Speaker Biographies
Jukka Kantola
Jukka Kantola has broad experience of the bioeconomy related industries. He has held various executive positions in Europe and in Asia. Hence, he has a profound understanding of the challenges and opportunities of these economies. Jukka is well-known in the bioeconomy space and he is a passionate advocator of the circular bioeconomy. Through his companies he has advanced on the versatile valorisation of biomass for innovative
applications. He has played an active role in advocating the bioeconomy in practice. In the past years he has been involved in facilitating new biorefinery ventures, a relatively new phenomenon in the industry. He has also founded the World BioEconomy Forum in 2018, which has become one of the major platforms for the circular bioeconomy. Recently he has been one of the initiators for the World Bioeconomy Association. Jukka holds a Master of Science degree from Aalto University, Finland. He also holds an eMBA from Rutgers University.
Margarita de Gregorio
Margarita de Gregorio, an Environmental Engineer with a PhD in the Economy of Natural Resources, has been the general secretary of the Spanish Technology and Innovation Platform in Biocircularity (BIOPLAT) since 2007. Besides, Margarita has been the technical secretary at the European Alliance for Research Excellence in Sustainable Bioenergy (EERA Bioenergy) since 2016. Currently, she holds the position of CEO of the Spanish Association of Biocircularity (BIOCIRC) and, in March 2024, Margarita was appointed president of the Spanish Alliance for the Sustainability of Air Transport (AST).
Filippo G Martinelli
Filippo Giancarlo Martinelli (MBA, EngD, MSc) is the founder and owner of the Magfi <sustainability in action> ecosystem, having over 10 years of experience working at the interface between management consulting, fundraising, and sales within a number of deeptech sectors including biotech, foodtech and cleantech. As of Dec 2023, Magfi (https://www.magfi.eu/) has direct presence in Malta (Magfi ltd "MedSea") and Ireland (Magfi Atlantic limited), with a network of advisors based in over 5 European countries. In 2019 he had the pleasure to serve as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Irish Bioeconomy, which he still supports as European Ambassador and until recently as coordinator of the EU-funded project BioeconomyVentures, Europe´s largest initiative for matchmaking startups and investors in the bioeconomy. After the natural conclusion of this project, Magfi and IBF are now jointly developing the new initiative BioInvestEurope, to further boost the support to European innovators in crossing the financial valley of death.
Grigoris Chatzikostas
Grigoris Chatzikostas is an expert in financing innovation in agtech and foodtech. He is managing multi-national and cross-sectoral consortia, developing proposals for EU funding and coordinating large-scale projects that promote tech-enabled entrepreneurship in the agrifood sector. In the past 20 years he has managed projects exceeding a total value of €130M. He has delivered programmes supporting more than 150 startups and SMEs with pre-seed funding and business support services. As an engaging public speaker and trainer, he makes complex subjects related to EU funding and technologies accessible and easy to understand. He also offers mentoring and strategic consulting to a small number of carefully selected companies that are aligned with his interests.
Hendrik Waegeman
Hendrik Waegeman is Head of Business Operations at the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant, one of the largest pilot- and demonstration facility globally for industrial biotechnology. Hendrik is a strong believer in the bioeconomy and industrial biotechnology and has a master’s degree in Biochemical Engineering and holds a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences-Chemical Engineering from Ghent University. He is also on the board of directors of Inbiose NV, Biobased Industries Consortium (the private partner in BBI-JU and CBE-JU), Bio.be (the cluster of Belgian biotech companies), Smart Delta Resources (large energy and resource-intensive companies in the Flemish-Dutch Schelde-Delta region) and the European Biosolutions Coalition (representing VBO-FEB, the Organization for Belgian Enterprises).
Enda Ryan, CEO ClonBio Foods
Enda Joined ClonBio in June 2024. Enda has +30 years’ experience in consumer goods and healthcare categories with Reckitt Benckiser, Mead Johnson Nutrition and Abbott working in Asia, US and Europe.
Enda spend most of the past 15 years in Asia developing markets and scaling businesses, including leading the Greater China Region for Reckitt Benckiser, a large consumer goods company which includes Mead Johnson Nutrition, prior to this he had General Manager roles in Vietnam and in the Philippines.
Enda worked in a variety of roles in Ireland and the US, including product development, sales, marketing and general management.
Enda obtained an MBA from Warwick Business School and a Bachelor of Technology from University of Limerick.