Aldo Cristiano is the Head of Institutional Affairs and Sustainability in Ferrero Germany. In his almost 30 years of experience within global confectionery he covered many functions such as Global Raw Material Procurement, Sustainability and Institutional Affairs.

Today he is the Chairman of GISCO (German Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa), Vice President of BDSI (German Confectionery Association), Vice President of CAOBISCO (European Association of the Chocolate, Biscuit and Confectionery Industry and Board Member of the BVE (German Food and Drink Industry). In addition, he has been serving in leading roles of sector or category wide initiatives and institutions globally as well nationally such as International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) or Federation of Cocoa Commerce (FCC).

Armand Schins is Manager Data Quality, Data Governance & Projects at Albert Heijn Group, part of Ahold Delhaize, where he is responsible for improving the quality, governance, and exchange of product data across retail operations. He also acts as programme manager for 2D barcode implementation across Albert Heijn supermarkets, drugstores, and liquor stores in the Netherlands and Belgium.

He represents Ahold Delhaize Europe in GS1 and The Consumer Goods Forum, contributing to international collaboration on data standards and data-driven value chains. In this role, he actively participates in industry initiatives focused on trusted product data, interoperability, and supply chain efficiency.

Armand brings long-standing experience in the creation and exchange of product data, having worked extensively at both manufacturer and retailer level. His career spans data quality, data governance, and master data management, with a strong focus on standardisation, regulatory compliance, and cross‑sector collaboration.

Coen Janssen has served as a Policy Officer at the European Commission since 2023, where he is responsible for standardisation initiatives supporting the European Strategy for Data (2020) and the European Data Union Strategy (2025). His work focuses on interoperability within and across data spaces, involving close collaboration with the Data Spaces Support Centre (DSSC), CEN/CENELEC JTC 25, and ETSI TC DATA. With over 25 years of experience in ICT standardisation, Coen’s skills in facilitation, analysis and communication help to secure consensus among diverse stakeholders. He holds a degree in Economics and a postgraduate qualification in Big Data & Analytics.

Biography

Duilio is a Partner at Bain & Company and a senior member of the firm’s Consumer Products practice. With over 25 years of management consulting experience, he works with C-suite executives and leadership teams across global leading consumer goods and retail companies on their most critical strategic challenges, from growth strategy and commercial transformation to M&A, organization design. Duilio has deep expertise at the intersection of AI and the CPG value chain, advising both manufacturers and retailers on how to capture the business opportunities created by AI. Prior to joining Bain, Duilio worked at Procter & Gamble and at the Italian National Research Council. He holds a master’s degree in electronic engineering.

Synopsis presentation

As AI agents become the new intermediaries of consumer purchasing, the rules of commercial visibility are being rewritten. Products that are not structured, machine-readable, and GS1-compliant are not ranked lower,  they are invisible. This session makes the strategic case for why structured product data is now the most critical competitive asset in the CPG value chain. We will explore what full adoption of GS1 Digital Link and the GS1 Web Vocabulary makes possible: direct brand-to-consumer engagement, GEO, closed-loop retail media attribution, and AI agent discoverability. The session closes with a practical transformation roadmap, and the new organisational capabilities companies must build to compete in an AI-mediated market.

Jan Somers started his career as Director of the VP in the Brussels Parliament, became advisor to Minister W. DEMEESTER in the Flemish Government and became later on active in the European Footwear Industry Confederation, in BABM (Belgian Association for Brand Manufacturers) and ECR Belgium as lobbyist (negotiating trade agreements) and project manager R&D.  In July 2007, he joined GS1 Belgilux as Deputy CEO and ECR Manager and became CEO in 2010.  Jan has a license in Political and Social sciences (KU Leuven Belgium) and a master in European Politics (University Robert Schuman Strasbourg France).

Jan launched GDSN (Global Data Synchronisation Network) in Belgium 2010 to make it possible, for any company, in any market, to share high quality product information seamlessly, expanding its reach from FMCG and Foodservice to DIY, garden & pet and the Healthcare sectors. In 2020, he launched My Product Manager, GS1’s Belgilux central hub to manage product data. Since 2023, companies can also share packaging information can also be shared via My Product Manager and the GDSN network to show the durability of their packaging and comply with legal requirements.

Biography

Karim leads Syndigo’s international business, with responsibility for go-to-market strategy, sales, finance, operations, product strategy, and partnerships. Prior to Syndigo, he worked at JRNI, a customer engagement platform that drives shoppers from digital channels to in-store experiences, where he launched and scaled the business across Europe and the United States. Karim thrives in hyper-growth environments, having started his formative career at Forrester Research as part of the European launch team, supporting its growth from $30M to $170M and ultimately serving as UK General Manager. Since then, he has held a variety of leadership roles across software, technology, and research businesses, successfully launching, scaling, and growing them internationally.

Synopsis presentation

As commerce shifts toward AI-driven discovery and agentic decision-making, product data has become the critical foundation for visibility, trust, and conversion. This session will explore Syndigo’s vision for the future of data sharing and how global standards enable a shared, machine-readable data layer across ecosystems. We will connect emerging paradigms such as data spaces and agentic AI with the need for structured, interoperable, and trusted product information. Learn how brands can leverage standards to ensure their products are discoverable, trusted, and ultimately chosen in increasingly automated commerce environments.

Biography

Dr. Matthias Nachtmann is Chairman of Friends of Digital Farming and a senior expert in digital transformation, agricultural data ecosystems, and sustainable value creation in the agri-food sector.
With more than 25 years of international experience across agribusiness, digital strategy, and industrial transformation — including leadership roles at BASF Agricultural Solutions — he advises companies, organizations, and innovation networks on connecting field, process, and sustainability data to measurable operational and economic value.
His work focuses on interoperable data ecosystems, AI-enabled decision systems, and scalable governance models linking agriculture, food production, industry, insurance, and finance.
A central driver of his work is the conviction that future generations should continue to enjoy high-quality food from German fields — produced by entrepreneurial farmers operating economically viable and environmentally responsible businesses.
Dr. Nachtmann is a frequent keynote speaker and moderator on AI in agriculture, agricultural data spaces, sustainability transformation, and connected value chains.

Synopsis

From Field to Factory and Back — Why Sustainability Reshapes Business

Sustainability is no longer a reporting exercise. It is becoming a structural business driver that reshapes supply chains, industrial operations, financing, risk management, and market access. One key insight has emerged across agriculture and food systems: Once you open the black box of sustainability, you inevitably need to connect productivity, compliance, and sustainability.

Yield, profitability, resource efficiency, traceability, emissions, and regulatory requirements can no longer be managed separately. They require connected decisions based on connected data.

At the same time, agriculture and food production are evolving into one of the world’s largest real-time data ecosystems, linking field operations, climate data, machine telemetry, quality sensing, and industrial process data.

The presentation explores why future competitiveness depends on connecting field and factory data to create operational, economic, and sustainability intelligence across the entire value chain.

Key topics include:

• Why productivity, compliance, and sustainability must be managed together
• How connected field and factory data improves resilience = productivity, compliance and sustainability
• What’s the role of AI in this game
• How cross-sector collaboration and common data frameworks enable scalable transformation

The session provides a strategic perspective on how connected data ecosystems create measurable economic and environmental value, from field to factory and back.

Biography

Natalia Macia Bove is a Senior Sustainability Manager -Digital Services at Bosch Power Tools (Scintilla AG) and a leading expert in Digital Product Passport implementation, GS1 Digital Link deployment, and PPWR compliance. With hands-on experience scaling packaging data systems across 70,000+ SKUs and representing Bosch in GS1 global working groups on DPP and circularity data exchange, she brings a practical insight into GS1 Web Vocabulary and product transparency standards. Natalia is fluent in five languages and based in Switzerland.

Synopsis presentation

The presentation outlines how the rise of AI agents is reshaping commerce, shifting the focus from human-readable content to machine-understandable product data. It explains that AI systems increasingly drive product discovery, comparison, and purchasing decisions, making structured, standardised data—enabled by GS1 Web Vocabulary—a critical success factor. This framework allows products to be accurately interpreted across digital ecosystems, improving supply chain efficiency, supporting automated decision-making, and ensuring visibility in AI-driven environments. At the same time, it highlights growing regulatory requirements such as PPWR and the Digital Product Passport, positioning GS1 standards as a key enabler for compliance.

Pieter Timmermans is the Global E2E Product & Supply Chain Data Owner at HEINEKEN International. He is a seasoned professional with over 25 years of experience in supply chain management, process, data and IT. Pieter holds a Master’s in Chemical Engineering and an Executive MBA in Supply Chain Management. Specializes in beverage production and distribution, with expertise in business architecture, process and data management, strategy, governance, and IT management. Known for strong leadership, integration management, and the ability to build cross-functional teams. Experienced in modelling end-to-end value chains and implementing operating models in multinational environments.

Régis Koenig is Energy & International Services Director at Fnac Darty, with over 20 years of leadership experience spanning operations, digital transformation and services.

He has played an active role in several major transformations of the group, including the shift toward omnichannel retail, with the development of e‑commerce, marketplace and digitally enabled customer journeys, helping Fnac Darty adapt to rapidly evolving consumer behaviours.

More recently, he has contributed to the scaling of large‑scale service and repair models, embedding durability, repair and subscription‑based services into the core business. Initiatives such as Darty Max illustrate how service‑led models can combine customer value, operational excellence and long‑term economic performance at scale.

Régis is also actively involved in the industrial deployment of the Digital Product Passport, currently being rolled out across service, repair and product lifecycles. He focuses on how trusted, interoperable product data can move beyond compliance to support operational efficiency, customer trust and collaboration across the value chain.

Known for his demanding yet inclusive leadership style, Régis brings an execution‑driven, board‑level perspective on how services, data and ecosystem cooperation can reinforce resilience and value creation in a fast‑changing regulatory, technological and environmental landscape.

Robert Beideman leads the teams that bring standards, global data services and innovations to life at GS1. He and his teams engage businesses, organisations and industries as trusted advisors to transform their supply chains, adapt their logistics models and thrive in a time of unprecedented digital transformation. His consultative approach to leadership relies on perspectives gained in roles in product development, systems engineering, sales and marketing, consulting, research & development and ML/BI design.

Prior to his time at GS1, Robert led global teams to develop and scale integrated hardware, software and services solutions across the logistics automation industry, inclusive of the retail, marketplace, healthcare, transportation & logistics, airport, postal and parcel sectors.

He is a published landscape photographer and a licensed sea captain. He also loves coffee and believes that the intersection of ‘that which is possible’ and ‘that which is needed’ is where all the fun stuff happens. 

Theresa leads cross-industry engagement at GS1 Germany together with a team of industry experts, bringing businesses across sectors together to tackle diverse challenges. With topics like compliance increasingly shaping industries, we help organizations turn complexity into scalable, future-ready solutions through global standards and collaboration.