Advisory board

Ms. Alicia Canadas is an Innovation Manager at Science and Technology Park of Almeria where she develops and leads the innovation department. Ms. Canadas has a degree in Chemical Sciences from the University of Granada. Throughout her twenty years of experience she has worked in different sectors: cosmetics, research, services, teaching, technology, her skills arewith a focus on research and team management. Ms. Canadas is involved in projects on climate change, bioeconomy, agriculture and industrial symbiosis.

Mr. Andre Driever is currently Head of Investment Management at AGENCIA IDEA, Management Company of an investment fund of the Regional Government of Andalucía. He is in charge of origination, execution and monitoring of equity, mezzanine and senior dept transactions with Spanish small- and mid-cap corporates.

Ms. Palomo is working as a project head in AseBio coordinating several projects at national and international level and health Commission. She holds a degree in Biology and two Masters in “Integrated Management Systems for Quality, Environment and Risk prevention” and in ”Pharmacoeconomics and Market Access”. She organises and runs the projects for Spanish Biotech Platform aim to establish communication channels, efficient and multilateral agreements between the different players in the science-technology-business-society.

Ms. Cristina Cabeza is actively involved in knowledge transfer and promotion, technology internationalization and financing assessment for R&D projects as well as innovation suppport services for companies and RTDs in the Agrofood and Bioeconomy areas. She has a degree in Industrial Chemistry, Diploma of Advanced Studies on Chemical Engineering and Master in Technology Management and Foresight (University of Seville, Spain). As member of the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) Agrofood Sector Group she has organized and co-organized several International Brokerage events and company missions.

Mr. Plan developed the strategy and launched CleantechAlps in 2010, the cleantech cluster of western Switzerland. The cluster is dedicated to the development of the clean technology sector, and to federate companies and research institutes that contribute to the protection and conservation of natural resources and develop renewable energy technologies. With his rich experience, he acquired expertise of the Swiss innovation ecosystem and networks within the political, governmental, economic, academic and financial spheres. He plays an active role in both national and international networks and juries in crosscutting industrial branches.

Fabrizio Beltrametti has more than 15 years of hands-on xperience in molecular biology and strain improvement of industrially aluable microorganisms. Beyond leading Actygea business, from 2007 to 2011, Fabrizio Beltrametti was Adjunct Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of Insubria (Varese, Italy).

Mr. Gonzaga Ruiz de Gauna Gutiérrez is coordinating and managing BIOVEGEN-Spanish Technology Platform for Plant Biotechnology, managing R&D projects, and boosting innovation activities of the +100 BIOVEGEN members. He holds a degree in Agricultural Engineering from the Public University of Navarra, an MBA in Biotechnological Business Management from the Aliter Business International School and a Biotechnological Engineering Course from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. He specialized Management in Agrifood, Human health, Environment and Industrial R&D, specially focused on the Agricultural and Food Sectors.

Ms. Piñero graduated telecommunications engineering, and specialized in business environment and business development. Since 2010, she dedicates her professional activity to the world of entrepreneurship, the most recent 6 years as the Director of the Minerva Program, a business accelerator promoted by the Andalusian Government and Vodafone, a benchmark initiative in public-private collaboration and recognized nationally by the quality of its services to entrepreneurs.

Mr. João Nunes is CEO of the BLC3 - Campus of Technology and Innovation, and also a Founder and President of All - Portuguese Association for Bioeconomics and Circular Economy. He obtained his PhD from Coimbra University in Biosciences. Mr. Nunes is experienced in design integrated biorefineries, bioenergy and solar systems, alternative transport fuels (second and third generation biofuels) and bio-energy, LCA and Industrial Ecology, technological management and innovation, Valorization of natural resources. Industrial Biotechnology. Agrofood technology development.

Mr. Johannes Kisser studied chemical engineering with specialisation in food and plant chemistry and technology, and further elaborating metal accumulation in plants. He started with environmental analysis for the Austrian Environmental Protection Agency in 1998, working his way through waste management, with the focus shifting to circular economy solutions in the early 2000s. He has held lectureships on sustainable product design, supply chain management, CSR, circular cities, circular buildings at three Austrian universities. He is the developer and initiator of national and international projects including the transdisciplinary H2020 projects HYDROUSA, HOUSEFUL and COST Action Circular.

Mr. Juan Jesus Velasco is a telecommunications engineer and MBA and is an experienced professional in IT projects at the public sector. Since 2014, he is one of the managers of a start-up acceleration programme in Seville (El Cubo) sponsored by Telefonica and the Regional Government of Andalucia. Since 2016, Mr. Velasco is an advisor of the Regional Ministry of Economy, Knowledge, Enterprises and University in the area of entrepreneurship and start-up ecosystem. Guest lecturer at several business schools in areas related to entrepreneurship, digital business and start-ups.

Dr. Bach joined HTGF in 2018 as Investment Manager in the Life Science Team and is currently responsible for sourcing and closing of new investments. He has an active portfolio of 5 companies from various branches. Before Juri joined the HTGF he hold several academic positions at the University of Cologne, the LMU Munich and the NTU Singapore. Thereafter he was active in biotechnological networks for several years with the focus to establish innovative biotechnological processes along the value chain.

Ms. Kristina Eskenazi is a serial entrepreneur, Chairwoman of the Managing Board of the Bulgarian Health & Life Science Cluster, Co-founder and board member of the Bulgarian Bioscience Society, Member of the Managing Board of AI Cluster Bulgaria and Founder of Mass Media Foundation. She is a seasoned PR and communications professional with over 18 years of experience. Kristina manages a broad range of communications and public affairs issues for public and private sector clients in many fields. Her current and past clients include private companies, leading industry associations, and not-for-profit organizations.

Prof. Magdalini Krokida is a Professor at the National Technical University of Athens. She is working in the area of Food Engineering, with more than 20 years of experience. She has intensively worked in the design and development of functional foods, as well as in the design and optimization of physical processes such as drying methods, extraction methods, novel encapsulation methods, the determination of thermophysical properties of foods. She is representative of Food for Life Platform in Greece, representative of Greece at the International Scientific Committee of Drying, President of the Scientific Committee of the Hellenic Food Industries Association (SEVT) and ambassador of Global Harmonization Initiative (GHI) in Greece.

Mr. De la Feld has more than 15 years of experience and specific expertise in exploitation related activities, awareness raising on entrepreneurship, innovation management and critic analysis of economic factors of the market definition of new markets and new customer segments. He graduated from the University of Studies of Naples Federico II and holds a Doctor’s Degree (PhD) in territorial advanced and composite materials. He is expert in Food Circular Economy Raw Materials. He is running, since 2012, the EU young Entrepreneurship Program in Italy.

Prof. Maria del Mar Fuentes is specialised in Entrepreneurship. She has been Coordinator of the PhD in Business Economics and currently she is the Head of Entrepreneurship of the UGR, launching the new Entrepreneurship Unit of the UGR: UGRemprendedora. She is also the director of the “Andalucia Emprende” Chair at the University of Granada. She is currently member of the Spanish Board of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Consortium (GEM), as director of the GEM projects for Granada and Melilla. She has held various high level positions in connecting the business world with the academia.

María Díaz Navarro is the Head of the International Department of Cluster FOOD+i, a cluster for agri-food within the Ebro Valley Region, Spain, gathering together more than 25% of the food companies of the country and reaching an annual turnover of 30M€. Ms. Díaz holds a Degree in Tourism Management and a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) by IE Business School. She has strong business background with more than 10 years of experience working for associative organizations within the agri-food sector leading entrepreneurship programs

Ms. Gil is the Manager of GoHub, the Open Innovation hub powered by Global Omnium, a Valencian national leader in the water sector and in continuous national and international expansion. She contributes to strengthening of the technological entrepreneurial ecosystem in Andalusia, helping the region to position itself as a technological and innovative hub. Ms. Gil is a graduate from Higher Technical School of Engineering, University of Seville.

Mr. Bellof is a trained bio-scientist with 8+ years of experience in life science and healthcare startups. He applies the lean startup framework to early-stage startups that contribute to a sustainable planet and the health of people. Over the past years, Mr. Bellof has co-founded and managed startups, helped founders de-risk their ideas from different perspectives (technology, market, financial), coordinated international R&D projects and acquired millions of Euros in public & private funding. He is driven by a desire to see biotech startups that change the world for the better and succeed.

Mr. Bettiga academic research focusses on renewable biofuels and biorefinery, with emphasis on the study of the mechanisms underlying robustness of industrial microorganisms. His industrial activities also include the use of municipal, agricultural and industrial bio-waste as raw material for bio-based processes, biomethane production and the implementation of new biomass bioconversion technologies, contributing to integrate industrial, economically sustainable activities into the carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous cycles. Mr. Bettiga has been organising and teaching a number of courses in Europe, Latin America on genetic engineering of industrial microorganism, microbial physiology an bio-based production.

Ms. Merete Daniel Nielsen is President of TCI Network, and the co-owner of Cluster Excellence Denmark – the national funded support function for Danish clusters. Both organisations are currently working with the new Supercluster paradigm that includes capital and investment support in the cluster framework. She has extensive knowledge and experience in cluster development on the political, the strategic and the operationel level; education, innovation, cluster policy and drivers for regional development; economic development at international, national, regional and local level; collaboration between knowledge institutions and businesses, and Internationalisation

Economist at the School of Engineering and Architecture of Fribourg and the Plastics Innovation Competence Center, currently co-leading two Interreg Alpine Space projects: AlpLinkBioEco addresses the transition from a fossil-based to a circular bio-based economy and S3-4AlpClusters aims at enhancing smart industrial transition in the regions of the Alpine Space by making use of the interplay between clusters and smart specialization strategies. He is a Visiting Professor at LIUC Università Cattaneo, teaching BA and MA courses in Strategic Management and Innovation and Competition in Global Markets.

Mr. Michael Krel focuses on investments in the industrial biotechnology and renewable chemistry sectors. Prior to Sofinnova, he worked as VP Business Development at Deinove, a biotech company developing second generation biofuels and biochemicals. Before that he was a Business Development Manager at Metabolic Explorer, a biotech company focused on the green chemistry area. Michael graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and holds a PhD in organic chemistry from the ICSN in France.

Mr. Petri Alava is an experienced business and board executive and is passionate in developing new businesses in the field of bioeconomy and circular economy. He received M.Sc in Industrial engineering and has been working 10 years as a corporate CEO in global biomaterials business for growing healthy food. He is now building a game changing global business around chemical process technology enabling producing cotton like textile fibers from textile and paper waste as well as residue biomaterials. He is enthusiastic about revolutionising the fashion and non-woven industries with this innovation.

René Reijtenbagh is CEO of Business Angels Connect, private investor and founder of Angel Funding Germany specialized in connecting Dutch growth companies to German investors. He has more than two decades of experience in getting companies investor ready and introducing them successfully to private investors. René is Vice President of Business Angels Europe, the European confederation of business angels networks, responsible for stimulating cross border private investments. He works exclusively with the Bio based Centers of Chemical innovation, Innovation Labs and Field labs. René has an education in Biology, Economic Geography and followed a Business Administration program.

Mr. Robert Miskuf is CEO at PEDAL Consulting. Among others, the company made a strong footprint in the bioeconomy domain through the implementation of many bioeconomy-related projects. His expertise is in the area of business development and internationalization and coordinates various European networks and expert groups focused on bioeconomy and circular economy.
Prior to setting up PEDAL Consulting, he worked at the secretariat of the European Parliament in Brussels.
Robert’s personal mission is to contribute to the development of sustainable and circular Bioeconomy at regional and local level based on local biological resources

Mr. Verga has a Degree in Biological Sciences with 25 years' experience in the Italian pharmaceutical industry. Researcher at Farmitalia, project leader at Antibioticos SpA in the field of expression and purification of heterologous proteins in the therapeutic field produced in various hosts, including E.coli, yeast and mammalian cells, as well as in the expression of secondary metabolites from microorganisms of various nature. Author of several patents and publications in the field of biotechnology applied to the production of active ingredients, he carried out the technological transfer on an industrial scale of purification and industrial biocatalysis processes.

Mr. Rubén Hidalgo is a graduate in chemical engineering, specialized in management, financing operations and continuous innovation processes. Throughout his professional career in both public and private organizations he managed various innovation projects, created companies and managed risk investment and company development processes. He oversaw different projects for creation of experimental plants in the energy sector at pre-market intermediate TRL levels, and was a project manager under the Lean Manufacturing methodology. He is director of the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems unit at CAPSA FOOD where he develops the CAPSA VIDA initiative in the context of food for the future: healthy, personalized and sustainable

Mr. Manev is a financial advisor with over fifteen years of valuation and investment analysis experience for privately held companies and real estate investments, namely investment tools, asset valuation, portfolio management, and the application of ethical and professional standards in the investment industry. He received Bachelor’s degree from the University of Economics in Varna. He was certified as a valuer of private companies and became a member at the Chamber of Independent Valuers in Bulgaria. From 2015, he became Chartered Financial Analyst®, a member of the CFA Institute, and holds an investment consultant license, issued by the Bulgarian Financial Supervision Commission.

Dr. Castellani has 10 years of research experience in the field of Life Cycle Assessment and sustainability assessment. She has been conducting LCA studies since 2008, both for research projects and consultancy to Italian SMEs and has experience in data collection, modelling, impact assessment and interpretation of results. She worked with decision makers for LCA studies on bio-based materials, bio-energy and bio-refinery, personal care, packaging, furniture, textiles and tourism activities. Her backgroind also includes roles as Scientific Officer at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission , researcher at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of the University of Milano-Bicocca.