Speakers-In-Person


Michael Bortinger Director of Marketing and Partnerships Tastewise
Jacques Botbol CRO Tastewise More Info Jacques Botbol, CRO of Tastewise, is a seasoned marketer with a diverse background and a wealth of experience in tech and AI. With a passion for driving business growth, Jacques has held various leadership positions throughout his career—including his pivotal role as CMO during Verbit's exponential success. Currently, Jacques guides new business and marketing at Tastewise, where he helps food brands and manufacturers activate revenue through AI-driven marketing execution. Tastewise transforms consumer intelligence into revenue opportunities—empowering food and beverage brands like Nestle, Kraft Heinz, Mars, Givaudan and more to dominate the shelf, expand menu presence, and maximize product usage with AI-driven execution.
Max Brodeur-Urbas Co-Founder and CEO Gumloop More Info Max is the CEO and co-founder of Gumloop. He started the AI automation company two years ago and now helps customers like Instacart, Shopify, Webflow automate millions of workflows. Max was previously an operating systems engineer at Microsoft and left his corporate job to pursue building AI startups. Since making the transition, he's gone through Y Combinator and raised twenty million in venture capital to scale AI workflow automation worldwide.
Alon Chen CEO and Co-Founder Tastewise More Info Alon Chen is the CEO and co-founder of Tastewise, an AI-driven insights and execution platform for food and beverage professionals. A seasoned leader in AI, big data, and marketing, Alon brings a deep understanding of technology’s role in driving business success. Before founding Tastewise, he was a senior executive at Google, where he built and led the Google Partners program across 27 markets and served as Google’s Chief Marketing Officer for Israel and Greece. At Tastewise, Alon helps the world’s leading food brands turn AI-powered insights into real-world execution, enabling them to create, position, and market winning products with confidence.
Simeon Duong Director of Product DoorDash More Info Simeon Duong is Director of Product at DoorDash, where he leads the development of marketing solutions for CPG brands on the platform. He oversees a portfolio of products that help brands drive measurable sales growth, uncover emerging trends, and engage with DoorDash’s expanding audience. Before this role, Simeon led Ad Product at Pinterest, where he was responsible for all advertiser-facing experiences.
Aaron Goldsmid GM & Head of Product Deel More Info Aaron Goldsmid is Deel’s head of product, where he looks after the company’s connectivity and fintech suite of products. Aaron brings more than 20 years of product and engineering leadership experience and has helped to build and scale some of the world’s most beloved products. He previously served in product leadership roles at Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter, Prosper, Kiva.org, and most recently, as VP Product/GM of Twillio’s flagship messaging product. Aaron graduated from Columbia University in New York with a degree in Computer Science and is an active angel investor and advisor focusing on mission-driven technology companies.
Laura Jones CMO Instacart More Info Laura Jones is the Chief Marketing Officer at Instacart. In her role, Laura is responsible for shaping a cohesive brand, fueling the company’s growth, and leading the marketing organization. Since joining in June 2021, Laura has led a comprehensive brand identity refresh, launched the company’s first-ever integrated brand campaign, built out its Creative Studio, and developed a full-funnel in-house media team. Her work has been recognized by Ad Age, Adweek, the Clios, the Effies and she was featured in the 2024 Adweek 50 list, and the Forbes Entrepreneurial CMOs 50 and Adweek Marketing Vanguard lists in 2023. Laura also serves as a member of the Board of Directors at Match Group and UNICEF USA.
Phil Kafarakis President & Chief Executive Officer IFMA The Food Away from Home Association More Info Phil Kafarakis is the President & CEO of the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association (IFMA), a leading trade association serving the more than $271Billion food-away-from-home food and beverage industry. Kafarakis is a global food industry executive with more than 30-years of leadership experience. Prior to his IFMA, he served as President of the Specialty Food Association (SFA) representing more than 4,000 small and emerging food entrepreneurs in the $160 Billion U.S. Specialty Food Inudstry, and was the Chief Innovation & Member Advancement Officer at the National Restaurant Association (NRA). Prior to his association work, Phil successfully led and managed businesses at McCormick & Co., Cargill, Jones Dairy Farm, and Kraft. Mr. Kafarakis was born in Athens, Greece and immigrated to the U.S. with his family as a child. He holds an International Executive MBA from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and a BSBA from Northern Arizona University.
Mani Kulasooriya Co-Founder & CEO Cut & Dry,Inc. More Info A serial entrepreneur, Mani has spent the past decade at the intersection of food, restaurants, and technology. He started his career in Fintech building payment systems at Citibank and Yahoo. This training laid the groundwork for Mani to conceive and design complex, scalable, transaction-based businesses. Mani went on to co-found CAKE, the first Cloud POS startup, which was acquired by Sysco (SYY). While at Sysco, Mani helped create a brand new technology organization, Sysco Labs, which he helped grow to a 400+ team and $15B in transaction volume. Currently Mani is co-founder and CEO of Cut+Dry, a Foodservice platform that connects Manufacturers, Distributors, and Operators, in a single digital format. Cut+Dry is also the first company to launch an LLM AI solution for the Foodservice industry.
Udi Ledergor Chief Evangelist Gong More Info Udi Ledergor served as CMO during Gong’s rise from new SaaS startup to industry dominance. By building a playful, human-centric brand with a lighthearted tone, he captured buyers’ attention and dollars and turned them into raving fans. He helped Gong go from zero to hundreds of millions in revenue, while achieving a multi-billion-dollar valuation. Over his 20-year career, Udi has led marketing teams at successful companies, advised startups, served as a board member and angel investor, and mentored hundreds of marketers. His work reveals how courage and creativity can build iconic brands, connect with audiences, and drive measurable results.
Nathan Lindberg Head of US Brand Partnerships Overwolf More Info Nathan Lindberg is Head of US Brand Partnerships at Overwolf, a world-leading platform empowering brands and advertisers to reach over 100M+ monthly gamers. As an industry veteran with over 20 years of experience, Nathan has been at the forefront of authentically integrating global food & beverage brands like McDonalds, Pizza Hut and AB InBev into emerging platforms and gaming technologies. At Overwolf, Nathan leads an award-winning team responsible for an impressive list of world-class F&B brand campaigns in gaming with Smuckers' Uncrustables®, PepsiCo's Tropicana, Wendy's, Takis, KFC, Pringles, Monster Energy & many more.
Megan Lynberg Senior Vice President, Sales Datassential More Info Megan Lynberg is a 15-year veteran of the restaurant industry and a seasoned sales and marketing professional. Megan has devoted her career to helping food and beverage companies make smarter, data-driven decisions without adding to their already full plates. As VP of Sales for Datassential, Megan helps both operators and manufacturers grow and innovate by tapping into Datassential’s industry-leading menu and consumer trends platforms. Through a suite of intelligence tools, software solutions, and an unlimited data library, Datassential guides the biggest names in food and beverage on what’s next for the industry and how to stay ahead of it. Prior to Datassential, Megan held sales and marketing positions with Nation’s Restaurant News, Hospitality Technology, and Black Box Intelligence. She is a proud graduate of the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!) and lives in Phoenix with her husband and two children.
Morgan Miles Director of Sales, Enterprise Kaltura More Info Morgan Miles is an Enterprise Sales Director at Kaltura with over 15 years of experience in video technology and digital strategy. He has held roles at companies including NICE, Cloudflare, Adobe, and Confirmit, helping Fortune 1000 organizations optimize customer engagement, data-driven marketing, and digital transformation. At Kaltura, Morgan advises leading enterprises on building scalable, AI-powered video ecosystems that drive engagement, learning, and growth.
Ali Miller VP of Product, Ads Instacart More Info Ali Miller is the Vice President of Ads Product at Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America. Ali leads the team building and scaling ad products for all of Instacart’s advertisers, from emerging to established brands. She is tasked with creating engaging, innovative ad solutions that align with the goals of Instacart’s unique four-sided marketplace. Ali joined Instacart in 2021 from Google, where she was focused on Google Ads and YouTube Ads, building out the product portfolio across formats, quality, advertiser experience, and more. Ali has been recognized by Progressive Grocer as a Top Women in Grocery in 2023 and 2024, named a Campaign US Inspiring Woman, and shortlisted for AdExchanger’s Leadership in Advertising award. In her spare time, she performs as a violinist in the Oakland Symphony.
Jon Miller Co-Founder Marketo More Info Jon Miller is an entrepreneur, industry thought leader, and keynote speaker with 25+ years experience at the world’s disruptive marketing technology platforms. He is currently the founder and CEO of a new start-up, looking to use AI to reimagine B2B martech. Previously, he was CMO at Demandbase, which he joined as part of the merger with Engagio, where he was founder and CEO. Before that he co-founded Marketo, where as CMO he helped the company achieve an IPO and category leadership. He holds a degree in physics from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford.
Melissa Muldowney Global Marketing Director, Savoury Taste Kerry More Info Melissa Muldowney is the Global Marketing Director for Savoury Taste at Kerry, where she leads a dedicated team focused on key strategic priorities such as fermentation taste, smoke & grill, salt reduction, and dairy taste. With over a decade of experience at Kerry and 18 years in the marketing field, Melissa excels in market research and competitive analysis to develop innovative marketing strategies that emphasize the unique value propositions of Kerry’s technologies and products. She drives the strategic positioning and promotion of these products globally, ensuring they align with market needs and strategic business objectives. Melissa is also at the forefront of integrating Generative AI into the business, leading a cross-functional team to shape the future of customer innovation at Kerry.
Sam Newman Director Enterprise Accounts Tastewise
Mitin Rathod Global Marketing Director Sensient Technologies More Info Mitin brings passion and experience in leading initiatives across all aspects of brand growth, Insights, Innovation, Strategy, Product Development and Commercialization. In the last three decades, Mitin has been in the company of many smart and driven folks from several sectors in B2B and CPG; Baskins, Scotts Miracle Gro, Walmart, Mars and now with Sensient. He has built several best practices on New Product Development, Package Design, Value Propositions and Category Insights. He uses his experience to find the true “needs and occasions” that build memory and brings joy to our consumers.
Hans Schatz Executive Vice President Cut & Dry,Inc. More Info With a lifetime serving the foodservice industry -- serving in the restaurant and hotel space, then almost 30 years in the foodservice distribution arena, followed by a leap of faith as a Tech Founder, which then led to the being the CEO of a craft beverage manufacturer, as well as time with the nation’s largest collaboration of GPO’s. Tying it all together and seeing the new age of collaboration in the industry was illuminating and inspiring, but led to more questions about how to bend the ARC of innovation so that the foodservice Supply Chain operating systems could still better serve the manufacturers, the distributors and ultimately the 1.4m+ incredible operators fighting everyday to survive and grow. That curiosity and desire to build a better system lead to joining Cut+Dry, which is the Original Innovator in foodservice for a common eComm platform to allow all trading partners to participate together.
Mike Schwartz Senior Vice President - Chief Engagement & Innovation Officer IFMA The Food Away from Home Association More Info Mike Schwartz is responsible for the strategy and direction of IFMA’s programs, services and marketing initiatives. Since 2014, Schwartz has played a key role in developing, launching, and leading IFMA’s insights and supply chain best practices. Over the past five years, his role has expanded to lead a team that provides value to IFMA’s members through all of its programming, including its connectivity forums. Prior to joining IFMA, Schwartz spent six years leading custom market research and consulting engagements for suppliers and operators at Technomic. His work included studies on market analyses, market sizing, performance benchmarking, industry trends, and more. Over the past 11 years, he has been a featured speaker and moderator at foodservice industry events in the U.S. and Canada. Schwartz earned his Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from The Ohio State University.
Nickhil Tekwani Manager, Gen AI/ML Engineering McDonald's Corporation More Info Nickhil Tekwani is a Technical Project Manager helping lead global Gen AI strategy at McDonald’s. He works with cross-functional teams to integrate AI into real-world use cases, driving scalable, data-powered solutions across the business. With a master’s in computer science from Northeastern and a strong expertise in data science, Nickhil brings a practical, human-centered approach to enterprise AI innovation.
Fleur Veldhoven Vice President of Marketing - Culinary Nestle Professional Solutions More Info Fleur Veldhoven is Vice President of Marketing - Culinary with Nestlé Professional Solutions. In this role, Fleur leads the culinary business for Nestlé’s out-of-home division, managing a team of marketers, business development managers, nutrition and sustainability leaders, event managers, and innovation and development chefs responsible for brands including MINOR’S®, STOUFFER’S®, and CHEF-MATE®. Fleur's team leads development of all customized food solutions for national restaurant chains. Fleur’s career with Nestlé Professional Solutions extends across 19 years in expanding foodservice marketing and business leadership roles, including leading the savory foodservice category globally at the Nestlé headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland. Fleur Veldhoven earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Economics from Northwestern University.
John Wilke Director, Solutions Marketing Gong More Info John Wilke is Director of Solutions Marketing at Gong, where he leads go-to-market strategy and execution for the revenue AI platform’s expansion into new use cases, industries, and geographies. He’s passionate about telling powerful stories through data -- a skill honed by building high-performing teams in enterprise software and early-career experience in consulting. John holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Georgia and lives in San Francisco. Outside of work, he enjoys live music, espresso, and following Formula 1.

Michael Bortinger

Jacques Botbol

Max Brodeur-Urbas

Alon Chen

Simeon Duong

Aaron Goldsmid

Laura Jones

Phil Kafarakis

Mani Kulasooriya

Udi Ledergor

Nathan Lindberg

Megan Lynberg

Morgan Miles

Ali Miller

Jon Miller

Melissa Muldowney

Sam Newman

Mitin Rathod

Hans Schatz

Mike Schwartz

Nickhil Tekwani

Fleur Veldhoven

John Wilke