Danone North America, is a mindful executive and thought leader with 20 years of food industry experience growing local and global CPG brands and startups. She is passionate about innovation and the future of our food systems and is a strong advocate of science to help drive the food revolution. As the Chief Research & Innovation Officer at Danone North America, Takoua oversees product development and formulation, packaging design, process development, process scale up, new technologies discovery, open innovation, and user experience. Her responsibilities cover the entire portfolio of plant-based and dairy brands including Happy Family, Silk, Oikos, Activia, Horizon Organic, International Delight, So Delicious Dairy Free, and more.

Paul Kollesoff is the co-founder + general manager of The Urgent Company, a CPG company with a singular focus on the next generation of sustainable products, starting with his passion: food! TUC discovers the latest in innovation and science to create revolutionary ways of making the products we love. A chemist by training, and with more than 20 years of experience working with food & nutrition companies ranging from the tiny to the multinational, Paul has a keen eye for trendspotting and pushing the boundaries when it comes to food and beverage. Prior to The Urgent Company, Kollesoff spent fourteen years at Glanbia, the latter part as Vice President of Product Strategy, responsible for organic and inorganic growth across several emerging platforms. In his spare time you can find him continually learning how to be a good dad, playing proper football (or soccer, as Americans call it) and spending time near the ocean with his wife and two kids.

Ben started his career at Agri-Mark and Cabot Cheese, a dairy cooperative in the Northeast, where he developed trading and risk management programs for the cooperatives' commercial dairy commodity businesses. He later developed programs for dairy producers to manage their milk price risk and produced price forecasts and economic outlooks. Prior to joining Rabobank, Laine was a senior economist at CoBank, covering the dairy industry. His research has spanned the dairy supply chain from farm inputs, through the processing sector, consumer trends and export markets. Laine grew up in Massachusetts and earned bachelors and masters degrees in resource economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

VentureFuel, an independent innovation consultancy that accelerates innovation for large organizations to drive meaningful change and positive impact. Through collaboration with startups and VentureFuel’s repeatable venture frameworks for growth, they have helped 100+ organizations from Coca-Cola to Comcast to Biogen Pharmaceuticals. Each program is custom built based on business challenges and individual KPIs including unique corporate accelerators to pilot excellence programs to innovation diagnostics – all of which leverage proprietary frameworks and a deep understanding of the VC, Angel and startup ecosystems. VentureFuel runs the Real California Milk Excelerator (entering its 4th year) as well as NY MilkLaunch (entering its 2nd year). Beyond VentureFuel, Fred is an avid startup investor (20+ companies), multiple board member (Hot Bread Kitchen, Clerk, Angeles Investors, etc.), co-founder of the Rogue Women event series, frequent speaker at events such as Cannes, SXSW, Nasdaq, Advertising Week, a thought-leader published in Bloomberg, Forbes, Crunchbase, The Huffington Post, Creator Magazine, Adweek and host of The VentureFuel Visionaries Podcast (125+ Episodes).

California Milk Advisory Board, brings more than 25 years of marketing and brand management experience to his role as CEO of the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) where he focuses on building awareness and demand for California dairy products across the U.S. and around the world. Mr. Talbot began his career in sales at Procter & Gamble before joining Pepsi-Cola where he spent 12 years in a variety of brand management and product development roles. His background in consumer products also includes 2 years leading new product development for E&J Gallo Winery and 3 years running global market development for the Almond Board of California.

Elizabeth has more than 10 years of experience as a regulatory and business reporter for trade press. She covers the food and beverage industries, including innovation, start-ups, health, wellness, nutrition, FDA and dietary supplements.