MEET THE SPEAKERS

Speakers

Cindy van Rijswick

RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness

Cindy van Rijswick works for Rabobank’s global research team. Within RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness, she is the group’s global strategist for the crop sectors. The global berry sector is one of her focus areas. She has published numerous reports and has spoken at various international fresh produce events on berries.
Danitza Sánchez

Dole

Danitza Sanchez is business development director at Dole, leading its berry category. She is also president of Global Women Fresh. Previously, she held leading roles at Camposol and Driscoll’s, where she gained deep, practical insight into berry production, commercialisation, and retail dynamics. An international fresh produce sector leader with 20 years’ value chain experience, her background combines business strategy, category development, and operations across EMEA and South America. Throughout her career, Danitza has developed partnerships with growers, breeders, and customers, guided multicultural teams across regions to build long-term value. She is passionate about increasing consumption of berries.
Gina Mercier

IGS

Gina Mercier is head of European sales at Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS). The company’s CEA system allows every element of the growing environment to be controlled through patented, multi-award-winning technology. This offers huge benefits for berry propagation and indoor farming at scale. Gina works with customers to achieve the economic and environmental benefits that IGS’ Growth Towers deliver.
Hans Liekens

Planasa

Hans Liekens is global head of marketing and innovation at Planasa. A graduate in commercial engineering from the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels, he has 30+ years’ experience in food marketing and sales. After holding senior roles at Tropicana-PepsiCo, Campina, Chiquita, Hessing and Fall Creek, he worked as one of the key architects behind blueberry variety group Sekoya. Since joining Planasa in January 2025, Hans has successfully driven consumer-focused growth, innovation and out-of-the-box thinking globally.
Kristoffer Skarsgård

Saga Robotics

Kristoffer Skarsgård is an operations manager at Saga Robotics, with seven years of experience scaling autonomous solutions across the UK and California. From leading early autonomous UVC trials in Kent to establishing the company’s California operation, Kristoffer has been instrumental in the journey from research to commercial scale. Currently, Kristoffer focuses on building the operational and economic frameworks that enable the Thorvald robots to perform reliably at commercial scale, delivering measurable value to soft fruit growers and shareholders.
Lisette Rosenkvist

Dole

Lisette Rosenkvist is category manager for berries at Dole Nordic. She works strategically with category development, innovation, and market growth, with a strong focus on consumer insights, quality, and sustainable growth across the Nordic markets. She previously spent over ten years at Ica, Sweden’s largest grocery retailer.
Marco Snikkers

OneThird

Marco Snikkers is CEO of OneThird, the company he founded in 2018 after learning about the tremendous amount of food which is wasted every year. Now on a mission to dramatically reduce that food waste, he now works very closely with retailers and their partners to digitise quality assessments and link these to dynamic actions in the supply chain.
Mike Soulsby

Beta Best Produce

Mike Soulsby is director of Beta Best Produce, a European network of sales offices for major blueberry grower Complejo Beta in Peru. With nearly 20 years’ experience in the fresh produce industry, he also has experience of exporting UK-grown soft fruit to Asia.
Philip Symons

North Bay Produce

Philip Symons is EMEA director at North Bay Produce. After graduating from the University of St Andrews, Philip joined Marks & Spencer’s food division, where he spent 13 years in senior commercial roles in fresh produce. He also helped to establish Plan A, M&S’s first comprehensive sustainability plan. For the last 15 years, Philip has set up, expanded and led North Bay Produce’s EMEA operations, developing pan-European customers, and European and African grower networks.
Salih Hodzhov

WB Chambers Farms

Salih Hodzhov is chief operations officer at WB Chambers Farms. After his graduation from Shumen University in Bulgaria, Salih first joined the company in 2001 as a fruit picker. He subsequently worked in roles including tunnel manager, farm manager, and production and operations director, before graduating to his present role in 2021. He also works closely with Chambers’ partner growers in Spain, Morocco, Portugal and Mexico, enabling the business to achieve its impressive scale of commercial fruit production. Salih is a former member of AHDB’s soft fruit panel and now a member of the R&D Board of British Berry Growers.
Sid Shaikh

Fieldwork Robotics

Sid Shaikh is CTO of Fieldwork Robotics. He has over 35 years’ experience in robotics, automation and product development, as well as expertise in developing complex products and taking them to commercial scale. He has a diverse background in different industries and market segments; thrives on solving technical and organisational challenges; and boasts a proven track record of delivering success in fast-paced, changing environments.
Simon Pearson

University of Lincoln

Professor Simon Pearson MBE is head of the School of Agri-Food Technology and Manufacturing at the University of Lincoln, and a director of data analytics firm Fruitcast. As the founding director of the Lincoln Institute of Agri-Food Technology, he has led agri-tech projects worth over £120mn with 133 different companies, focusing on robotics, AI, and resilient food systems.