Solveiga Pakštaitė is the the industrial designer behind Mimica Touch; a label that tells you exactly when food spoils in order to reduce food waste. Solveiga also lectures at UCL and has been previously named MIT Technology Review's Inventor of the Year. Her name was once the answer to a clue in The Times crossword.
Mr. Hoshen is a serial entrepreneur and a hi-tech business development professional with two decades of diverse international experience in building and accelerating technology start-up businesses from the conceptual stage to profitability. Yoav co-founded Water.io, the smart packaging leader, and currently leads the company's business development efforts. Yoav also co-founded Beyond Verbal (emotions, wellness, and mHelath analytics worldwide leader based on the tone of the human voice) and Superb Reality (Virtual and Augmented Reality computer vision solutions). Mr. Hoshen holds an LLB from Tel Aviv University.
Pedro Gonçalves serves as vice president of marketing for Tetra Pak U.S. and Canada. Gonçalves tracks category, packaging and industry trends for dairy, dairy alternatives, juice, nutritionals and food. He also develops growth strategies and implements strategic marketing plans to achieve growth goals.
Gonçalves has 18 years of experience in the food and beverage industry, working in many different areas including sales, innovation and marketing for both equipment and packaging. He has been with Tetra Pak since 2000 and most recently served as marketing, category and portfolio director in the Processing Systems Division for Tetra Pak North, Central and South America.
Gonçalves received his MBA from Fundação Getulio Vargas and a bachelor’s degree from Universidade Paulista, both in Brazil.
Pepin Gelardi works at the intersection of purpose and possibility, exploring the role of entrepreneurship and technology in solving future-facing problems. As a Partner at Tomorrow Lab®, Pepin leads the Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering teams to invent and develop new, impactful hardware products.
After hours, Pepin teaches workshops in design, aspires to become a Pasta Scientist, and creates site-specific art with his wife Teresa.
Danny Polise is the COO and founder of Penelope Bourbon. In his role, Polise oversees the operations of the business - from compliance to managing production, supply chain, and inventory. Upon graduating college, Polise with a passion for hospitality, had also opened the East End Bar and Grill which has become a fixture in the Upper East Side. Danny attended Manhattan College where he earned his bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering.
Navjeet Chhina is the CEO of Genius Ventures Inc, an augmented, virtual and mixed reality firm based in North America. He is responsible for monitoring all facets of the organization including Operations Oversight, Strategic Planning, International expansion and building the senior executive team. He has 12 years of executive and project management experience across various industries; using his predictive approach to bring innovation into the customer consciousness. He uses comprehensive analysis of competitive trends to drive growth with quantifiable metrics to illustrate the benefits of taking on new avenues for brands. From digital marketing to research & analytics to leveraging strategic relationships, Navjeet perpetually pursues avenues for coupling products with consumers, propogating loyal customers and cultivating long-term brand relationships.
Navjeet is currently focusing on expanding operations internationally, showcasing how augmented reality and forward thinking innovative technologies can provide solutions for organizations of all sizes.
Amanda steers Jabil Packaging Solutions' Intelligent Packaging initiative. In this role, Amanda works with customers to bring to life daring new concepts in intelligent, connected packaging. She has founded startups in the consumer electronics and manufacturing logistics spaces. She also brings a strong legacy of corporate experience, having worked for Xerox PARC, Adobe, Intel Research and Microsoft Research. Amanda has a PhD in Information and Computer Science from UC Irvine and a BS from Stanford in Symbolic Systems.
Sameer is a Senior Manager of External Innovation within the Technology Ventures team at PepsiCo R&D. In this role, he manages PepsiCo’s open innovation platform and strategic partnerships to source external technologies that can impact the company’s wide portfolio of food and beverage products. These technologies can range from packaging materials, ingredients and processing to digital technologies and business model innovations.
Prior to his current role, Sameer held various roles within Packaging R&D at PepsiCo and before that at the Wm. WRIGLEY Jr. Company, successfully leading packaging development for commercial launches of new beverage, food and confectionary products as well as longer term development on new packaging materials and technologies. Sameer began his career in the materials industry working on polymer films and coatings as well as glass and fiberglass for GE Plastics and PPG Industries. He has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston and B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Hannah Fallaw is the Innovation Manager for WestRock’s merchandising display division. Over the past five years, she has integrated and developed new packaging and display solutions into various retail environments across the nation. Hannah is a graduate of Clemson University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Graphic Communications. She took a lead role in developing WestRock’s connected packaging and retail solutions platform. Heavily focused on printed electronic solutions, she successfully developed specialized products utilizing conductive inks to create interactive packaging that connected products to customer’s digital devices, in real time, for an enhanced consumer experience. Hannah earned her certification as a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt through process improvement projects within WestRock’s Innovation pipeline.
Matthew Bright is the head of technical marketing at the Thin Film Electronics NFC Innovation Center in San Jose, California. Following a vision of enabling ‘Intelligence Everywhere’, he builds fully integrated NFC solutions that combine NFC hardware and cloud-powered software to engage consumers, protect brands, and improve understanding of supply chains. In addition to his responsibilities at Thinfilm, Matthew is the NFC Forum’s Chair, Retail & Payment Working Group and Alternate Director. Matthew holds a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan and has extensive marketing experience covering the mobile, IoT, and semiconductor industries.
Pepin Gelardi works at the intersection of purpose and possibility, exploring the role of entrepreneurship and technology in solving future-facing problems. As a Partner at Tomorrow Lab®, Pepin leads the Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering teams to invent and develop new, impactful hardware products.
After hours, Pepin teaches workshops in design, aspires to become a Pasta Scientist, and creates site-specific art with his wife Teresa.
Navjeet Chhina is the CEO of Genius Ventures Inc, an augmented, virtual and mixed reality firm based in North America. He is responsible for monitoring all facets of the organization including Operations Oversight, Strategic Planning, International expansion and building the senior executive team. He has 12 years of executive and project management experience across various industries; using his predictive approach to bring innovation into the customer consciousness. He uses comprehensive analysis of competitive trends to drive growth with quantifiable metrics to illustrate the benefits of taking on new avenues for brands. From digital marketing to research & analytics to leveraging strategic relationships, Navjeet perpetually pursues avenues for coupling products with consumers, propogating loyal customers and cultivating long-term brand relationships.
Navjeet is currently focusing on expanding operations internationally, showcasing how augmented reality and forward thinking innovative technologies can provide solutions for organizations of all sizes.
