazine.
• Author of From A Big Big Dreamer to Living the Dream – Vuyo’s.
• Became one of four independent MicrosoQ vendors in which MicrosoQ invested R100m.
• Founder of Vuyo’s franchise.
