Ananda Roy engages executive leaders at the world’s largest consumer goods brands and retailers on the strategic drivers of category growth. With a strong commercial mindset, he leverages Circana’s extensive data and analytics capabilities and a team of subject-matter experts to accelerate client growth.

Roy is the author of several Circana European CPG thought leadership reports, including Europe’s Innovation Pacesetters, Sustainability Matters: No Plan B, Private Labels: Hiding in Plain Sight, and Demand Signals, Circana’s bi-annual consumer goods categoryreview.

A recognized industry thought leader, Roy is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events and has delivered opening keynote addresses at several global food and beverage conferences. His perspective is often featured on BBC TV and Radio, SKY and CNBC networks, and in The Financial Times of London, Le Figaro, El Pais, Bloomberg, Reuters, Marketing Week, and leading trade media outlets such as The Grocer and ESM.

Before joining Circana in 2021, Roy held various strategy development and commercial leadership positions in FTSE-25 CPG firms and management consulting and research firms, in addition to early-career roles at two global advertising networks.

Roy has an MBA from the University of Warwick and executive qualifications in Leadership, Innovation, and Advanced Analytics from the Harvard Business School, London Business School, and Cambridge University.

Leah is part of FoodBev’s editorial team, working on FoodBev Magazine and across the various websites. She is coming up to her first anniversary as part of the team, and over the past 12 months has been really impressed with the innovation that is coming out of the F&B industry.  

As part of the Food Awards judging panel, Leah is particularly keen to see functional applications and innovations around sustainability and clean label ingredients.  

In terms of sustainability, she is interested to see what new formulations have emerged to help with supply chain issues without sacrificing taste and mouthfeel, as well as interesting flavour combinations and fun, modern takes on traditional, familiar products.  

Saki is a Global Marketing Manager at Morinaga Milk Industry, specializing in probiotics and postbiotics. She joined the company in 2012 and has built a strong international career across logistics, administration, and global business operations.

Since 2018, she has been deeply involved in the probiotics and postbiotics business. During nearly four years in Germany, she served as Commercial Manager, leading market expansion and business growth across the EMEA region.

Now based at Morinaga Milk’s headquarters in Tokyo, Saki drives global marketing strategies and knowledge communication to support the worldwide growth of Morinaga Milk’s probiotics and postbiotics portfolio.

Rajiv Mitra has over three decades of leadership experience in the food, dairy, and agri-tech sectors, driving growth, transformation, and international collaborations. He has held CEO and Managing Director positions, shaping organizations through strategy, operational excellence, and market expansion. Most recently, he served as CEO of Lactalis in India, leading the world’s largest dairy company’s operations in a complex, fast-growing market. Before that, as Managing Director of Govind Milk, he transformed a regional dairy into a nationally recognized brand. He is currently Senior Advisor at Indapur Dairy & Milk Products Ltd., and Co-founder of Wake-up Foods & Beverages Pvt Ltd. Beyond business, Mitra actively contributes to policy and industry development. He has served on the Government of Maharashtra’s Advisory Panel on Dairy Sector Initiatives, and has been part of key industry bodies including the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce & Industry (IFCCI), and the Agricultural Skill Council of India (ASCI). He also engages deeply with academia, serving on advisory boards of leading business schools and frequently speaking at universities in India and abroad. Rajiv holds an MA in Economics and an MBA in Marketing from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and is an Executive Alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad.

Professor Jeremy Hill, Chief Science and Technology Officer at Fonterra has dedicated over 30 years to research and technology development in agrifood. As part of his current responsibilities, Jeremy works as Chief Science Officer for the Ki Tua Fund – Fonterra’s Corporate Venture fund. Jeremy helped found and then acted as the CTO of Vivici during its formative stages. Jeremy recently joined the Steering Committee of the University of Queensland Biosustainability Hub which focusses on Biomanufacturing.  

Professor Hill has held numerous governance positions on the boards of NZ and global organisations including serving as President and Chairman of the Board of the International Dairy Federation (IDF).

With a PhD in biochemistry, Professor Hill is an inventor of 20+ patent families covering different aspects of dairy science, technology, health, nutrition, and sustainability, and has published over 100 scientific papers. He has invented or co-invented IP used to create four start-up companies. In 2018 he co-established the Sustainable Nutrition Initiative based at the Riddet Institute, Massey University where he holds an Adjunct Professorship in Sustainable Nutrition. 

Professor Hill was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit by HRH Queen Elizabeth II for services to science and the dairy industry in the 2020 Queens Birthday Honours.