Manos Eleftheriou
US Managing Director
Green Cola
A truly International beverage executive having worked and lived across Europe, Africa and the US, Manos Eleftheriou brings a unique global perspective to better anticipate the needs and wants of the consumer. He brings nearly 30 years of experience in sales and marketing working for some of the world’s largest beverage companies (including The Coca-Cola Company and PEPSICO). Since October 2019, he’s been responsible for setting up and running Green Cola's NA operations, which includes sales, marketing, product sourcing & logistics, and finance with full P&L and cash flow responsibility.
Ben Goodwin
Co-Founder & Formulator
OLIPOP
Ben Goodwin co-founded OLIPOP – a low-sugar, fiber-packed sparkling beverage – in 2018, alongside business partner David Lester. Ben has been an entrepreneur and product developer in the digestive beverage field for more than a decade, striving to create drinks optimized for both taste and digestive health benefits backed by clinical research.
To bring the OLIPOP brand to life, Ben spent hundreds of hours researching and developing the functional-yet-tasty formula aligning with academic researchers, medical professionals, dieticians, and other experts in their fields to establish not just a new product, but a new category of gut health soda.
Eran Blachinsky, PhD, MBA
CEO and Co-Founder
Better Juice
Before founding Better Juice, he was the head of a fruit processing company, that’s when he noticed juices from the fruit, with no added sugar, are still rich in fruit sugars.
He was searching for a solution to this problem and established Better Juice, the first food-tech start-up to reduce all sugars from natural juices. An innovative technology that can reduce sugars in juice-based products as well as honey, maple syrup and others.
Howard Telford
Head of Soft Drinks
Euromonitor International
Howard Telford is the head of soft drinks at Euromonitor International, which he joined in 2010. In his role, Howard provides insights on consumer trends and market performance in the drinks industry across 100 markets. Howard’s insights are regularly cited in a variety of national programmes and publications, including CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Fortune, among others.
Mary Ellen Shoup
Senior Correspondent
FoodNavigator-USA
Mary Ellen Shoup is the senior correspondent for FoodNavigator-USA and NutraIngredients-USA reporting on emerging trends, startups, and the latest innovation in the food, beverage, and nutrition sectors. Based in Chicago, Mary Ellen joined the editorial team in 2016 as the US correspondent for BeverageDaily and DairyReporter. She graduated from DePaul University with a B.A. in multimedia journalism.