Johan Garssen is Professor of Immunopharmacology at Utrecht University, where he’s also Head of the Division Pharmacology at the Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences. At Danone Nutricia Research, after several functions as from 2002, Johan is currently Chief Scientific Advisor.

He studied medicine and biology at the Free University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He specialized in immunology, pharmacology and biochemistry and finished both studies in 1987 cum laude. He is registered as immunologist and pharmacologists. He finished his PhD thesis at the University of Utrecht in 1991 on the role of T cells in respiratory allergy, an immunopharmacological approach. This PhD programme and a postdoc period was partly performed at Yale University, New Haven, USA. Since 2022 he heading the Future Food Research Hub at the Utrecht university.

After the postdoc period he became senior scientist and head immunobiology at the National Institute of Public Health in the Netherlands. There he coached many research projects, both preclinical as well as clinical research, in the field of immunomodulation induced by a.o. nutritional ingredients, drugs and environmental agents.

Johan Garssen published over 900 peer reviewed papers in the field of “immunomodulation”. He is editorial board member for several journals and has contributed to various grants, a.o. NWO, EU, NIH, STW, Bill Gates, EDB, RAAK-PRO, children hospital innovation grants.

His major research field is translational research (from use-inspired fundamental research towards proof of concept clinical trials) aimed at prevention and/or management of immune related disorders with a strong focus on allergy/tolerance and inflammation management.

Arijit brings nearly 30 years of experience in the Consumer-Packaged Goods, Consumer Healthcare, and pharmaceuticals category in the Innovation, Technology, R&D operation, and digital R&D strategy. He currently serves as the Senior Director for the Beverage, Gum, Candy, and Cheese category at Mondelez International for Asia, the Middle East & Africa region. In this role, Arijit collaborates with diverse markets across the region to shape the category's innovation strategy and roadmap, transforming these strategies into consumer-winning products. Additionally, he leads the digital R&D strategy for the category, leading the path of innovation excellence through a robust digital framework.

CEO at NATURLI’ and true believer in a plantbased diet. NATURLI’ makes change easy by producing vegan noncompromising products in dairy, meat and ice cream – one-stop shopping with benefits for the planet and you!

Meri is a marketing professional with over 10 years of experience in pioneering digital marketing, digital transformation and content strategy & management, both in B2C and B2B. She is heading the Global B2B Marketing at Valio, specialized in nutrition for all life stages. Together with her team, she helps customers succeed in launching their NPD projects.

Davy Rosseel is Global Key Account Manager at Resilux Group and experienced in business development PET preforms and bottles. With his strong focus in Dairy and Plant Based Drinks Resilux can offer true sustainable packaging solutions for valuable and innovative food and drinks opportunities.