Dr. Glandt, trained as an internist at Harvard and an endocrinologist at Columbia University, has almost two decades experience in the treatment of diabetes. Four years ago she discovered the growing low carb movement and changed her approach to the treatment of diabetes.  She is the founder and director of Glandt Center for Diabetes Care in Tel Aviv which specializes in optimization of diabetes care through use of a very low carbohydrate diets.  Dr. Glandt is involved in clinical trials, actively publishes articles in medical journals, lectures in Israel and abroad, and teaches medical residents at Bronx Hospital in NY.   She is also the co-founder of Eatsane which makes low carb food products with no artificial sweeteners.

Dr. Jim Flatt has led teams responsible for conceiving and translating innovative discoveries into successful commercial products in the nutrition, specialty chemical, and energy industries.  Jim is the co-founder and CEO of Brightseed, which is meeting consumer needs for healthy, natural and increasingly personalized food and beverage products through discovery of new plant-based nutrients using systems biology and machine learned-based ForagerTM intelligence.  Previously, Jim held senior R&D leadership positions at Martek Biosciences, Synthetic Genomics Mascoma and Hampton Creek.  Jim received his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduate degrees in Chemical Engineering from UC-Berkeley and University of Wisconsin. 

Rutie Adar has been heading Samsung’s Strategy and Innovation Center in Israel. The center’s mission is to discover and develop groundbreaking technologies that will help people all over the world lead happier, healthier, richer lives. It drives global innovation for Samsung in diverse fields such as artificial intelligence, digital health, the Internet of Things, autonomous mobility, data center infrastructure, security, privacy and more. Samsung’s Strategy and Innovation Center accelerates Samsung’s entry into new business areas through research and innovation and by creating new opportunities through strategic investments, mergers and acquisitions.

Rutie has joined Samsung 9 years ago, after more than 20 years at both startup and multinational companies, initially as an algorithms developer followed by various managerial positions in marketing, strategy, planning and business development, holding BSc and MSc in mathematics and computer science from the Hebrew University Jerusalem and MBA from Tel Aviv University.

Prof. Eyal Shimoni is one of Israel’s top food engineering & technology experts, with vast academic and industrial experience. He serves as the CTO of Strauss Group as of 2010. He is in charge of the Technological strategy for the group, as well identifying, evaluating, and developing innovative technologies with Alpha-Strauss, the Food Tech Community. Currently he is also a board member of The Kitchen, the first FoodTech incubator in Israel, established by Strauss.

Eyal is a proud Technion graduate (BSc, MSc, DSc), with a post doc in the university of Minnesota. He was a research professor in the Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering of the Technion 2000-2013, performing many studies and projects with industrial partners, as well as basic research, mostly in food biophysics and food nano-science. In 2017 Eyal was elected as the European CTO of the year by European industrial research management association and Spinverse.

Joseph Zhou is Investment Partner at Bits x Bites, China’s pioneer food tech venture capital investing in startups tackling global food system challenges.             

With a mission to shape the future of good food, Bits x Bites is a big step forward to inspire and support the entrepreneurial community to bring new ideas to solve global issues. To date, it has invested in companies that are advancing nanoscale contaminant detection, gene editing for high-performing crops, as well as a company advancing cost-efficient, non-GMO meat production directly from animal cells without an actual animal.

Joseph brings 12 years of experience across corporate banking, investment banking, and private equity, having raised more than US$120 million for his portfolio companies in the primary market.

His decision to enter the food sector was driven by one clear motivation: To fight for the future of good food so that his young son grows up with plenty of safe and nutritious food options.         

Prior to Bits x Bites, Joseph and two other partners ran Fusi Capital where they self-raised US$50 million to invest in China’s international education sector. He has an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth Business School.

Head of Nutrition & Gastronomy division, Strauss Group. Professor and Alumni of the University of Gastronomic Science in Pollenzo, Italy. Holds an holistic approach to food and its role in human lives at various different dimensions. Among the first Gastronomes in the food industry and aim to make real nutritious and yet appealing food accessible to the average consumer. Initiated the sustainability framework in Strauss dairies across Israel, support the Clean Eating philosophy and believes that food is both a cultural and culinary act together with its functionality.

Ellen joined PepsiCo in 2014 as senior vice president in R&D and currently is based in Purchase, NY.

Apart from her role in PepsiCo, Ellen served until January 2018 as the interim and founding CEO of EIT Food, the largest public private consortium in Food sector and is also on several boards including the New York Academy of Sciences, ILSI Board of Trustees, GMA Science & Regulatory Affairs Council Executive Committee, Open University & Hogere Agrarische School (the Netherlands).

Ellen has worked in various industries including pharmaceuticals, health/nutrition, coatings and life sciences and earned her PhD cum laude in bio-organic chemistry from Leiden University in The Netherlands and completed post-doctoral work in molecular biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with Nobel Laureate H.G. Khorana. Her research was awarded multiple times and in 2000 she received the Golden Medal from the Royal Dutch Chemical Society for being the best Dutch chemist under 40 years of age.