Lara Schütz is a master baker and international bakery consultant working across Central and Eastern Europe. As the first Romanian bread sommelier and finalist at the Bread Sommelier World Championship 2025, she focuses on integrating sensory analysis into the everyday life of a bakery.

Her work centers on building a shared, structured language for bread evaluation, moving teams from vague descriptors to precise sensory criteria that help improve quality, consistency, and product positioning.

With over two decades of entrepreneurial experience and 26 years in education, she bridges craft, science, and communication. Lara is a certified bread sensory assessor, bread sommelière, and diplomed beer sommelière, speaker, translator of The Weinheim Language of Bread and The Bread Flavor Wheel, and author of The Bread Sommelière Newsletter.

Gabriela Bereș is Managing Director for Central & Eastern Europe at Puratos - the Belgian group dedicated to building a better future for bakery, patisserie, and chocolate - where she leads a dynamic regional business across 15 countries.

A recognized leader in the industry, Gabriela has successfully driven strong, sustainable growth, transforming Puratos Romania into a market leader and doubling its business performance under her leadership. Today, she continues to scale this impact at regional level, with a clear focus on innovation, customer centricity, and long-term value creation. She is also a strong advocate of Puratos’ “Food for Good” vision - promoting healthier food solutions and meaningful impact in communities.

One of her most inspiring initiatives is the Bakery School program in Romania, which provides young people with access to professional education while helping reshape the perception of craftsmanship careers. Gabriela is known for her authentic leadership style, her ability to build strong teams, and her passion for developing people and opportunities.

As Customer Technical Support Manager at BENEO, Isabel Trogh is positioned as the bakery application specialist at the BENEO-Technology Center in Belgium, having joined the company in 2013. In this role, she is responsible for helping customers identify new opportunities using BENEO’s ingredients and providing solutions to technical challenges across all food applications. Alongside this, she develops technical documentation for all BENEO’s applications and ingredients, and delivers application training sessions and seminars for both internal and external stakeholders, as well as providing technical expertise.

With more than 20 years experience in the food industry, Isabel started her career as R&D Manager Patisserie Mixes, before moving to R&D Manager Nutrition and Product Manager Patisserie Mixes, all at Puratos Group in Belgium. 

Isabel holds a Masters degree in Bio-engineer Chemistry (option food) and a Doctoral degree in Applied Biological Sciences, both achieved at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. 

After his positions as marketeer with the multinationals Sony and Mölnlycke, René began building brands on his own account in a variety of markets. He experienced the rise of International brand licensing as a strong added value opportunity. After a career of more than 30 years as independent entrepreneur he decided to share his creative skills and experience in a postion as consultant. René is passionately advocating the distinctive powers and importance of creativity and innovation. He was hired to build the strategy on repositioning, guiding innovation and business development at the Dutch Verhoeven Family of Companies where he currently operates as Business Development Officer.

Norbert Hübler has been Global Sales Director of the König Group since 2024, where he is responsible for the strategic direction of the global sales network of one of the leading providers of bakery technology. In this role, he oversees international market activities, develops global partnerships, and drives expansion into new growth markets.
With decades of experience in international sales, Norbert Hübler stands for a consistently customer-centric mindset. His focus is on “Solution Thinking” – developing tailored solutions that help bakeries successfully navigate challenges such as labor shortages, rising costs, and volatile markets.
Under his leadership, the König Group is increasingly positioning itself as a holistic solution provider across the entire value chain of baked goods production – from automation and energy efficiency to modular production concepts. Key focus areas include sustainability, process optimization, and flexible production systems.
Norbert is committed to building long-term customer partnerships and unlocking growth potential together with bakeries worldwide. His approach combines strategic market insight with close operational customer engagement – always with the goal of translating innovation into tangible, real-world value.