Programme 2021

Heike Linnemann joined KIKO Milano in December 2017 as Brand General Manger to deliver the business turnaround by creating a consumer centric, digitally savvy organisation as well as by building marketing capabilities. Her responsibilities span across leading the innovation- and product lifecycle management, product- and communication design, trade marketing including commercial planning, assortment management, merchandising and in-store communication as well as Consumer- and Business Intelligence, PR, Digital Marketing, CRM, Media and the in house agency. Prior, she spent 13 years with Procter & Gamble working across different beauty categories, such as hair, skin-and personal care, with roles across different regions and across diverse channels including Mass Retail, Prestige, Salon, Pharmacy and E-commerce. Her career started in the fragrance industry working for Cosmopolitan Cosmetics, a subsidiary of Wella, first in the headquarter in Cologne and after in the London office.

Anna launched UpCircle in 2016 and the brand has taken the beauty world by storm. All UpCircle products are natural, organic, vegan, cruelty-free, palm oil-free, sustainable, handmade in the UK and housed in 100% recyclable packaging. But their key point of difference from other beauty brands is that each of their products is made with a core repurposed ingredient. “Natural” is the new “normal” – UpCircle go a step further with their waste-fighting formulations. Nature gives us lots of wonderful ingredients that make our skin healthier and more radiant – like used coffee grounds, chai spices and fruit stones. But they often end up going to landfill. Why should all that good stuff go to waste? It shouldn’t. That’s why UpCircle elevate leftover natural ingredients, bringing them back to life as beauty products your skin will love. UpCircle is distributed in Europe, Australia and America. The brand has proven that a circular approach is both hugely popular and scalable. The only limitation with by-product beauty is your imagination!

Luis Carlos Chacón leads the BusinessCase team, a Boutique-Global-Firm that works with multinational FMCG's identifying emerging and future business opportunities. Also, has been a columnist for Forbes Latin America for several years, and a postgraduate student at the University of Oxford (Strategy and Innovation / Global Business), his educational background also includes studies at Stanford, The University of Manchester, and Houston University. In business, he has worked for more than twenty years for the global and regional operations of FMCG companies such as The Coca-Cola Company, Colgate-Palmolive, Diageo, Kellogg’s, Unilever, AbInbev, Sectur, among many others. Global traveler, constant student, avant-garde thinker, business consultant, writer, and researcher, related to topics such as economics, trends, storytelling, investment, retail, futures, semiotics, creativity, business competitive, globalization, innovation strategy, design thinking, and behavioral sciences.

Drolma Lizcano was born in Girona, Spain, but spent most of her life living in London. Here she studied BA Business Management and holds a First Degree in MA Strategic Marketing. Her admiration for her father, Idili Lizcano and the company he had founded, ALQVIMIA, had started at a very young age, where at the age of 9 she would create her own perfumes and give them a name and a price. After her business studies in London she decided to work along her father in the family business, where she is now the CEO. Since her official involvement in the business over 8 years ago, Drolma has lead an important organizational change by implementing a Holacracy driven de-centralized management system, making it the first Spanish company to implement it throughout the whole organization. She claims: “The most important thing in business (and life) is to do things with love. When you connect your decisions and actions to your heart, as well as your mind, the outcome will almost always transform into something positive. This is how we manage our business and expect our employees and stakeholders to do the same”.

Laura Rudoe set up Good Ventures in 2008 as an ethical development company with the mission to creating new organic personal care brands that make a difference. A former Management Consultant and Venture Capitalist, Laura holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and was the founding employee of NUDE skincare - so was well equipped to face the challenges of starting a skincare business. Laura is a passionate advocate of ethical and environmentally friendly business as well as natural and sustainable living. Her deep appreciation for nature is at the heart of everything she does. Laura has a strong desire to help those with skin problems, having struggled with acne for many years from her late teens until her early 30s and she personally experienced the benefits of organic beauty and a natural lifestyle in resolving these issues. S5 Skincare was created to realise her vision of a range of natural beauty products that solve skin issues, and she has devoted years of research to finding the most effective natural and organic ingredients to resolve skin problems, which she has used to develop S5 Skincare. S5’s mission is to support people in their journey towards better skin, and to share Laura’s knowledge about a healthy diet and lifestyle. S5 is a range of advanced organic skincare, intelligently designed to care for skin suffering from the effects of modern living, using bioactives from plants that thrive in the most extreme ecosystems. The modular range of 11 skincare serums, creams and cleansers provides highly effective solutions for five specific skin concerns: redness/sensitivity, blemishes, pigmentation, premature ageing and dryness. Laura’s passion for learning and understanding about how to help people achieve great skin and optimal health using natural remedies led her to study for and gain a nutrition advisor diploma with the natural healthcare college. As well as her academic achievements Laura has been recognised for her entrepreneurship and has been honoured with several awards including Management Today 35 under 35, the Green Mumpreneur of the Year, and Natural Beauty Yearbook Top Personalities. Aside from setting up a business, talking at numerous inspiring, business and women’s networking events and developing 2 successful skincare brands, Laura is also a hands on mother of 3 - her most rewarding achievement yet.

Alex Fisher is an Associate Director for Beauty & Personal Care at Mintel. While her focus is the UK market, she searches the globe for consumer and manufacturing trends. Alex joined Mintel in 2017 as a Senior Beauty Analyst for the Beauty and Personal Care team. Prior to Mintel, she worked with numerous personal care manufacturers as a research executive, before spending 3 years in revenue management in the food & drink sector.

Jacqueline Hudson is the CEO, Founder and owner of LUXE Digital Now. She is an award-winning visionary marketing executive with 10+ years of creative content expertise within digital marking platforms. Jacqueline was recognized by Forbes Magazine and is an AMA award nominee. She is one of the outpacing competitors and is delivering results for top-named clients in the US. Jacqueline was named among Top 40 under 40 by Top 100 Magazine for a digital marketing expertise. She was featured in Top 50 Women of 2019. Jacqueline is the winner of the Top 50 Tech Leaders Award 2020. She is one of the inspirational speakers at the BCMA (Branded Content Marketing Association), the world’s most prestigious association for content in the Public Relations industry. Jacqueline is also a digital marketing executive and AI data technology solutions, strategist and developer. As a successful leader, Jacqueline’s most prominent experience has been lecturing to 14 countries about the digital marketing industry.

Jo is a chemist and the Co-Founder of Beauty Kitchen, leaders in effective, natural and sustainable beauty. Widely regarded as one of the pioneers of sustainable beauty, Jo is driving the beauty industry forward with better practise approaches, always. She is Beauty Kitchen’s toughest critic, inspecting everything from the efficacy of the products, to the way ingredients are sourced, right down to the packaging sustainability for each and every product. Sustainability in packaging is a subject that is close to her heart.

Ingmar studied bioscience engineering at the University of Leuven, graduated in 2007 and obtained a PhD in cell and gene technology in 2011. Based on his expertise in the field of probiotics and its molecular mechanisms he co-founded YUN Probiotherapy in 2014. As CSO, he focuses on the research and development of topical application with ‘live’ beneficial bacteria to restore the skin microbiome.

Dr. iur. Anna Mandozzi is the founder of BIOMAZING as well as of the organic skincare brands konnìaku and YÙ Beauty. She has launched a number of brands into the European market, as well as new care concepts such as konjac sponges and deodorant creams, that are now a fixture in the market. She knows the organic skincare industry inside and out, not only having witnessed its development for over 10 years, but actively being part of building and shaping it over the years. Today the seasoned industry insider is active in market launches, distribution and retail concepts, marketing, product development and as a consultant.

Education in the US and MBA from Stockholm University. Worked in several management positions in ITT Flygt US/Sweden/Turkey, Markwins International/Europe and Letsfaceit Nordic AB. Founded IDUN Minerals together with his brother Per Agardh on March 8, 2011. Acting as CEO since 2011.

Chemical engineer from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Master’s degree in molecular science and technology. Started master thesis project with the Royal Institute of Technology and IDUN Minerals in 2014. The purpose of the project was to study the surface of the nail, its composition and the effect from using products on it. The project resulted in IDUN Minerals nail polish collection, launched spring 2015. Since then in charge of all product development project at IDUN Minerals and from the beginning of 2018 also the director for all international sales. Aside from education in chemistry, Caroline also trained makeup artist.

Dr Konstantinos Gardikis is Research and Development Director in APIVITA SA. His work involves the development of innovative final products and raw materials for cosmetics and nutritional supplements, their regulatory consolidation and the management of research programs and IP. He has studied Pharmacy in the Pharmacy School of the University of Athens. He has obtained a MSc in Ιndustrial Pharmacy and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology focusing on physical chemistry from the University of Athens. He is inventor of 25 patents, has published 26 reviewed articles in scientific journals, 3 chapters in international scientific books and has many oral and written presentations in international congresses. He has performed postgraduate research in the scientific organizations: National Hellenic Research Foundation, Academy of Athens, Centre National de Recherche Scientifique - Grenoble, France, Universita degli Studi di Milano - Italy, University of Lodz - Poland, Universidad Complutense de Madrid – Spain, Instituto Andaluz de Investigación y Formación Agraria, Pesquera, Alimentaria y de la Producción Ecológica (IFAPA) – Cadiz, Spain, Centro de Ciências do Mar (CCMAR) – Faro, Portugal and in the industries: Fitoplancton Marino - Cadiz, Spain, Fytosan - Die, France and ELPEN, Athens, Greece. He has participated as Project coordinator or Project leader in 18 international scientific programs of a total budget of 37 million euro, among which Horizon 2020, FP7 and Leonardo da Vinci. He has been member of organizing committees of international congresses and workshops, reviewer of scientific journals, he has been awarded three innovation awards and has lectured at MSc programs of the Medical School of Athens, Pharmacy Schools of Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras, Agricultural School of Athens, at the laboratories of Pharmaceutical Technology and Cosmetology of the Pharmacy School of Athens e.t.c. He has obtained 4 national and international scholarships.

It all began with the idea of replacing disposable cotton pads with reusable microfibre cleansing wipes. This simple but ingenious idea was launched by Laëtitia Van de Walle in 2010, and consumers loved it! With a diploma in communication, Laëtitia always had the wish to create her own company. She created Lamazuna in April 2010 and had her first employee in 2015. Nowadays the company has a staff of more than 50 people and continues to grow. During her path, she leads and works on several projects that evolve sustainability and ethics in cosmetics but also in fashion. In January 2018 she cofounded Green Coast, an organic cosmetics raw material importing company. It aims to finance research on a bio-labelled surfactant that can be used in solid cosmetics. In April 2018, she founded KABANES, an ethical fashion e-commerce. It merged with Lamazuna in November 2019 and became Lamazuna mode (“Lamazuna fashion”). Nowadays, she’s the administrator at Réseau Vrac, an interprofessional association that has the goal to structure and accelerate the development of bulk sales around the world. She makes part of the supervisory board of La Nef, a known ethical bank which provides savings and credit solutions geared exclusively towards projects of ecological, social and cultural utility.

With a Masters Degree in Geophysics from University College London (UCL), five-time published scientific author, and JooMo Co-Founder Kit published a peer-reviewed paper in 2017 that describes the first ever mechanism to determine whether skin is healthy or not. As director of the Pavane Research Centre (the R&D arm behind all ground-breaking JooMo technology), he discovered that the ONLY indicator of healthy skin was high microbial biodiversity, not the presence/lack of particular microbes. The immense power of his discovery meant that, for the first time, it was possible to determine whether everyday cosmetics really are the primary cause of the skin allergy epidemic that’s raging across the western world. To do so, Kit formed a partnership with top European institution, The Medical University of Graz, to test everyday cosmetics, including JooMo, for their effect on skin health, and found that they were a contributor to long-term damage to the skin microbiome. Kit's mission is "to clear up the confusion in the natural cosmetics industry so that consumers can make an informed judgement, and start a new movement for Third Wave truly natural cosmetics that are health bringing by focusing on restoring your skin’s microbiome. This will revolutionize and transform the marketplace and start to put an end to the Skin Allergy Epidemic."