Miroslava Vopatová has more than 25 years of experience in retail and commercial management. For the past 7.5 years, she has been part of Rohlik Group, one of Europe’s leading online grocery retailers. She currently serves as VP Commercial for Rohlik Group and Country Lead for the Czech Republic, where she is responsible for commercial strategy, category development, supplier partnerships, and customer growth across the Group’s markets.

Barbara Furmańczuk is an experienced retail leader with a strong background in category management, buying and trading, discount retail, convenience and e-commerce. She currently serves as Trading Director at Froo Romania, part of Zabka Group. With extensive experience in building category strategies and developing customer-focused assortments, Barbara brings a strong commercial perspective and deep understanding of the convenience retail market.

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.

Lucian Marin is an international business leader with more than two decades of experience in developing commercial strategies, transforming business models, and accelerating growth in complex markets across Europe, the Middle East, and North America.
Lucian supports global companies with commercial strategy development and implementation, brand building, and route-to-market projects, bringing structured expertise and a pragmatic approach to creating sustainable value.
His career includes high-impact executive roles at leading organizations such as The Coca-Cola Company, Lavazza Group, Coca-Cola HBC, L’Oréal, and Danone, where he led regional and global projects ranging from B2B strategy development and strategic partnership launches to commercial transformations and capability-building programs.
Lucian is valued for his ability to combine strategic vision with rigorous execution, as well as for the warm and engaging way in which he inspires the teams he works with.
His personal mission is to develop businesses that create the conditions for people to grow. Two defining values lie at the heart of his journey: impact and knowledge — forces that guide him in every project he builds.

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.

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.

Tarik Ozturk is the General Manager of pladis Eastern Europe Cluster. He leads one of the region's largest biscuit manufacturing operations in Romania, producing and supplying iconic brands including McVitie's, Ülker and Godiva to Romania and more than 30 international markets across Europe, UK, Asia and Australia.
Tarik focuses on sustainable growth, innovation and operational excellence. He is passionate about building high-performing teams and strengthening Eastern Europe's role as a strategic manufacturing and export hub for pladis Global.

Ionut Ilie is the General Manager of the group of Romanian companies that are part of Grupo Bimbo – the global leader in bakery. He coordinates the operations of 14 production units for bread as well as sweet and savory baked goods, within an organization that brings together a little over 3,000 people nationwide, thanks to whom brands such as Vel Pitar, French Toast, Pâinea Domnească, Chef Gourmand, TAKIS, Poieni, DOR, and many others reach the tables of Romanians. With over 20 years of management experience in the FMCG industry and a solid background in sales, Ionut grew, for many years, multiple divisions within the Unilever portfolio in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, before joining Grupo Bimbo in 2023.

Federico Aldorino is a hospitality executive with extensive international experience across Hilton, Marriott and Radisson portfolios, specialising in food and beverage strategy, concept development and operational excellence. Combining a background in culinary operations with executive F&B leadership, he leads multi-property development, pre-opening and repositioning projects, working closely with owners, architects and designers to deliver commercially successful hospitality concepts. He is passionate about balancing exceptional guest experiences with operational efficiency and developing innovative, scalable F&B solutions that drive long-term business performance and asset value.

Martyna Dmoch is Strategic Sourcing Manager CESEE at GPP, the procurement organization behind Radisson Hotel Group (RHG) and Louvre Hotels Group (LHG), part of Jin Jiang International - the world's 2nd largest hotel group. In this role, she leads the selection process for nominated suppliers and develops regional F&B sourcing strategies across CESEE, with a particular focus on Poland and the DACH countries. She works to ensure hotels across both brands have consistent access to reliable, high-quality products - including bread and bakery goods served to guests every day - while building long-term, value-driven supplier partnerships. Her work bridges procurement strategy with supplier partnership in countries, supporting the combined network of RHG and LHG, spanning over 250 properties across her region.

Marcin Lis is Food & Beverage and Entertainment Director for Eastern Europe at Accor, leading F&B strategy, brand standards and supplier programmes for the group's managed and franchised economy, midscale and premium brands across 18 countries and close to 470 hotels.
His remit covers every meal occasion — breakfast, all-day dining, bars, grab & go and banqueting — plus the concept work behind new openings, conversions and renovations. Breakfast, with the bread and viennoiserie at its heart, remains the single biggest driver of guest satisfaction across his portfolio.
He brings close to 20 years across Europe and the Middle East, including the pre-opening of Suntago's six restaurants and five bars. He began his career in Dubai, at the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management and Jumeirah Hotels.

Viorel Ognean is an executive with over 25 years of experience in the consumer goods and bakery industry, currently serving as General Manager for Southeast Europe at Lantmännen Unibake. His career is defined by strategic leadership, business development, and operational excellence, significantly contributing to strengthening the company’s market position and expanding its product portfolio.

Recognized for his results-driven approach and ability to build and motivate high-performing teams, Viorel Ognean has been involved in organizational transformation projects, operational optimization, and expansion of commercial presence in competitive markets. Under his leadership, Lantmännen Unibake Romania has solidified its industry position, emphasizing innovation, quality, and long-term partnerships—including strategic investments in production capacity development, such as launching a new modern bakery on the local market.

On a personal level, Viorel Ognean is drawn to activities that require energy, discipline, and competitive spirit—passions that reflect his leadership style. His interests include motorcycling, winter sports such as skiing, and diving, all sharing common elements of performance and personal challenge. This inclination toward sports and competition complements the profile of a leader focused on pushing boundaries and achieving excellence in both professional and personal life.

With over 20 years of experience in Supply Chain, Procurement, Logistics and Operations, gained in international companies across industries such as FMCG, food service, telecommunications and logistics, Anca Popa joined the Sphera Franchise Group team this year.
In this role, Anca Popa oversees the Group’s Supply Chain function, with responsibility for defining and implementing an integrated strategy for the companies and brands within Sphera’s portfolio, in Romania and the Republic of Moldova. Her responsibilities include coordinating procurement, planning, distribution and inventory management processes, increasing operational agility, developing strategic partnerships with suppliers, and supporting digitalization, automation and cost optimization initiatives at Group level.
Before joining the Sphera team, Anca held the position of Executive International Supply Chain Director in recent years, overseeing supply chain operations across more than 20 markets in Europe, the Middle East, CIS and Africa. Throughout her career, she has also managed Supply Chain operations for clients in the retail, food service and oil industries, as well as distribution, demand planning and logistics optimization projects at regional level, within companies in the FMCG industry.
Sphera Franchise Group operates over 175 restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell brands in Romania, and KFC in the Republic of Moldova and certain areas of Italy, as well as Cioccolatitaliani, Hard Rock Cafe and wagamama, and has more than 5,000 employees.

Cristina Hanganu is Sales & Marketing Director at Rompak, the Romanian producer of Pakmaya yeast and the only manufacturer of baker's yeast in Romania. With nearly 20 years of experience in the bakery and food industry, she works at the intersection of product development, marketing and commercial strategy.

Rompak supplies yeast, bread improvers and bakery ingredients to industrial and artisan bakeries, while also operating in the retail market through its consumer product portfolio. This presence across multiple categories and market segments provides visibility throughout different stages of the bakery value chain, from ingredient solutions to the final consumer.

As part of Pak Group, an international organization active across multiple markets, Rompak is exposed to diverse consumer trends, bakery concepts and innovation approaches from different regions.

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. 

Iulia Pencea, Managing Director of NielsenIQ Romania, has extensive experience across various industries and research methodologies, both in Romania and in markets across Eastern Europe and the Middle East, where she has fulfilled a series of strategic roles throughout her career. Her access to extremely detailed information about industry performance and drivers, as well as the comprehensive vision of market and consumer evolution gained during her 5 years leading the local branch of the world’s largest research company, make Iulia one of the most relevant voices in the field of market research.

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.

Ruxandra is Tax, Legal & People Services Leader of PwC Romania. She joined the team in 2007 and has extensive experience in both Romanian and international taxation, focusing mainly on the pharmaceutical & healthcare as well as retail sectors and being involved in complex business restructuring projects, including changes in business models, mergers and acquisitions, tax audits, various corporate tax consultancy projects and due diligence projects. Ruxandra holds a Degree in Economics from the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, from the Finance, Insurance, Banks and Stock Exchange Faculty and has a Master’s Degree in Financial Management and Stock Exchange. She is a member of the Romanian Chamber of Tax Advisors (CCF).